Less than half of Jews in Europe feel safe in their home countries, with French Jews the least likely to feel secure, according to new study.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

Less than half of Jews living in Europe feel safe in their home countries, according to a recent poll, with just over one-fifth of French Jews reporting they feel secure.

The survey was conducted by the Ipsos International Research Institute on behalf of the Jewish Agency, polling 1,428 Jewish adults in Israel, the United States, Canada, France, the UK, Spain, Germany, Austria, Australia, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela from September to October 2025.

The findings from the study were published in the Jewish Agency’s “One People” global report on Sunday.

The report found that 43% of European Jews said they or a family member experienced antisemitism in the past year, while only 45% said they feel safe as Jews in their country.

The findings were especially stark in France, where just 22% of Jews surveyed said they feel safe as Jews in their country, the lowest figure highlighted in the report.

The report also found that 43% of European Jews said they feel uncomfortable wearing Jewish symbols in public, underscoring the extent to which antisemitism has moved from a political issue into daily life and personal behavior.

Presenting the findings, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the report “presents a worrying picture of a rise in antisemitism and a deterioration in the sense of security.”

“It is precisely in these days that we must strengthen mutual responsibility and stand together as one people,” Herzog added.

Jewish Agency Chairman Doron Almog also warned of the pressure facing Jewish communities abroad.

“Even when tension is rising around us, the Jewish people draw strength from their ability to hold each other together,” Almog said. “Out of the threat also emerges resilience, belonging, and hope.”

The report said antisemitism is now seen as the biggest challenge facing Jewish communities worldwide. It found that 69% of Jews globally and 79% of Israeli Jews identified antisemitism as a leading concern.

Despite the grim numbers, the survey found that European Jews remain strongly tied to communal life. Some 67% said they feel connected to their local Jewish community, a higher level than in North America. But the report also suggested that this sense of connection is developing alongside, not instead of, deep anxiety over security.

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The map did not differentiate between Jewish-owned local shops, communal institutions, Israeli firms, and multinational companies operating in Israel.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Members of Spain’s Jewish community lodged a formal complaint last week with the French online platform GoGoCarto after an interactive mapping project publicly identified and categorized Jewish-linked businesses across the Catalonia region, according to reports published Friday.

The project, known as “Barcelonaz,” appeared online earlier this month and was promoted by an anonymous collective describing itself as “journalists, professors, and students.” According to Enfoque Judío, the site encouraged users to submit locations and tag them as “Zionist,” creating an open-ended database that ultimately listed more than 150 entities.

The map did not differentiate between Jewish-owned local shops, communal institutions, Israeli firms, or multinational companies operating in Israel.

The initiative stated that its purpose was to “understand how (Zionism) operates and the forms it takes, with the intention of making visible and denouncing the impact of its investments in our territory.”

Jewish community representatives said the framing effectively stigmatized Jewish presence and economic activity in the region.

By Friday afternoon, the website had been taken offline. Pilar Rahola, who serves as chair of the Advisory Board for Latin America of the Combat Antisemitism Movement, said the page was no longer accessible.

In a statement, CAM’s director of European Affairs, Shannon Seban, condemned the project in sharp terms. “The mapping and boycotting of Jewish businesses in Catalonia is an echo of some of the darkest chapters in history, including the prelude to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany,” Seban said.

“The organizers of this initiative put a target on the backs of Spanish Jews, at a time when Jews are being hunted across the globe, as seen so horrifically in Australia just three weeks ago. Clear incitement to violence of this nature must not be platformed or tolerated by internet companies or government authorities.”

Seban added: “While the website has now been taken down, investigations are ongoing, and CAM is fully mobilized to determine who is behind this initiative and ensure accountability.”

Community leaders noted that the Catalonia case mirrors a similar mapping effort that alarmed Jewish organizations in the Boston area in 2022. CAM said the “Barcelonaz” project reflects a broader pattern of antisemitism in Spain, a trend examined last year by its Antisemitism Research Center.

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 A young woman, chaperoning the children, was tackled and arrested after defending Jewish campers on a Spanish flight.

