The Israeli response to the terrorist attacks of October 7 has led to an increase in hate-motivated acts across the world Jews. In the annual report on anti-Semitism published by the Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University and theAnti-defamation league (Adl), it was underlined that “the world witnessed the worst wave of anti-Semitic incidents since the end of the Second World War”.
According to the document, the rate of anti-Semitic attacks in Western countries has increased by “dozens of points” in 2023 compared to the previous year. In the United Stateswhere six million Jews live, the ADL recorded 7,523 accidents, of which 3,976 in the October-December period, compared to a total of 3,697 in 2022. Similar situation also in France (from 436 to 1,676), United Kingdom (from 1.662 to 4.103) and in Germany (from 2,639 to 3,614). A negative trend was also recorded in Italy, where acts against Jews almost doubled, going from 241 in 2022 to 453 in 2023. Of these, 259 occurred online and 216 were recorded in the period between October and December. The previous year, 67 occurred in the same time frame.
“We are not in 1938 or even 1933”, commented Uriya Shavit, head of the Center at Tel Aviv University. “Yet, if current trends continue, the curtain will fall on the possibility of conducting one Jewish life in the West: wearing a Star of David, attending synagogues and community centers, sending children to Jewish schools, attending a Jewish club on campus or speak Hebrew”.
According to theAnti-defamation leagueamong the hubs of anti-Semitism in the USA are the university campuses where, since October 7, numerous verbal and physical attacks against Jewish students have been documented. “Additionally, 73% of Jewish college students have experienced or witnessed some form of anti-Semitism since the start of the 2023-2024 academic year alone”, we read on the ADL website page dedicated to the initiative Not on my campuswhich underlines the fact that young people of the Jewish religion do not feel “physically and emotionally safe” in US institutions.
Some American universities have long been at the center of controversy over theirs in action in the first months of conflict regarding the numerous anti-Semitic acts recorded in their facilities.
Added to these were also the campus occupations during the pro-Palestine protests, which in several cases were interrupted over the last few days thanks to the intervention of the police.
