Germany: Anti-Semitic acts reach 10-year peak, police data shows

Via EuroNews:

Anti-Semitic offences rose by almost 10% in Germany last year, according to preliminary data released by police on Wednesday.

Some 1,646 anti-Semitic acts were reported in 2018, according to police, marking their highest level in the past decade. Sixty-two of these acts were violent, wounding 43 people.

The preliminary figures were released at the request of Die Linke left-wing party, and the final study will be published in May.

(...)

In Germany, one of the reasons behind the current jump of antisemitic acts is the rising popularity of the far-right AFD party, said Carsten Nickel, Managing Director of the think tank Teneo.

Since the 2015 migration crisis, Germany has seen a resurgence of far-right sentiment tainted with antisemitism which was impossible just 10 year ago due to German history, Carsten told Euronews.

The far-right's political strategy has been to blame migrants, which come predominantly from Muslim countries, for the resurgence of anti-Jewish hatred in Germany. "Muslim immigration might be part of the story, but I don't think that's the only story," Carsten said.

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UK: Antisemitic incidents at record high for third year in a row

Via Guardian:

Jewish community leaders and politicians have condemned a third successive year with a record number of antisemitic incidents.

Last year, 1,652 incidents, a 16% increase on 2017, were logged by the Community Security Trust, which has monitored antisemitism for 35 years and provides security to the UK Jewish community.

The CST said the spread of incidents throughout the year, with more than 100 a month, indicated a general atmosphere of intolerance and prejudice. However, there were also spikes related to events in Gaza and the argument over antisemitism in the Labour party.

The biggest number of incidents were in April and May (151 and 182 respectively), when scores of Palestinians were killed and hundreds injured in protests at the border fence between Gaza and Israel. May was the highest monthly total recorded since August 2014, when there was a major conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

In total, there were 173 incidents recorded that explicitly showed anti-Israel motivation alongside antisemitism, the CST said.

It also recorded 148 incidents over the year that were explicitly related to arguments over alleged antisemitism in Labour, with 49 in August when there was significant media and political attention on the issue.

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Germany: 'Drastic increase' of violent anti-Semitic attacks in Berlin, according to figures

Via The Local:

The number of anti-Semitic violent attacks in Berlin more than tripled in Berlin in 2018 compared to the previous year, according to provisional police statistics.

The German capital’s first commissioner for anti-Semitism, Claudia Vanoni, who took up her post on September 1st last year, said seven violent anti-Semitic attacks were recorded by police in 2017, compared to 24 incidents which were recorded between January and mid-December 2018.

Vanoni described it as a “drastic increase” in an interview with the Berliner Zeitung published earlier this week.

These are provisional figures  which may change if, for example, more crimes are reported.

When it comes to non-violent anti-Semitic crimes, according to Vanoni police recorded a total of 305 incidents in Berlin in 2017. Last year, 295 cases were recorded up until mid-December.

“Considering that cases are usually reported later, there will probably be a slight increase in the number of cases in 2018,” said Vanoni, regarding these figures.

The majority of these cases involve offensive language against others and damage to property, such as hate-filled graffiti.

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Unprecedented EU Poll Finds 90% Of European Jews Feel Anti-Semitism Increasing

Via Jewish Week:

Nearly 90 percent of European Jews feel that anti-Semitism has increased in their home countries over the past five years, and almost 30% say they have been harassed at least once in the past year, reveals a major European Union report published on Monday.

The poll was carried out in 12 European Union member states, and was the largest ever of its kind worldwide.

Of the more than 16,000 Jews who participated in the online survey, 85% rated anti-Semitism the biggest social or political problem in the country where they live. Thirty-eight percent said they had considered emigrating because they did not feel safe as Jews.

Britain, Germany, and Sweden saw the sharpest increases in those saying anti-Semitism is a “very big” or “fairly big” problem. The highest level recorded was in France at 95%. Denmark saw the lowest level at 56%, while Jews in Hungary suggested that anti-Semitism was becoming less of a problem. 

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What does anti-Semitism look like in Europe in 2018?