By World Israel News Staff

Dozens of Jewish children and teens en route to summer camp were removed from a flight in Spain, and their chaperone was reportedly assaulted by police— after airline staff allegedly called Israel a “terrorist state.”

The incident occurred aboard a Vueling flight scheduled to depart from Valencia. According to reports, the disturbance began while the plane was still on the tarmac.

While waiting for takeoff, the youth group began singing songs in Hebrew — an act that reportedly angered the flight crew.

Members of the Vueling staff allegedly shouted at the children, calling Israel a “terrorist state,” and demanded they stop singing.

Even after the children complied, police boarded the aircraft and forced the group off the plane.

According to a report by the aviation blog View from the Wing, police instructed passengers to place their cell phones on the floor, telling them they were not allowed to record the children’s removal from the aircraft.

The woman who was arrested and beaten is the director of the Kinneret summer camp.

Fifty Jewish French children, aged 10 – 15, were singing Hebrew songs on the plane.

The @vueling airline crew said that Israel is a terrorist state and forced the children off the aircraft; they… https://t.co/V78PEHB58B pic.twitter.com/HizF6SZoaD

— עמיחי שיקלי – Amichai Chikli (@AmichaiChikli) July 23, 2025

When the camp’s director — a young woman — challenged the legality of that demand, she was tackled to the ground and handcuffed.

A video circulating on social media shows the woman being forcibly restrained by officers as she pleads for help, while they handcuff her behind her back.

Some reports indicate she was physically assaulted during the arrest.

“The woman who was arrested and beaten is the director of the Kinneret summer camp. Fifty Jewish French children, aged 10 to 15, were singing Hebrew songs on the plane. The @vueling airline crew said that Israel is a terrorist state and forced the children off the aircraft; they are now in Valencia, waiting to return to France,” Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli wrote on X.

“In line with Hamas’s campaign of lies echoed by Al Jazeera, Haaretz, and others, we are seeing numerous severe antisemitic incidents recently; this is one of the most serious,” he added.

Vueling, which is owned by British Airways, has refused to comment on the incident. 

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Rabbis decry “heavy-handed” police raids as assault on religious freedom.

By World Israel News Staff

Belgian police raided the homes of three mohels (Jewish ritual circumcisers) on Wednesday, seizing equipment as part of an investigation into illegal circumcision in the country.

While no arrests were made during the raids, which took place in Antwerp’s Jewish quarter and the nearby Green Quarter, the police action left many local Jews feeling on edge.

In Belgium, only licensed medical professionals such as doctors are permitted to perform circumcisions.

The policy, which directly affects observant Jews, is one of many that restrict traditional Jewish practices in the country.

Belgium rolled out a ban on kosher slaughter several years ago, which was ultimately upheld by the EU’s highest court after challenges from Orthodox Jewish groups.

“There is a sense of unease within the Jewish community, and I am putting it mildly,” Andre Gantman, a Jewish community leader and former member of Antwerp’s city council, told Belgian news outlet Gazet van Antwerpen.

“We are clearly being targeted,” Gantman added. “If they want to get rid of us, let them say so. There are other places where we can go.”

Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, the chair of the Conference of European Rabbis, said that the raids used disproportionate force and intimidated traditional religious Jewish communities.

“That the principles of democracy, child rights, law, or modern medicine are sadly being weaponized to assault this ancient Jewish practice is no surprise,” Goldschmidt said in a media statement.

“The heavy-handed approach of Antwerp’s police force instead of an informed engagement with community leaders and experts is an expression of this damaging weaponization in a physical way. Freedom of religion must apply to Jews too.”

European Jewish Association chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin said that “any restriction on circumcision in Belgium would send a clear message to Belgian Jews that they are not welcome in the country.”

He added that ‘the harassment of mohels represents a further red line and a clear warning sign to Belgian Jews and the Belgian government.”

There are believed to be some 30,000 Jews living in Belgium.

