If this trend continues, Jews will no longer be able to live out their identity in security and freedom in the Western world, according to the report published on Sunday.
Last year, for example, there were an average of around three bomb threats per day against synagogues and Jewish institutions in the USA. “This report brings bad news,” says the foreword to the annual report on anti-Semitism by Tel Aviv University and the Anti-Defamation League of the United States.
“Don’t overestimate”
However, the authors also warn against panic. “The distress and danger in which Jews currently find themselves should not be overstated. We are not living in 1939, let alone 1942,” they clarified. However, anti-Semitism had been steadily increasing in the months and years before October 7, and “the war in Gaza has further fueled this already out-of-control fire.”
In the USA, where around six million Jews lived, a total of around 3,500 anti-Semitic incidents were counted between January and September 2023, but almost 4,000 in the last three months of the year since the Hamas attack. The picture is similar in other countries such as Germany, where 1,365 anti-Semitic events were counted from January to September last year and 2,249 from October to December.
The report warns against explaining this development as “an emotional reaction to the war and the catastrophe it has wrought on the civilian population.” This is not true because some of the most vile anti-Semitic statements related to the conflict were made in the first days after October 7, when Israel had not yet begun its military action.
Spread via social media
Anti-Semitism comes from the extreme right and the extreme left and spreads to the middle of society. Such messages are often spread via social media, which allows malicious people to spread falsehoods, slander and conspiracy theories without being held accountable.
An important lesson from the Gaza war is that there will be no peace in the Middle East unless anti-Semitism in Arab societies is finally overcome, the authors wrote. Calls for appropriate action should play a fundamental role in all future diplomatic processes.
