An arson attack in the Jewish section of the Vienna cemetery last night, stars of David traced yesterday morning on the facades of Parisian houses. There is now an anti-Semitism alarm in Europe, after the conflict in the Middle East has rekindled demonstrations of hatred and intolerance against Jews, in the streets and online. Demonstrations shamefully began on 7 Octoberwhen Hamas’s attack on kibbutzim and farming communities on the Gaza border caused the deaths of 1,400 civilians, the largest number of Jews killed in a single day since the Holocaust.
In France, after 7 October there have been more than 850 incidents of anti-Semitism and 6 thousand reports of online hate. In Great Britainin the first four days after the Hamas attack, 89 anti-Semitic incidents were detected, four times more than in the same period in 2022. In London alone, between 7 and 18 October there were 218 anti-Semitic incidents, an increase of 13%, police report.
In Germany, the Center for Research and Information on Antisemitism (Rias) documented 70 incidents by October 18, three times as many as in the same period last year. These include a case of extreme violence, an attempt to set fire to a Jewish center and a synagogue in Berlin and the Star of David painted on 12 buildings, a particularly chilling practice considering Germany’s Nazi past. The general data collected by the German authorities is even more alarming, with a 240% growth in anti-Semitic incidents. While in Austria it even reaches a 300% increase.
“We receive a lot of information, many calls and emails from Jews living in Europe, both individuals and institutions, synagogues, schools,” he told Euronews Rabbi Menachem Margolis, president of the European Jewish Associationtalking about an increase in accidents the likes of which have not been seen for decades.
Jews say they are receiving “many more remarks, dirty looks, hateful looks, death threats and physical attacks,” the rabbi says, explaining that many families are taking extra measures to protect their homes.
Meanwhile, stories are arriving from all over Europe of Jews who avoid going out at home with the kippah, the religious headdress, or who choose not to send their children to Jewish cultural centers or synagogues. While in the German city of Halle, the scene of a far-right attack against a synagogue four years ago, the local Jewish community canceled a celebration that had been planned for some time, despite the police offering increased protection.
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