Via CNN:

It's a 17-year-old boy, too frightened to wear a kippa (a religious skullcap) on the streets of Paris. It's an Israeli restaurant owner in Berlin who is told that he will end up in the gas chambers. It's a 24-year-old Austrian who knows nothing about the Holocaust. It's the armed guards outside synagogues and Jewish schools across much of Europe. It's the online chat rooms where people peddle conspiracy theories that Jewish "globalists" run the world.
 

It can be violent or subtle. Overt or insidious. Political or personal. It can come from the right or the left. It exists in countries that have large Jewish populations, like France, and it also flourishes in places with smaller Jewish communities, like Poland.

More than a quarter of Europeans surveyed believe Jews have too much influence in business and finance. One in five say they have too much influence in media and politics. In individual countries the numbers are often higher: 42% of Hungarians think Jews have too much influence in finance and business across the world.

While 44% of Europeans agree that anti-Semitism is a growing problem, a substantial minority is unsympathetic to the problem. Almost one in five (18%) agree that most anti-Semitism in their country is a response to the "everyday behavior of Jewish people." In Poland, 50% of people think that Jews use the Holocaust to advance their position; 19% of Hungarians admit to having an unfavorable impression of Jews altogether.

So why is anti-Semitism a growing phenomenon once again? Poland's Chief Rabbi, Brooklyn-born Michael Schudrich, is not sure the problem ever really went away.

"There will always be people who had anti-Semitic feelings and I don't know if the number has grown but this new situation today is they feel that it's more acceptable socially that they can express these opinions out loud...

"The feeling beforehand was, 'This is what I believe but don't tell anyone.' It was not perfect but at least there was a social taboo against anti-Semitism."

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UK: Antisemitic, racist and other discriminatory abuse rise in football for sixth straight year

Via Telegraph:

Reports of antisemitic, racist and other discriminatory abuse within English football have risen for the sixth year in a row, according to the latest figures from Kick It Out.

Football's equality and inclusion organisation has revealed there were a total of 520 reports of abuse last season, up 11 per cent from 469 in 2016/17, with racist abuse accounting for more than half of the cases.

One in 10 reports of abuse concerned antisemitism, while reports of disability discrimination more than doubled from 14 to 29.

The statistics are compiled from all levels of the game and include reports of abuse on social media.

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Netherlands: 43% of Jews say they hide their ethnic identity

Via Times of Israel:

Nearly half of 557 respondents in a survey of Dutch Jews said they were afraid of identifying as such.

Of the respondents, 43 percent said they take active steps to hide their Jewish identity, such as wear a hat over their kippah or hide Star of David pendants.

Many respondents cited their perception of a rise in the prevalence of anti-Semitic sentiment, with 48% saying they avoid situations where they suspect they may be exposed to anti-Semitic reactions.

The results of the survey were published Monday.

Other key findings were that 52% of respondents said anti-Semitism on the street has become more common, 59% said it extends also to media and 82% see it rising online.

When it came to experiencing anti-Semitism, 34% said they had experienced racially offensive remarks directed against them, and of those, 89% said that those remarks were connected to Israel. 11% of respondents said they had experienced anti-Semitic violence directed against them.

Nearly three-quarters of respondents said they heard anti-Semitic jokes, featuring stereotypes about Jews. Other jokes involved the Holocaust. One respondent said a neighbor once told him that the only reason the respondent is living in the Netherlands is “because they forgot to gas” his family.

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France: Anti-Semitic acts surge, government promises action

Via Reuters:

Violence against Jews and other acts of anti-Semitism have surged in France in the past nine months, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Friday, promising stepped-up action against perpetrators.

Citing new government statistics, Philippe said acts of anti-Semitism had risen 69 percent in the year to September, compared with the same period in 2017, an increase he said should worry everyone in France. In the two previous years there had been a downward trend in the figures.

“Not remaining indifferent means taking better care of victims, acknowledging their complaints and more efficiently punishing those who carry out attacks,” Philippe said in a post on his Facebook account. 

