Kantor Center Reports on Surging Global Anti-Semitism

kantor-center-logoThe 2014 Kantor Center annual report highlights a 38% worldwide increase in violent anti-Semitic incidents compared to 2013. The Kantor Center, based at Tel Aviv University, specializes in contemporary European Jewry and publishes an annual detailed report on anti-Semitism worldwide.

According to this data, 2014 is the second worst year for anti-Semitism in the last decade, with an increase of 554 reported violent anti-Semitic acts in 2013, to 766 in 2014.

Contrary to many anti-Semitism reports taking into account all forms of anti-Semitism, this report focuses solely on the violent acts, making the numbers even more frightening. Violent anti-Semitic incidents are characterized as, “with or without weapons and by arson, vandalism or direct threats against Jewish persons or institutions such as synagogues, community centers, schools, cemeteries and monuments as well as private property.” 

The below graph shows the worldwide evolution of violent anti-Semitic incidents since 1989. It shows a clear continuous upsurge of violence against Jews throughout the years, an increase of 882% in 25 years.

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Between 2013 and 2014 alone, there was an increase of 38%. Arson against Jews tripled, there was a 66% increase in Jews targeted in attacks (306 people in 2014), a 70% increase in synagogue attacks (114 attacks); and a 100% increase against Jewish property and institutions with weapons.

Worldwide, France has the highest number of violent anti-Semitic attacks for the third consecutive year, with 164 violent anti-Semitic attacks in 2014 as compared to 141 in 2013. The United Kingdom comes in second, with 141 violent anti-Semitic attacks in 2014 as compared to 95 in 2013, and the United States in third, with 80 violent anti-Semitics attacks in 2014 as compared to 55 in 2013.

Violent anti-Semitic attacks increased, and often more than doubled, in many countries throughout the world: Australia (30 vs. 11), Germany (76 vs. 36), Austria (9 vs. 4), Italy (23 vs. 12), Sweden (17 vs. 3), Belgium (30 vs. 11) and South Africa (14 vs. 1).

The Kantor Center report attributes this dramatic increase of violent anti-Semitic attacks in 2014 to four causes:

(1) The 2014 Operation Protective Edge in Gaza

Anti-Israelism is the first cause of anti-Semitism. This last decade, the highest peak of anti-Semitism happened in 2009, during the Cast Lead Operation that lasted for three weeks.

(2) The return of the Classic anti-Semitism

Ugly caricatures about Jews and Israelis, without making any distinctions between them. 70 years after the Holocaust, there are no more taboos in Europe, where demonstrators in Paris or in Berlin chanted “death to Jews” or “Jews to the Gas”.

(3) Cruelty on the rise

Social media and technology have spread terrible bloody images of execution in the Middle East and North Africa, attracting the younger audiences subjected to the western culture.

(4) The Gap Between Responses of European Leaders and Officials, and the Public at Large

The report points out that even though European leaders and officials take many initiatives to fight anti-Semitism, these actions do not target directly the popular culture in which anti-Semitism is instilled.

The situation in Eastern Europe is different that in Western Europe.  Anti-Semitic incidents only slightly increased in Hungary and Ukraine (15 vs. 14, and 28 vs. 23, respectively) last year, and in Russia and Romania, violent anti-Semitic acts slightly decreased (12 vs. 15, and 2 vs. 3, respectively),

In the US, anti-Semitic incidents increased by 21%. Barry Curtiss-Lusher, ADL National Chair, explained: “The reported increase in U.S. anti-Semitic incidents coincided with a huge upsurge in anti-Semitic attacks in Europe and elsewhere around the globe.”

These numbers prove that Jews are threatened today: a 38% worldwide increase of violent anti-Semitic attack, in just a year, is dramatic.