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“Mr. Merz is a close personal friend and a steadfast ally of Israel,” Rabbi Teichtal said.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

News of conservative Friedrich Merz’s electoral victory as the new German Chancellor was met with positive reactions from many Jews in Germany, including Berlin’s Chief Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal.

Rabbi Teichtal sent a personal letter to Merz, thanking him for his support for Germany’s Jewish community and his commitment to addressing rising antisemitism.

“Mr. Merz is a close personal friend and a steadfast ally of Israel,” Rabbi Teichtal said. “Over the years, he has welcomed us many times to discuss ways to strengthen Jewish life in Berlin. It has always been more than just a warm reception.”

The letter also emphasized Merz’s belief in Germany’s historical responsibility to support Israel and combat antisemitism.

In 2024, Merz expressed support for resuming arms shipments to Israel.

Every Chanukah, Merz ensures that a large menorah is displayed in front of his party’s headquarters, the Christian Democratic Union. He also attends lighting ceremonies with Rabbi Teichtal.

“After the lighting, Merz told me how happy he was that the menorah stood at party headquarters, but he was even more pleased to see Jewish life in Germany thriving,” Teichtal recalled.

“Congratulations, Friedrich Merz, on your electoral victory. Your friendship with the Jewish people and unwavering support for Israel are invaluable. Your commitment to fighting antisemitism and ensuring a prosperous Jewish future in Germany is truly inspiring,” he said.

The European Jewish Congress also welcomed Merz’s victory and the success of his Christian Democratic Union party. However, they expressed concern over the strong performance of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party in the elections.

AfD was founded as an anti-euro party in 2013, but it has since shifted to adopt anti-immigration and nationalist stances. The party has called for moving beyond what they describe as a “cult of shame” regarding Nazi atrocities.

This position was echoed by party figures such as Alexander Gauland, who controversially referred to the Nazi period as “bird shit” in German history.

Despite this, Merz has ruled out cooperation with the AfD, viewing the party as a threat to democracy.

“We have fundamentally different views, particularly on foreign policy, security policy, and many other issues, including Europe, the euro, and NATO,” Merz stated. “You advocate for the opposite of what we believe in, so there will be no cooperation.”

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To remedy the situation, Rabbi Margolin declared a six-month emergency period to implement measures to combat antisemitism.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Rabbi Menachem Margolin, the founder of the European Jewish Association (EJA), declared that there is an “antisemitism emergency” in Europe, the worst since Kristallnacht, the Jewish Chronicle reports.

To remedy the situation, Rabbi Margolin declared a six-month emergency period to implement measures to combat antisemitism.

Rabbi Margolin spoke at the EJA conference to commemorate the 86th anniversary of  Kristallnacht, a series of pogroms in 1938 referred to as the “Night of Broken Glass.”

The EJA is preparing for the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on January 27, 2025.

Rabbi Margolin said that governments in Europe must regulate public events, particularly protests. These should be pre-authorized, and organizers should commit to a code of conduct to prevent the use of hate speech at the demonstration.

“Today, public events and protests have become a carnival of hate. Everything goes, and everything can be said about Jews. During these six months that we are asking for, the only way to stop this hate will be to regulate public events properly,” he said.

Rabbi Margolin urged legal action against those who violate codes of conduct.

“We must ban and punish antisemitic expressions that incite hate. If we do not, we know the next step,” he said.

In addition, he proposed that Jewish buildings and organizations should have tight security.

Rabbi Margolin was speaking less than two weeks after a planned attack against Maccabi Tel Aviv football fans following a Maccabi-Ajax match in Amsterdam.

Jews were targeted by a mob and singled out for beatings, attempted stabbings, and attacks with vehicles.

“Today we meet to discuss the dangers to our society, the dangers of antisemitism, the dangers of hatred,” Rabbi Margolin said. “It is on our streets. It is in the classrooms. It is on campuses. It is everywhere. The situation of the Jewish people in Europe today is the worst it has been since the Kristallnacht.”

He went on: “Europe is in the middle of the worst antisemitism crisis since World War II. It is a tragedy that Jews in Europe find themselves in this situation. I can tell you that right now, every Jewish community is waiting for the worst. Every 15 minutes in Europe, another antisemitic incident is taking place.”

