TEL AVIV – As Israel marked Holocaust Remembrance Day, a new report by Israeli researchers showed a significant spike in anti-Semitic attacks worldwide, with the largest number of Jews killed in decades.
The annual study from Tel Aviv University shows that the total number of physical assaults rose 13 percent in 2018 from the previous year, with more than 400 cases reported around the world.
France saw a 74% increase in violent acts motivated by anti-Semitism and Germany a 70 percent increase.
More than a quarter of violent acts — culminating with the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in October that claimed the lives of 11 Jews — occurred in the U.S.
“Anti-Semitism is no longer an issue confined to the activity of the far-left, far-right and radical Islamists triangle — it has mainstreamed and became an integral part of life,” the report said.
“The most disturbing development, that keeps continuing and intensifying since 2016, is that Jews in some countries feel they live in a state of emergency, because of the continuing rise, most notably in Western Europe and North America, in anti-Semitic manifestations,” the study said.
The study outlined fear of mass immigration, economic hardship, and sympathy towards Palestinians as being some of the contributing factors towards the rise in anti-Semitism.
In the U.S., it also pointed to extreme-right groups and hostility on college campuses toward pro-Israel students.
In the UK, which saw 68 anti-Semitic attacks in 2018, Brexit was to blame for aiding in the rise of nationalism. The study pointed to to Brexit’s repercussions in the Labour party, and in particular its leader Jeremy Corbyn’s “virulent antisemitic opinions, disguised as anti-Zionism.”
“For the first time in their long history, British Jews, who feel they lost their political home, question their future in Britain,” the study said.
Extreme-right supporters see Jews as “a cosmopolitan foreign agent that constitutes a threat to national local identity, and keep accusing them of being the driving force behind the arrival of immigrants to Europe.”
The far-left, on the other hand, “regards Jewish alleged world power as responsible for the failures of global economy. Jews are being blamed for globalization that increases economic uncertainties.”
The study, which is released every year on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, comes days after a fatal shooting attack at a San Diego synagogue.
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