Spain’s antisemitism crisis deepens as anti-Jewish incidents surge 14.5%, new report finds

The report also warned that antisemitism is increasingly taking new forms, becoming normalized across social, educational, cultural, and digital spaces and seeping deeper into everyday life.

By Ailin Vilches Arguello, The Algemeiner

Spain’s Jewish community faced a sharply worsening social climate in 2025, as antisemitic incidents rose almost 15 percent amid mounting attacks, harassment, and hostility, according to a new report documenting the growing normalization of anti-Jewish hatred across the country.

In partnership with the Movement Against Intolerance (MCI), the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain (FCJE), the country’s main Jewish umbrella organization, released its annual antisemitism report on Wednesday, documenting a troubling 14.5 percent rise in reported antisemitic incidents last year.

The report documented 221 anti-Jewish hate crimes in 2025, up from 193 the previous year, reflecting a wave of hostility that continues to spread across Spanish society rather than fade.

An estimated 13,000-15,000 Jews who identify as Jewish or have Jewish parents live in Spain, as part of a broader population of about 40,000-50,000 non-affiliated people with Jewish heritage and ancestry.

With last year’s trend showing no sign of slowing, the FCJE and MCI warned against the normalization of anti-Jewish hatred, calling for a stronger institutional response before hostility toward Jews becomes further entrenched in everyday life.

FCJE’s president, David Obadía, pointed to the growing impact of anti-Jewish hostility on the daily lives of Spanish Jews, stressing that no community should have to continually reinforce its security simply to practice its religion and maintain its educational and communal activities.

“Since Oct. 7, 2023, Spanish Jews have been forced to attend our communal spaces under heightened security measures,” Obadía said in a statement, referring to the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel nearly three years ago.

“Our children are the only ones who go to school under police protection, while insults and discrimination have become part of our daily reality,” he continued.

“When a Jewish family has to question whether it is safe to send their children to school or attend a synagogue, it is a problem that affects Spanish society as a whole.”

According to FCJE’s newly released report, the rise in anti-Jewish hatred and violence targeting Spain’s Jewish community has proved far more than a temporary reaction to the war in Gaza, becoming a sustained wave of hostility that has continued since antisemitic incidents surged in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 atrocities.

The report also warned that antisemitism is increasingly taking new forms, becoming normalized across social, educational, cultural, and digital spaces and seeping deeper into everyday life.

“Hatred toward Jews does not disappear simply because the language used to express it changes,” the report said.

MCI’s president, Esteban Ibarra, stressed the vulnerability many victims continue to face, calling for antisemitism to receive the same institutional attention, resolve, and response afforded to other forms of discrimination and intolerance.

“Antisemitism is neither an opinion nor a political disagreement; it is a form of hatred and discrimination against Jews. When it is tolerated, normalized or downplayed, it damages social cohesion and weakens democracy,” Ibarra said in a statement.

Like most countries across Europe and the broader Western world, Spain has seen a rise in antisemitic incidents over the past three years.

Yet, Spain stands out as one of the most extreme cases, with experts warning that antisemitic violence and anti-Zionist rhetoric have moved beyond a social phenomenon to being, in many instances, state-promoted and legitimized as a political tool.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and several members of his Socialist Party have come under mounting criticism from some of the country’s political and Jewish leaders, who accuse them of fueling antisemitic hostility.