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Nearly all European Jews say they have experienced antisemitism, according to European Union poll.

By World Israel News Staff

The overwhelming majority of European Jews polled by a European Union government agency say they personally experienced antisemitism in their daily lives.

According to a report published Thursday by the Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union, a Vienna-based agency formed to replace the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia and to advise the European Union’s leadership, a significant number of European Jews now feel compelled to conceal their Jewish identity amid a rising tide of antisemitism.

A poll included in the report questioned close to 8,000 self-identified Jews living in 13 different European Union-member states including Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Spain, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, and Sweden.

The study includes the results of a survey conducted before the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7th and the subsequent explosion of antisemitism globally, with more recent data collected by 12 European Jewish organizations.

The local Jewish organizations reported as high as a 400% rise in antisemitism since October 7th, while the survey found that even prior to October 7th, 80% of the respondents said that antisemitism has risen significantly in their home country over the past five years.

More than half (56%) said they had encountered antisemitism in person from people they know in the past year – prior to October 7th.

Over a third of respondents (37%) said they had experienced antisemitic harassment in the past year, with a majority of those saying they had been harassed multiple times.

Nearly all (96%) of those questioned said they experience antisemitism in some form in their daily lives.

More than three-quarters (76%) said they hide their Jewish identity at times, and 34% said they avoid Jewish events or venues because they do not feel safe.

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“It feels like in World War II when the addresses of Jews were given out,” said the victim.

By World Israel News Staff

The mother of a soldier currently serving the Israeli army was harassed at her home in a suburb of Amsterdam, as three women banged on her door and verbally accosted her.

According to a report from Dutch outlet De Telegraaf, the mother of the soldier has been suffering from sustained harassment via social media, culminating in pro-Palestinian activists stalking her at work and appearing on her doorstep.

The woman, who is employed at as a nurse at a local hospital, has been targeted at her workplace by people waving Palestinian flags and shouting abuse at her.

Following Wednesday’s incident, the harassment has escalated to pro-Palestinian activists confronting her at home.

“It feels like in World War II when the addresses of Jews were given out,” the woman, whose name was not made public due to safety concerns, told De Telegaaf.

The victim was accosted at her home in Amstelveen, a neighborhood with a significant Jewish population, by three women who accused her of being complicit in “genocide” and “child murder.”

“I don’t understand why you are still here in the Netherlands,” one of the assailants reportedly told her.

The woman has been made a public target by pro-Palestinian groups, who have distributed fliers in her neighborhood with the name of the mother and the soldier, the mother’s workplace, and her address.

“Residents beware, a child murderer lives in the neighborhood. This genocidal maniac returned from her murderous activities in Israel and will be soon be tried,” reads the text.

“Her mother sent her bitch daughter to kill babies, she is also an accomplice.”

Similar fliers, with revealing personal information, have also been posted online.

Naomi Mestrum, the director of the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel, said in a media statement that the woman was the victim of a lengthy, organized harassment campaign.

“Her feeling of safety has been seriously compromised,” Mestrum said.

The incident comes a week after unknown assailants firebombed the Israeli Embassy in The Hague.

In February, a Dutch NGO filed a lawsuit lobbying the government to prosecute dual Israeli-Dutch citizens or Dutch Jews who have served in the IDF.

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British PM hosted by UK Jewry org in traditional hut marking the Sukkot festival.

By World Israel News Staff

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visited a Sukkah – an outdoor hut where observant Jews eat their meals during the ongoing Sukkot festival – and performed a traditional Jewish ritual on Tuesday.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews, an umbrella organization that has been advocating for UK Jewry for centuries, built the Sukkah outside of the Conservative party conference, which is currently being held in Manchester.

We were delighted to be visited at our #CPC2023 Sukkah this morning by Prime Minister @RishiSunak. Wishing you all a Chag Sameach! pic.twitter.com/v6Cae00nSa

— Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) October 3, 2023

“We were delighted to be visited at our #CPC2023 Sukkah this morning by Prime Minister @RishiSunak. Wishing you all a Chag Sameach!” wrote the Board of Deputies on X, the social networking platform formerly known as Twitter.

