That's the message that B'nai B'rith InternationalDaniel S. Mariaschin will be taking to young adults when he speaks at an event at Chicago's Anshe Emet Synagogue tonight, Friday, May 2 at 7:15 p.m. The talk is sponsored by B'nai B'rith and the synagogue's Young Adult Division.

In 20 years with B'nai B'rith Mariaschin has traveled the world to combat anti-Semitism and has seen levels of it rise and fall. Currently, "the level of anti-Semitism worldwide is at perhaps unprecedented levels for the post-war period," he said during a recent phone conversation.

Anti-Semitism, he said, "has taken on new iterations particularly in an era of Islamic extremism abroad, not only in the Middle East but in Europe and even here at home. We have new mutations of an older type of anti-Semitism: to basically blame the Jewish community through the Israel lobby for foreign policy ventures like (the war in) Iraq and jingoism against Iran. It's misguided policy vis a vis the state of Israel."

In Europe, where B'nai B'rith has a presence, "we really are seeing the import of anti-Semitism from the Middle East, the extremist Islamic world. There are tremendous challenges country by country," he said. The problem is compounded by the fact that Jewish communities in most European countries are small, he added. Here at home, the situation is different but still alarming, he said. While individual acts of anti-Semitism-such as cemetery desecrations and hate graffiti-"shouldn't be minimized," he is more concerned about "new trends that are out there."

One of those trends, he said, manifests itself on college campuses, which are awash in pro-Arab and pro-Palestinian groups. "Academic anti-Semitism is a new and growing variety of this virus," he said, citing books by Stephen Walt and University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer and former President Jimmy Carter.

"What these books do is give a certain patina of legitimacy to outrageous charges," he said. "If you want to draw a line from that to those groups, individuals and organizations that have trafficked in anti-Semitism for a long time, you can draw some connecting lines. That's the danger in those books out there."

Previously such charges about the Israel lobby were made by "marginal groups or someone like Pat Buchanan," Mariaschin said. "But when a former president of the United States calls Israel a practitioner of apartheid, or when the Israel lobby is accused of getting us in the war in Iraq, that gives it this patina that allows others to grab on to it to take it into even more dangerous directions," he said.

But his message isn't all negative, Mariaschin said. There are things individual Jews can and should be doing to combat the current strain of anti-Semitism.

"It's important for us in the Jewish community to be as aware and up to date as possible and to be prepared to confront it," he said. "That's the key here. That's why I'm going to be speaking."

For individuals, "the bread and butter textbook answers to these issues" still work, he said, recommending "writing letters to the editor when stories appear in the press, or being able to speak to your fellow workers at the workplace, talking to your neighbors. We all have interaction in the non-Jewish community. There are innumerable opportunities to do that, to support individuals and organizations who on a more organized basis are confronting these challenges."

He advises concerned Jews "to try to enlist not only other Jews but non-Jews. We have many (non-Jewish) friends and allies who have joined us, and we value them."