The Hamas terrorist massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023 has led to an escalation in anti-Semitism, paving the way for attacks against Jewish communities around the world. Over the past year, schools, community centers, and houses of worship have been subject to threats, intimidation, and physical violence.
Rabbi Moshe Hauer, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, told FOX News Digital that the “assumed level of security” that the American Jewish community has endured throughout 2024 has changed. “It’s difficult. You have a place to call home, and all of a sudden it doesn’t feel like home anymore.” Hauer said the issue “is still seen as a Jewish problem, not a stain on society.”
Hauer said the suddenness of the change was surprising. “It was like we were the root of the darkness,” he explained. “It’s very jarring because all of the people we’ve stood shoulder to shoulder with to fight for our needs and fight for our rights suddenly don’t recognize us anymore.”
Anti-Semitic acts spike in Europe ‘extremely distressing’, calls for further action
Anti-Semitic hatred is on display at anti-Israel demonstrations in London. Anti-Semitism in the UK has reached record levels since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack. (Campaign against antisemitism in X)
The Anti-Defamation League tallied more than 10,000 anti-Semitic incidents between October 7, 2023 and October 6, 2024, up from 3,325 the previous year. This was the highest annual total counted by the organization. These included more than 8,000 counts of harassment, 150 counts of physical assault, and 1,840 counts of vandalism. Combined, more than half of these incidents occurred at anti-Israel rallies (more than 3,000) or Jewish organizations (more than 2,000).
Some politicians and the United Nations (UN) are stirring up anti-Israel hatred in the country. In January, the Chicago City Council passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza without also calling for Hamas to disarm, drawing widespread condemnation from Jewish community leaders.
UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese presented her latest report to the UN General Assembly in October, despite multiple US officials and the State Department accusing her of widespread anti-Semitism. During this time, he visited numerous campuses in the United States. During a stop at Barnard College, Albanese “described Israel’s war in Gaza as a ‘genocide,’ justified the October 7 attack, and questioned Israel’s right to exist,” according to the Times. Of Israel newspaper reported.
The victim, described by the Jewish Federation Fund as a “member of the Jewish community,” was shot in the shoulder in an anti-Semitic hate crime in Chicago. (Fox 32 Chicago)
The hatred that had permeated college campuses took on new forms during the spring when anti-Israel encampments emerged at educational institutions across the country. Protests at some camps resulted in Jewish students being barred from campus spaces.
Terrorist flags were flown on streets and campuses in the United States during anti-Israel protests. School administrators and business leaders who have angered anti-Israel protesters have had their homes and facilities tagged with upside-down red triangles, which Hamas uses to mark military targets. In July, protesters replaced the American flag with the Palestinian flag in Washington, D.C., and wrote “Hamas is coming” on a statue of Christopher Columbus.
In September, an ISIS-inspired attack on the Jewish community was thwarted by authorities in Canada and the United States. On October 26, a Mauritanian who entered the country illegally in March 2023 shot and killed a Jewish worshiper in Chicago, before engaging in a shootout with responding police and emergency personnel. Chicago leaders waited five days to confirm the religious identity of the suspect’s targets, noting that the shooter intentionally targeted the Jewish community.
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Jewish students at El Camino Real Charter High School go on strike to protest an anti-Semitic incident at the school in Woodland Hills, California, on Tuesday, February 27, 2024 in Los Angeles. (Photo by: Sarah Reingewirtz/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)
Brooke Goldstein, a human rights attorney and founder of the Lawfare Project, cited the driving force behind the intolerant atmosphere, telling Fox News Digital that “President Biden and the predominantly Democratic leaders of major cities across the country They have failed to act to restrain Jews because it is politically expedient for them to enforce civil rights and ensure public safety for Jewish Americans.