Sunak was photographed standing outside of the Sukkah and participating in the shaking of the lulav (date palm frond) and holding an etrog, as part of the customary holiday rituals.

In September, Sunak released a statement wishing UK Jews and Jews in the Diaspora a happy new year, ahead of the Rosh Hashana holiday.

“British Jews play an integral part in the success of this nation, and I am delighted the vibrant and diverse Jewish faith continues to thrive across the country,” Sunak said.

The premier reiterated his opposition to the BDS movement and said that he would work to combat Jew hatred and anti-Israel bias in the country.

“I will always stand with you,” he added.

You can count on me to keep you safe, to champion the ban on boycotts, divestments and sanctions, and fight antisemitism in any form.”

In December 2022, Sunak referred to the Abraham Accords normalization agreements as “one of the greatest achievements in the history of diplomacy in the Middle East.”

He emphasized that the UK “will continue to do all it can to leverage our strong ties with other Gulf States to expand the number of signatories to the agreement and enhance the already blossoming opportunities opened up by these ground-breaking agreements.”

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“The archives are in danger of being lost to time, which would be a tragedy.” Jews of Oporto, Portugal, looking to recruit support for project to preserve the historical records of the Inquisition in the Iberian Peninsula.

By World Israel News Staff

The Jewish Community of Oporto, which paid for the preservation and digitization of Portuguese Inquisition archives from the 16th Century is now seeking to sign an agreement to preserve the 17th-century archive and records, while at the same time calling on the international Jewish community to help in the preservation of later centuries.

Michael Rothwell, director of the Jewish Museum of Oporto and a member of the board of the local Jewish community, recalls that “The Portuguese Inquisition was in force between 1536 and 1831. (Historian) Cecil Roth said since the beginning of history, there has probably been no time when such a systematic and long persecution was perpetrated because of such an innocent practice.”

Under a protocol signed in 2019 between Torre do Tombo National Archive and the Jewish Community of Oporto, the Community undertook to pay for the preservation of 16th Century Inquisition cases. The protocol, assisted by then-Israeli Ambassador to Portugal, Raphael Gamzou, made it possible to recruit professional restoration personnel, and set in motion the restoration and digitization of 1,778 court cases against “Jewish infidels” in three centers, Lisbon, Évora and Coimbra, which also included cases from Oporto.

That same year, the Community and the Torre do Tombo National Archive agreed to sign successive protocols regarding the preservation of the Inquisition records of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Now that work on the 16th century is almost concluded, the Community would like to sign a protocol regarding 17th-century Inquisition cases and has called on the Jewish world to help contribute to the cost of the project for the latter centuries. The total value of the three century’s operation could reach as high as 3 million Euros.

Ashley Perry (Perez), President of Reconectar, an organization dedicated to helping the descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communities reconnect with their Jewish ancestry, welcomed the preservation efforts by the Oporto Jewish Community.

“The archives are in danger of being lost to time, which would be a tragedy, not just to our past but also the future as millions of people around the world are researching possible Jewish ancestry,” said Perry, whose ancestors fled Portugal in the early 16th Century.

“The preservation and digitization of Inquisition records is essential to preserve our global Jewish history, because Portuguese Jews, many of whom had been forcibly baptized and forced to flee, formed the historic Jewish communities in the U.S., the UK, the Netherlands, and elsewhere. These archives are Jewish history, and we dare not let them disappear.”

The documentation at the Torre do Tombo National Archive regarding the Court of the Holy Office of the Inquisition and its courts in Lisbon, Coimbra, Évora, Tomar, Oporto and Lamego, total a massive 1,600 meters in length. Ruth Calvão, President of the Center for Jewish Studies in Trás-os-Montes, says: “The deterioration of the archive items constitutes a real danger that the personal stories and testimonies about the historic injustices and atrocities they endured could disappear forever.”

