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80 Years After Liberation, Antisemitism Resurges Across Europe in Shocking Ratios
At an anti-Israel demonstration in Germany in February 2025, protesters chanted antisemitic slogans and called for violence against Jews. Photo: Foto: picture alliance / Anadolu
I am in Berlin today as a proud Jew with a stark warning: 80 years after the bloodiest war in history — and the systematic genocide of six million Jewish people and millions of others — the promise of “never again” is being severely tested.
This city, steeped in both unimaginable horror and the commitment to remembrance, is home to the echoes of my family’s memory and those of so many in our community. Their stories are commemorated in memorials, museums, and official German statements of responsibility.
Yet, in recent years, an unprecedented tsunami of antisemitism has surged across Europe and around the world, threatening to pull us back into our collective past. We cannot — and will not — allow it to happen. In response, the leaders of the seven largest Jewish communities outside Israel: Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States formed the J7 –The Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism.
The complacency we’re witnessing today has dangerous historical parallels. Antisemitism has always been an early warning sign for broader democratic backsliding. This isn’t just a Jewish problem — it’s a threat to Europe as a whole and the values established in the aftermath of the Holocaust.
Our latest findings confirm what we’ve experienced firsthand: dramatic increases in both total antisemitic incidents and incidents per Jewish capita. This surge accelerated after the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack in Israel.
The numbers are stark. Violent incidents against Jews increased 185% in France between 2021 and 2023, 82% in the UK, and 75% in Germany. Most recently, 2024 marked a staggering 317% increase in antisemitic incidents in Australia, while the United States reached another all-time record since we began recording antisemitic incidents at ADL, with a total tabulated 9,354 antisemitic incidents across the country.
Perhaps most alarming is the rate of incidents per the number of Jewish residents.
In Germany, there were more than 38 antisemitic incidents for every 1,000 Jewish residents in 2023. The UK followed with 13 incidents per 1,000 Jewish residents. These figures reveal the growing vulnerability of Jewish communities worldwide.
What’s particularly disturbing about this moment is how antisemitism has become normalized in public discourse. Jewish students face harassment on university campuses and schools. Synagogues require armed guards. Many think twice before wearing visibly Jewish symbols. These aren’t isolated incidents, but symptoms of a broader societal failure. When hatred against Jews becomes acceptable, it undermines the very foundations of democratic societies that Europe rebuilt after World War II.
This crisis demands concrete action. The J7 Task Force is calling on all countries to adopt and implement common sense policies and programs such as those outlined in the Global Guidelines for Countering Antisemitism. These guidelines will help governments, institutions, and civil society partners develop practical policies to ensure the safety, inclusion, and dignity of Jewish communities worldwide.
We once thought we had reached — or were at least close to reaching — the stage of remembering antisemitism as opposed to living it. Instead, today our communities are forced to rebuild our security and defenses against an age-old hatred that has found its way back into the mainstream. But despite this challenge, Jewish communities remain resilient.
The most meaningful tribute to Holocaust victims isn’t found in monuments, but in ensuring that Jewish communities can thrive without fear in every society. Eighty years after liberation, our reality requires more than commemorations — it demands action.
The choice is clear. Eighty years later, the time to act is now.
Ambassador Marina Rosenberg is the Senior Vice President of International Affairs at the Anti-Defamation League.
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Israel to Issue 54,000 Call-Up Notices to Ultra-Orthodox Students
Haredi Jewish men look at the scene of an explosion at a bus stop in Jerusalem, Israel, on Nov. 23, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Ammar Awad
Israel’s military said it would issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students following a Supreme Court ruling mandating their conscription and amid growing pressure from reservists stretched by extended deployments.
The Supreme Court ruling last year overturned a decades-old exemption for ultra-Orthodox students, a policy established when the community comprised a far smaller segment of the population than the 13 percent it represents today.
Military service is compulsory for most Israeli Jews from the age of 18, lasting 24-32 months, with additional reserve duty in subsequent years. Members of Israel’s 21 percent Arab population are mostly exempt, though some do serve.
A statement by the military spokesperson confirmed the orders on Sunday just as local media reported legislative efforts by two ultra-Orthodox parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition to craft a compromise.
The exemption issue has grown more contentious as Israel’s armed forces in recent years have faced strains from simultaneous engagements with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, and Iran.
