Jewish schools behind steel and concrete: Rabbis warn Europe must confront the forces driving antisemitism

Europe’s leading rabbinical organization is demanding governments move beyond guards, steel barriers and concrete blocks and confront the ideological and financial networks it says are fueling escalating antisemitic violence across the continent.

“Almost every Jewish school and synagogue in Europe sits behind guards, steel barriers, and concrete blocks,” Conference of European Rabbis President Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt warned as the group unveiled a seven-point manifesto in Brussels. “Jewish children are growing up believing this is normal. It is not.”

The plan calls for cutting extremist funding, cracking down on clerics who incite hatred or glorify terrorism, closing institutions that repeatedly promote violence, tougher action against online radicalization and zero tolerance for antisemitic intimidation at demonstrations. The rabbis warned that a Europe unable to protect its Jews from violent hatred cannot credibly claim to defend democracy, freedom, and human dignity.