The Inquisition’s documentation has become the most reliable historical source for the history of the Jewish community in Portugal. The Tribunal do Santo Ofício (Inquisition) was established in Portugal to try crimes against the Christian faith and put an end to heresies and apostasies.

Denial of the facts by the subject of the inquiry resulted in months or years in prison including excruciating torture until a new hearing was scheduled. The prisoner was forced to pay all the expenses of the imprisonment, the trial, and torture and, if convicted, all property was confiscated.

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European Jews need to be consulted when it comes to plans that concern them, says EJA chairman Menachem Margolin.

By David Isaac, JNS

The European Jewish Association (EJA) delivered a straightforward message to Europe’s leaders at its annual conference, held in Porto, Portugal on May 15: When planning for the future of Europe’s Jews, let us have a say.

The conference’s title, “Shaping the Future of European Jewry Together,” captured that message.

“As we meet, leaders of the European Union and European governments are discussing and moving forward with their plans to combat antisemitism and plan the future of European Jewry,” said EJA chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin in his opening remarks. “But how many of you were directly contacted by a diplomat or politician to ask: ‘What do you think should be the plan?”

“As you can see, not nearly enough,” said Margolin after a show of hands. A situation where European leaders didn’t consult the “more than one hundred representatives” of Jewish communities in attendance was unacceptable, he added.

Several European officials addressed the conference. Margaritis Schinas, European Commissioner for Promoting our European Way of Life, said, “Unfortunately, Jewish institutions across the continent are required to invest more and more in security. The data shows that approximately 38% of Jews have at some point considered leaving Europe precisely because they do not feel safe.”

Schinas went on to state that he was “very pleased” that 14 E.U. member states had already adopted national strategies to combat antisemitism, noting that at the 2022 European Council all member states had agreed to do so.

Elise Fajgeles, general secretary of the French inter-ministerial delegation for the fight against racism and antisemitism, said that her department works with more than 90 associations engaged in the fight against racism and antisemitism in France.

While France faces antisemitism from both the far right and the far left, she said, it was on the latter that it was “the most visible and vocal.” However, she continued, on the far right, “prominent political figures want to ban ritual slaughter that will eventually prevent Jews from practicing their own religion and consequently jeopardize their very future in France.”

Antisemitism has been allowed to fester in Europe because European leaders have other pressing issues and the Jewish community is tiny, Margolin explained to JNS. “Our work is to make sure that the governments pay more attention to this phenomenon.”

Margolin rated it a “great success” that European leaders now speak about the importance of Jewish life in Europe, and that there are plans to fight Jew hatred. Though modest about EJA’s contributions, Margolin admitted that the idea of European coordinators to combat antisemitism came from his organization.

The EJA, founded in 2000, has a multi-pronged mission: to fight antisemitism, promote Holocaust remembrance, ensure freedom of religion, strengthen Jewish identity in Europe and improve Israel’s image in Europe.

Reject antisemitism – reject intersectionality

In the battle against antisemitism, the EJA warns when it sees pitfalls ahead. It passed a resolution by a unanimous conference vote declaring that “antisemitism is unique and must be separated in national plans from other forms of hate.” It called on Jewish groups to reject “intersectionality,” a theoretical framework that separates groups into “oppressed” and “privileged,” and which typically puts Jews into the oppressor category.

“There is little to no solidarity or empathy towards Jewish communities from other groups affected by hate when antisemitic atrocities occur or when Israelis are murdered in terrorist acts,” the resolution states. “Other target groups against hate do not recognize antisemitism as racism but instead [as] a form of discrimination. Jews are additionally accused of ‘privilege’ or ‘leveraging’ the Holocaust.”

EJA had decided to focus on this topic in its resolution, said Margolin, “because the plans of the different governments in Europe did not really identify antisemitism as a unique phenomenon. We have no doubt that if antisemitism is placed together with other discriminations, it won’t get the attention it needs.”

Panels included community representatives from across Europe, who outlined the situation in their respective countries. One of the bleaker assessments came from Holland. Ellen Van Praagh, chairwoman of the Inter Provincial Chief Rabbinate for The Netherlands (IPOR), said that the media in Holland is anti-Israel and “on top of this, we have quite a few parties in our parliament that are opposed to Israel.” Jews are leaving Holland, she said, for Israel, the United States, “or anywhere in the world except Holland.”

