Hate groupsEuropean anti-Semitism: Trends to watch in 9 countries in 2018
Anti-Semitism is once again a serious concern in Europe. Incidents are rising in several countries. Violent attacks, assaults and vandalism against the French Jewish community are making headlines nearly every day. Earlier this week, Jews in the United Kingdom took to the streets to protest deep-seated anti-Semitism in the Labor Party and the failure of political leaders on the left, including Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, to adequately address their concerns. ADL offers an assessment of the current situation in nine European countries.
Anti-Semitism is once again a serious concern in Europe. Incidents are rising in several countries. Violent attacks, assaults and vandalism against the French Jewish community are making headlines nearly every day. Earlier this week, Jews in the United Kingdom took to the streets to protest deep-seated anti-Semitism in the Labor Party and the failure of political leaders on the left, including Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, to adequately address their concerns.
ADL says that an ADL’s international affairs team recently visited six European capitals including Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Brussels, Budapest, and Rome to meet with Jewish community leaders and government officials to discuss concerns about rising anti-Semitism on the continent. They shared ADL’s best practices for confronting anti-Semitism, as well as information and data on rising anti-Semitic incidents in the United States.
ADL also met with a dozen other European Jewish leaders in Jerusalem at the Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism, 19-21 March, to discuss their situations and how ADL can support Jewish communities in Europe.
Here’s ADL’s assessment of the current situation in nine European countries:
France
The French Jewish community of almost 500,000 lives in a state of constant insecurity, despite their government’s good-faith efforts to address anti-Semitic violence. The recent murder of Mireille Knoll, an 85 year-old Holocaust survivor, was the 11th anti-Semitic murder in France over the past twelve years, a stark contrast to the absence of such crimes in the prior three decades. Frequent assaults on Jews – on average, twice per week – also drive their sense of insecurity. In early February, ADL met in Paris with officials in the prime minister’s office, responsible for coordinating the government’s efforts against anti-Semitism and racism, to discuss ADL’s work on cyberhate, a problem the French government has identified as a major factor in radicalization. We also met with the head of the Jewish community’s security group to discuss extremism in France and offered our assistance of ADL experts.