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Germany: Online anti-Semitism is going mainstream, study finds

Via Times of Israel:

A long-awaited study by internationally renowned anti-Semitism expert Monika Schwarz-Friesel has found that the amount of German anti-Semitic content on the internet has grown massively in the last 10 years, permeates mainstream society, and is increasingly extreme.

Released Wednesday, the research project studied 300,000 pieces of German internet content between 2014 and 2018, with a focus on social media. During the first year of the study, slightly less than 23 percent of the content was classified as anti-Semitic. In 2017, this number had jumped to over 30%.

A similar study conducted by Schwarz-Friesel in 2007 found only 7.5% of the internet content examined to be anti-Semitic, indicating an increase of more than 22% over the last decade.

The latest results show not only a massive increase in the amount of anti-Semitic content found online, but also a radicalization in terms of the content’s quality. For example, anti-Semitic comments in response to news and other articles have not only grown in number, but have become more rabid.

(...)

In fact, campaigns against anti-Semitism themselves on social media networks such as Facebook elicit massive amounts of anti-Jewish comments. Thirty-eight percent of comments posted in response to a 2014 German Facebook campaign entitled #Never Again Jew-Hatred were actually anti-Semitic.

The study also found that much online anti-Semitism appears as stereotypes projected at the State of Israel.

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Study: ‘Surge’ in Polish antisemitism since controversial Holocaust law

Via Jerusalem Post:

A new academic study by the Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs has described “a surge” in hostility to Jews and Israel in Polish media and politics in 2018 following the efforts to pass a controversial law making it a crime to say that the Polish state or nation was complicit in the Holocaust.

According to the study written by Dr. Rafał Pankowski, a sociology professor at Warsaw’s Collegium Civitas, there has been a “disturbing revival of antisemitism” in Poland since the law was introduced and stirred controversy.

“The surge of hostility to Jews and the Jewish State in the Polish media and politics in early 2018 took many observers by surprise,” wrote Pankowski for the IJFA, a publication of the Israel Council on Foreign Relations which operates under the auspices of the World Jewish Congress.

“It was also a great shock because, for many years, bilateral relations between Poland and Israel had been especially cordial and fruitful.”

Pankowski noted that Poland has made “significant progress in recognizing and researching the inconvenient truths about its own legacy of antisemitism” unlike other post-Communist countries in eastern Europe.

“In the wake of the new legislation, however, that progress has been seriously hampered and the findings of these historians, and even their patriotism, has been called into question,” he wrote.

He noted that while in recent years anti-Jewish discourse was mainly confined to extreme quarters, of late it has found a prominent place in the mainstream media, especially in state-controlled news outlets.

“The surge in radical nationalist discourse,” warns Dr. Pankowski, “reflects a deeper crisis of liberal, democratic, and humanistic values – in Poland and elsewhere in post-Communist Europe, as well as in the wider world.”

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Hungarian Jews see anti-Semitism as a serious problem, survey finds

Via Times of Israel:

Two-thirds of Hungarian Jews believe anti-Semitism is a serious problem in their country, according to a new survey, though fewer than half say they have experienced it firsthand.

The survey, which the prominent sociologists András Kovács and Ildikó Barna conducted in 2017 through face-to-face interviews with 1,879 Jewish adults, was published Thursday at a news conference in Budapest. It is a follow-up to a 1999 survey of Hungarian Jews that asked about perceptions on a range of topics.

On anti-Semitism, 48 percent of the respondents said they heard anti-Semitic rhetoric on the street in the year preceding the survey, down from 75% in 1999. The number of respondents who said they had experienced at least three instances of anti-Semitism was 6%, compared to 16% in 1999.
 

However, asked to quantify the extent of anti-Semitism in Hungary, 55% of the respondents said it was “great” and another 10% said it was “very great.”

“In 2017, the situation was perceived as much worse than it had been perceived in 1999,” the authors of the survey wrote.

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Germany: Less than half of Germans think Jews don't have too much influence in the world

Percentage who didn't answer the question added in brackets.