Chief Rabbi of the Netherlands Binyomin Jacobs said that the Dutch have a skewed view of their actions toward Jews during the Holocaust, viewing themselves in a heroic light when, in fact, the Netherlands had the highest number of Jewish victims in Western Europe; that it was the Dutch police, not the German police, who rounded up the Jews, and that “the Jews who came back were not welcome at all.”

Anti-Zionism on the rise in the Netherlands

Jacobs told JNS that Dutch Jews are facing several issues, including anti-Israel hostility from the Dutch Protestant Church, (the Catholic church, he said, is much better in this regard), and a large Muslim population (about 5% of the total), which leads Dutch politicians to take anti-Israel positions.

“Anti-Zionism is growing and very strong in Holland,” he said. “It’s antisemitism, the same virus with another name,” he said, adding, “I’m not optimistic for the future of Jews in Europe.”

Reports from U.K. representatives were more encouraging. Steven Winston, managing director of the National Jewish Assembly, said that there are definitely “signs of improvement” as the Labour Party distances itself from its descent into antisemitism led by its former head Jeremy Corbyn.

The government is sending favorable signs with talk of legislation targeting BDS, said Winston, noting also that the United Kingdom has “widely accepted” the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. Winston said his organization “is developing some very fruitful connections with members of parliament and other key figures.”

Poland’s Jews also presented a more reassuring report. Edward Odoner, chairman of the review board of TSKZ (Social and Cultural Society of Jews in Poland), noted that Poland recently commemorated the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising’s 80th anniversary, with the main organizer of the event being the Polish government.

Poland has been unfairly faulted for not doing enough to combat antisemitism, he said, as criticism is based on how much Poland spends to keep Jews safe, overlooking the fact that Polish Jews aren’t threatened. It was due to this, he said, that “the government expenditure when it comes to the safety of the Jewish community is very minimal.”

Klaudia Klimek, vice president of TSKZ, warned that European politics were changing and that right-wing parties would gain still more ground. It was imperative for European Jewry, therefore, to make sure it remains able to reach decision-makers regardless of which side is in power. “It’s up to us if we are going to see this as an opportunity or a threat,” said Klimek.

With its eye to developing future Jewish leaders, the EJA announced a campus leaders academy and scholarship program. Offering a course, training camps and a stipend, the program’s goal is to give Jewish students the “necessary tools” to confront antisemitism.

“Some might ask themselves, ‘Isn’t it better I stay quiet and keep my head down?’ This is the worst possible outcome and exactly what our opponents want—scared Jews,” said Juan Caldes Rodriguez, the EJA’s E.U. Affairs Officer.

“Universities, places that were once the site for exchanging different ideas, have become the latest casualty in the battle of ideas, and it is brutal out there if you’re Jewish and a Zionist,” he added.

On the second day of the conference, attendees took a tour of Jewish Porto, including a museum commemorating the community’s history, its Holocaust museum and the Kadoorie Mekor Haim Synagogue, the largest synagogue on the Iberian Peninsula, which was inaugurated in 1938.

The community, which largely disintegrated after an antisemitic campaign against its founder, Capt. Arthur Carlos Barros Basto (1887-1961), a decorated Portuguese army officer who fought in World War I, revived in the last decade thanks to a determined and energetic leadership.

Margolin recognized the community’s achievements in an impromptu speech at the synagogue in which he said that if all of Europe’s Jewish communities were like that of Porto, then the European Jewish future was assured.

Their success isn’t found in the buildings and museums, he said, “It’s about, first of all, having their heart in the right place, having this agenda to reach every Jew in the city, and to make sure that every Jew will feel proud, that every Jew will feel welcome, that every Jew will have everything he needs in order to lead a Jewish life. I really admire you, the leaders of the Jewish community of Porto.”

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 “This is a festival of hate, and not a pro-Palestinian event by any measure.”