Ultra-Orthodox leaders in Netanyahu’s brittle coalition have voiced concerns that integrating seminary students into military units alongside secular Israelis, including women, could jeopardize their religious identity.
The military statement promised to ensure conditions that respect the ultra-Orthodox way of life and to develop additional programs to support their integration into the military. It said the notices would go out this month.
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Influential Far-Right Minister Lashes out at Netanyahu Over Gaza War Policy
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sharply criticized on Sunday a cabinet decision to allow some aid into Gaza as a “grave mistake” that he said would benefit the terrorist group Hamas.
Smotrich also accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to ensure that Israel’s military is following government directives in prosecuting the war against Hamas in Gaza. He said he was considering his “next steps” but stopped short of explicitly threatening to quit the coalition.
Smotrich’s comments come a day before Netanyahu is due to hold talks in Washington with President Donald Trump on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day Gaza ceasefire.
“… the cabinet and the Prime Minister made a grave mistake yesterday in approving the entry of aid through a route that also benefits Hamas,” Smotrich said on X, arguing that the aid would ultimately reach the Islamist group and serve as “logistical support for the enemy during wartime”.
The Israeli government has not announced any changes to its aid policy in Gaza. Israeli media reported that the government had voted to allow additional aid to enter northern Gaza.
The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The military declined to comment.
Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid for its own fighters or to sell to finance its operations, an accusation Hamas denies. Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe, with conditions threatening to push nearly a half a million people into famine within months, according to U.N. estimates.
Israel in May partially lifted a nearly three-month blockade on aid. Two Israeli officials said on June 27 the government had temporarily stopped aid from entering north Gaza.
PRESSURE
Public pressure in Israel is mounting on Netanyahu to secure a permanent ceasefire, a move opposed by some hardline members of his right-wing coalition. An Israeli team left for Qatar on Sunday for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.
Smotrich, who in January threatened to withdraw his Religious Zionism party from the government if Israel agreed to a complete end to the war before having achieved its objectives, did not mention the ceasefire in his criticism of Netanyahu.
The right-wing coalition holds a slim parliamentary majority, although some opposition lawmakers have offered to support the government from collapsing if a ceasefire is agreed.
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Australia Police Charge Man Over Alleged Arson on Melbourne Synagogue
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media during a press conference with New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at the Australian Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Aug. 16, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Tracey Nearmy
Australian police have charged a man in connection with an alleged arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue with worshippers in the building, the latest in a series of incidents targeting the nation’s Jewish community.
There were no injuries to the 20 people inside the East Melbourne Synagogue, who fled from the fire on Friday night. Firefighters extinguished the blaze in the capital of Victoria state.
Australia has experienced several antisemitic incidents since the start of the Israel-Gaza war in October 2023.
Counter-terrorism detectives late on Saturday arrested the 34-year-old resident of Sydney, capital of neighboring New South Wales, charging him with offenses including criminal damage by fire, police said.
“The man allegedly poured a flammable liquid on the front door of the building and set it on fire before fleeing the scene,” police said in a statement.
The suspect, whom the authorities declined to identify, was remanded in custody after his case was heard at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Sunday and no application was made for bail, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.
Authorities are investigating whether the synagogue fire was linked to a disturbance on Friday night at an Israeli restaurant in Melbourne, in which one person was arrested for hindering police.
The restaurant was extensively damaged, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella group for Australia’s Jews.
It said the fire at the synagogue, one of Melbourne’s oldest, was set as those inside sat down to Sabbath dinner.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog went on X to “condemn outright the vile arson attack targeting Jews in Melbourne’s historic and oldest synagogue on the Sabbath, and on an Israeli restaurant where people had come to enjoy a meal together”.
“This is not the first such attack in Australia in recent months. But it must be the last,” Herzog said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incidents as “severe hate crimes” that he viewed “with utmost gravity.” “The State of Israel will continue to stand alongside the Australian Jewish community,” Netanyahu said on X.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese late on Saturday described the alleged arson, which comes seven months after another synagogue in Melbourne was targeted by arsonists, as shocking and said those responsible should face the law’s full force.
“My Government will provide all necessary support toward this effort,” Albanese posted on X.
Homes, schools, synagogues and vehicles in Australia have been targeted by antisemitic vandalism and arson. The incidents included a fake plan by organized crime to attack a Sydney synagogue using a caravan of explosives in order to divert police resources, police said in March.
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