Via Marcel Dirsus @ Twitter

Anti-semitism in Germany: 

Percentage of people who believe that Jews have too much influence in the world
AfD supporters: 55%     [22%]
Linke supporters: 20%   [30%]     
Green supporters: 17%   [47%]
FDP supporters: 19%     [35%]
SPD supporters: 16%     [37%]
CDU/CSU supporters: 19%   [41%]

(Source: Allensbach/FAZ)

Anti-Semitic incidents drop sharply in Poland and Hungary, watchdogs say

Via Times of Israel:

Despite widespread concerns recently of a rise in anti-Semitism in Poland and Hungary, watchdog groups in both countries said the number of incidents recorded there in 2017 dropped sharply from the previous year.

In Hungary, the Jewish community’s watchdog on anti-Semitism, TEV, said this week in its annual report for 2017 that it had recorded 37 anti-Semitic incidents compared to 48 in 2016, constituting a 23 percent decrease. Some 100,000 Jews live in Hungary.

In Poland, which is home to some 20,000 Jews, Deputy National Prosecutor Agata Gałuszka-Górska last month said that the number of anti-Semitic incidents had dropped by 30 percent, to 112 last year from 160 in 2016. Anti-Semitic hate crimes accounted for about 6 percent of all hate crimes recorded, she said.

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Germany averaged four anti-Semitic crimes per day in 2017, report says

Via DW:

The rising trend of anti-Semitic crimes in Germany shows no signs of abating, according to a newspaper report on last year's crime statistics that was published on Sunday.

In 2017, German police registered a total of 1,453 crimes that targeted Jews or Jewish institutions, reported German newspaper Tagesspiegel, citing figures from the German government. The data was compiled in response to an inquiry from Bundestag vice president and Left party lawmaker Petra Pau.

Last year's crimes included 32 acts of violence, 160 instances of property damage, and 898 cases of incitement.

The German government expects the figures to rise even further since the data provided by the states is not yet final, the paper said.

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Germany: Antisemitism report 2016-2017

The following is a summary of the recent report on antisemitism by the Amadeu Antonio Stiftung, "Lagebild Antisemitismus 2016/2017" (situation report 2016/2017)


Via agermangiur:

While “classical” antisemitism has been in decline for years, a new report shows that yes, there is quite a lot of antisemitism in Germany. Gentiles like me notice it only in passing, in a swastika on the wall (that usually has already been painted over with “Nazis raus!”) or a particularly vile facebook comment that had been rebutted by friends who are much more antifa than most will ever manage to be. But, the report for 2016/17, published by the Amadeu Antonio Stiftung, shows that the situation is not as calm as one might assume. Today, most antisemitism in Germany come at us under the cover of Israel criticism. I’ll try and recap some of the subjects discussed in the report, which you can find (in German only so far) here.

Only 6% of Germans agree with openly antisemitic statements. But 40% agree with the statement “Considering Israel’s politics, I can fully understand how you can have something against jews.” 77% agree that we should just let history be and move on. There seem to be waves in the emergence of antisemitism, which allows the conclusion that there are wide areas in our society that aren’t opposed to antisemitism but rather are slumbering antisemites who will awaken and spill their hateful words and threats only when they feel they can get away with that.

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Austria: Half of Muslim youth hold antisemitic views

Via Jerusalem Post:

A study published by the University of Teacher Education in Vienna released on Saturday showed that almost 50% of young Austrian Muslims maintain an antisemitic attitude. The systematic delegitimization of Israel in Muslim-majority countries helps explain “imported antisemitism” into Europe, wrote the Austrian daily Der Standard in their report on the poll.

The poll asked Austrian Muslim students if they felt that “Jews have too much influence in Austria,” and 48% agreed with the statement.

The students aged between 16 through 19 have migrant backgrounds from a diverse set of Muslim-majority countries and some non-Muslim nations, including Bosnia, Turkey, Albania and Bulgaria. The students study at apprentice schools while working in the restaurant and hotel industry.

The authors of the study, Georg Lauss and Stefan Schmid-Heher, told Der Standard, in which the study was first reported, that “educational and prevention efforts against antisemitism need to be strengthened.”