She argues that “for years the progressive left has ignored the hatred of Jews coming from within its own ranks, and that Jews remain a minority group that remains in great need of legal protection in the face of Marxist-oriented policies.” We have chosen to ignore the reality that this is the case.” And there are Islamist-inspired attacks on indigenous peoples’ rights to their identity, ancestral homeland, and ability to receive equal protection under the law, with their politicians trying to avoid accusations of hypocrisy. denigrates Jewish identity. It also supports social justice for all non-Jews and avoids prosecuting attacks against Jews as hate crimes, especially when the attacker is a member of another minority community. ”
An anti-Israel sign with the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” at a protest near Tulane University in New Orleans. The phrase has been criticized as a call for Israel’s destruction. (Credit: Ryan Zamos)
hatred around the world
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of global social action at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, says he feels the world is “at a tipping point” regarding anti-Semitic intolerance, according to Fox. He told News Digital. Popular social media influencers ‘normalize’ hatred of Israel, state leaders around the world escalate anti-Israel rhetoric, extremists ‘held accountable’ even when targeting Jewish communities “I don’t feel that way,” Rabbi Cooper explained. It’s the perfect storm. ”
In Europe, anti-Semitic hate incidents will increase by 800% between 2022 and 2023, comparable to that seen in Sweden. Jews across Europe have reported that they no longer wear items that might identify their religion, and in some cases change their names to avoid being targeted. France saw a 430% increase in the number of Jews applying to immigrate to Israel from 2022 to 2023.
Despite Ireland’s small Jewish population, anti-Semitic hatred and Jewish self-censorship are on the rise. In December, Israel announced it would close its embassy in the country, citing Irish leaders’ “delegitimization and demonization of the Jewish state.”
Anti-Semitic hatred has also increased significantly in the UK, with the Community Security Trust reporting a record high of 1,978 anti-Semitic incidents in the first half of 2024. This includes a 246% increase in “damage to and desecration of Jewish property” in the first six years. Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Anti-Semitism said in March that pro-Hamas forces were to blame. The atmosphere had made London “the most anti-Semitic city” in the world.
In late November, a bus carrying Jewish schoolchildren was harassed and attacked with stones by protesters. A few days earlier, a man threw a bottle at a group of Jewish teens, hitting one of his targets and leaving him hospitalized.
The headlines about hatred against Jewish communities abroad are grim. In June, a 12-year-old Jewish girl was raped in France by two teenage girls because of her religion. In November, Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan disappeared from his home in Abu Dhabi and his body was found.
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Anti-Semitic graffiti was scrawled in classrooms at York University in Canada on October 26, 2023. (Offering Jewish Learning Initiatives on Campus)
More than nine synagogues have been targeted by arson around the world since October 7, according to a social media post by Heng Majig, a senior researcher at the Tel Aviv Institute. The latest attack occurred on December 18th at a synagogue in Montreal, which was also targeted in November 2023, the New York Post reported. Just two days later, an overnight shooting occurred at a Jewish elementary school in Toronto. According to the Times of Israel, this is the third shooting at the school since May.
Another recent arson attack occurred on December 6th at a synagogue in Melbourne, Australia. The Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a travel advisory for Australia in response to the incident, saying the country’s leaders “relentless demonization, harassment and violence against Jews and Jewish groups.”
Members of the Jewish community retrieve items from the Adas Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, Australia, on December 6, 2024. An arson attack on Melbourne’s Adas Israel Synagogue in the early hours of Friday left the building engulfed in flames, forcing congregants to evacuate. (Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)
Just a month ago, the Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a similar recommendation to the Netherlands after a “Jew hunt” in which Jewish fans were chased and assaulted in the city after a soccer match. I put it out. This incident led to another attempt to “hunt Jews” in Antwerp, and an attack on a youth soccer team in Berlin.
When Cooper’s group issued a travel advisory for the Netherlands, he told Fox News Digital that “theoretically you could issue a travel advisory for almost any place in Western Europe.”
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Anti-Israel demonstrators hold banners and chant during a protest in London, December 9, 2023. (Photo by Andy Soloman/UCG/Universal Images Group, Getty Images)
In the United States, anti-Semitic intolerance has permeated elite universities, workplaces, the medical community, and the entertainment industry, Rabbi Cooper summed up: “The challenges ahead will be very difficult.” He also said he is hopeful because of the resilience of the Jewish community and the security that American democracy provides.
Cooper said many of the people appointed by the incoming Trump administration are “defenders of our community,” including Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He said he believes “a lot of good things can happen very quickly” if we start implementing the new policies.
