Anti-Semitism rising worldwide

Anti-Semitic incidents in America, by far the largest Jewish community outside Israel, last year surged to the highest level ever recorded according to the annual report from the ADL published yesterday. This is broadly in line with the trend in Britain, Germany and other countries with large Jewish communities.

The ADL’s 2021 Audit of Antisemitic Incidentstracked 2,717 incidents last year; the highest number since such figures were first recorded in 1979. That represents an increase of 34% year-on-year. The figures take in assaults, harassment and vandalism.

The number of incidents surged in May (to 387) during the military conflict between Israel and Hamas. In every month in 2021, except for January and February, the ADL noted an increase over the previous year.

New York (416), New Jersey (370) and California (367), Florida (190), Michigan (112) and Texas (112) were the states with the highest number of incidents.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also publishes figures on hate crimes, including those related to anti-Semitism, but the latest publicly available figures are for 2020. These were published in October 2021 so it is likely that the 2021 figures will be published this coming October.

Meanwhile, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) last October published two parallel surveys on anti-Semitism in America: one looked at the attitudes of American Jews and the other surveyed the general public.

Back in February I wrote about surveys on anti-Semitic incidents in Britain. These showed a similar trend to America with a sharp rise on the previous year and a surge in May. I have also written about surveys on attitudes of British Jews and the general public towards anti-Semitism.

Germany too conformed to this general pattern. Anti-Semitic incidents were sharply up in 2021 with a spike in May during the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Tel Aviv’s Center for the Study for European Jewry has also just published its latest annual Anti-Semitism World Report. It is based on reports from police departments, Jewish organisations, other organisations and media reports. Anti-Semitism was on the rise in most countries with large populations but in some, such as Argentina, there was a fall in 2021 (attributed to the Covid pandemic and related closures) whereas in some, such as Brazil and Russia, data is lacking.

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*There are reports of anti-Semitic chanting and attacks on journalists during anti-Israel demonstrations in Germany over the last few days. Among the chants were “Drecksjude” (dirty Jew) and “Kindermorder Israel ( child murderer Israel). The demonstrations took place in the Berlin districts of Neukölln and Kreuzberg while there were also a protest in the northern city of Hanover.

The video below shows demonstrators chanting loyalty to Mohammed Deif, the head of the military wing of Hamas, the main Islamist organisation in Gaza. Among their other chants (originally in Arabic) are “Intifada (uprising) until death” and “beloved and brave resistance fighter, strike our blood against Tel Aviv”.

PS: 30 April 2022. Berlin police banned yesterday's Al-Quds (Jerusalem day) demonstration after the events of last week. Al-Quds day, which falls on the last Friday of Ramadan, was inititated by the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979.