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ADL survey: Anti-Semitism down in France, UK, Germany

Via Times of Israel:

The prevalence of anti-Semitic sentiment has dropped in three European countries over surveys from 2014 and 2015, according to polls conducted this year by the Anti-Defamation League.

The ADL interviewed 500 people each in Germany, the United Kingdom and France by telephone, the organization said in a summary of the study it unveiled Thursday.

In the United Kingdom, 10 percent of respondents “harbor anti-Semitic attitudes,” the poll found, compared to 12 percent in 2015 and 8 percent in 2014.

In France, the figure was 14 percent compared to 17 percent in 2015 and 37 percent a year earlier.

In Germany, the figure dropped to 11 percent from 16 percent in 2015 and 27 percent in 2014.

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Austria: Anti-Semitic incidents reach new record in 2016

Via Israel Hayom:

A record number of anti-Semitic incidents, ranging from verbal and online threats to physical assaults, was recorded in Austria last year, a non-governmental organization said in a report published on Thursday.

The number of cases rose to 477 in 2016 from 465 in 2015, when it jumped by about 200 from 2014, the Forum Against Anti-Semitism said.

The report follows a finding by Austria's BVT domestic intelligence service indicating that in 2016 incidents of xenophobia, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism were on the rise in Austria. The small country has been swept up in Europe's migration crisis and the refugee influx has become a hot-button issue.

"It is of course alarming. We now have two consecutive years at a record level," said Oskar Deutsch, president of the Jewish Community of Vienna (IKG).

Deutsch said Austria's Jewish community numbers 13,000 to 15,000 people in an overall population of 8.8 million.

Growing concerns about jobs and security, often in connection with immigration, have fueled growing support for the far-right Freedom party, which was founded by former Nazis. It is now running first in opinion polls.

The Freedom party is strongly critical of Islam and denounces anti-Semitism, but its efforts to court Jewish voters have shown few signs of success. The IKG, the main body representing Austrian Jews, says the party is still xenophobic.

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Muslims, Jews faced social hostilities in seven-in-ten European countries in 2015

Via Pew:

Social hostilities toward Jews, meanwhile, remained at high levels in Europe: In 2015, 33 of the continent’s 45 countries (73%) had incidents of social hostilities aimed at Jews, a slight increase from 32 countries (71%) the previous year.

Social hostilities are defined as actions aimed at members of religious groups by private individuals and social groups. These actions can include hostile rhetoric, vandalism and physical assaults. They differ from government restrictions on religion, which also increased in Europe in 2015.

(...)

In Russia in April, individuals fired at a synagogue that was under construction, breaking the windows and writing anti-Semitic graffiti. And in Italy, 25 members of the neo-Nazi movement Stormfront were ordered to stand trial in July for alleged anti-Semitic hate speech. In a separate incident in Italy in October, anti-Semitic graffiti was placed on a University of Teramo wall during the visit of the Israeli ambassador, who was there to launch a course on the Holocaust.

Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, the Community Security Trust reported 86 violent anti-Semitic assaults. And in February 2015, a young Jewish man wearing a yarmulke was assaulted by two men in Belgium. The next month, attackers in Ukraine severely beat a Jewish surgeon, allegedly while shouting anti-Semitic rhetoric.

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German data suggests decline in antisemitism in 2016, contrary to report

Via Jerusalem Post:

Antisemitism in Germany appears to have slightly declined in the past year, contrary to a Diaspora Affairs Ministry report published last week.

A statement last week by the ministry said that reported antisemitic attacks in Germany had doubled from 2015 to 2016 – but The Jerusalem Post later learned the number given for 2015 was mistaken.


The ministry report said that between January and September 2015, 194 antisemitic incidents were reported in Germany, and that the number had risen to 461 during the same period in 2016, indicating a dramatic increase.

Official Bundestag documents, however, showed that the number of antisemitic incidents recorded in Germany between January and September 2015, were in fact 538 – 77 more than for the same months of 2016.

Having been subsequently alerted to the mistake by the Post, the ministry reviewed the data and found that the figure 194 had actually been the number recorded for Berlin alone. The ministry was due to release a correction and said the original mistake was caused by a technical error.

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