By Adina Katz, World Israel News

Speakers with a history of downplaying the Holocaust, promoting hatred against the Jewish State and normalizing antisemitism are slated to be featured at an upcoming event at the Spanish parliament hosted by a far-left, Communist political party, according to a watchdog NGO.

The Action and Communication on the Middle East (ACOM), which is focused on combating antisemitism and strengthening the bonds between Spain and Israel, released a public statement about the program, which is set to take place on November 15th.

Two of the speakers at the event — titled “Memorial Day for the Palestinian people: Antisemitism as an excuse to avoid solidarity” — include Eitan Bronshtein, founder of the far-left Zochrot organization in Israel, and Yonatan Shapira, an ex-IDF soldier.

In a promotional video for his NGO, Bronshtein appeared next to an actress who said that the Holocaust was the best thing to happen to the Jewish people, insinuating that the tragedy serves as an excuse to cover up allegeed modern-day Israeli war crimes and human rights violations.

Shapira spray-painted “Free Palestine and Gaza” on the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland, a crime for which he was arrested.

The Secretary General of the Spanish Communist Party, Enrique Santiago, and the deputy spokesperson of the far-Left Podemos Party in the Spanish parliament, Lucía Muñoz, are organizing the event, according to a statement from ACOM.

“This event is nothing but an exercise in spreading hatred and slander against the State of Israel and the Jewish People, and belittling the Holocaust, even though it slyly tries to add that it also is about fighting antisemitism,” President of ACOM Angel Mas said in a public statement.

“The scheduled speakers have trivialized the Holocaust, offended survivors, and have a long and sordid history of defaming the Jewish People. This is a festival of hate, and not a pro-Palestinian event by any measure.

“That this is happening in the Spanish Parliament is a stain on its reputation, and all fair-minded people should be working to ensure that the event does not take place, because it will start with hatred and lead to incitement,” Mas added.

“This has nothing to do with solidarity with the Palestinians, because it does nothing to push forward the cause of peace. It was clearly designed for one cause, and that is to offend and spread hatred against Jews.”

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Report finds rising levels of antisemitism in Britain, France and Germany.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

Growing antisemitism in Europe is forcing French Jews to caution their children against revealing their faith, according to a new report by the Jewish People Policy Institute, a Jerusalem-based nonprofit.

Published in September, the report, titled “Annual Assessment: The Situation and Dynamics of the Jewish People,” described an increase in antisemitic discrimination from across the political spectrum in multiple European countries.

“In France…a primary source of antisemitism emanates from the extreme left and often conceals itself behind the mask of human rights and egalitarianism,” it said. “The Jewish state is frequently described by activists in these movements as the last bastion of colonialism, an evil entity that should be dismantled. This is often accompanied by age-old antisemitic tropes, creating a hostile environment for Jews.”

Twenty-percent of French Jewish respondents said they were physically assaulted in the last year and forty-five-percent said they “ask their children not to disclose their religion.”

In Britain, eighteen percent of Jews reported feeling unwelcome, the group noted, with many saying that “progressive left circles” offer little to no support to fight antisemitism. JPPI credited this to a neo-Marxist “conceptual framework” in which Jews are perceived as white and incapable of experiencing racism.

“This framing is an obstacle to fighting antisemitism and contributes to significantly to failures to recognize and stand against antisemitism among the broader left,” it continued.

The report comes amidst a significant uptick in antisemitic incidents in Britain and France. In August, Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit that monitors antisemitism, recorded in the first half of 2022 the fifth most antisemitic incidents since it began tracking them in 1984. In February, France’s interior ministry reported a 74 percent increase in complaints of antisemitism.

Antisemitism also threaten Jews in Germany, the report continued. Forty-percent of Jews there said they have been “disadvantaged, marginalized, or threatened in one way or another over the past year.” It also noted that at least a quarter of all Germans have antisemitic beliefs, some of which are based on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Jews living in Germany often feel they are held accountable for Israeli policy vis-a-vis the Palestinians and the conceptualization of Israel as the ‘collective Jews’ has become the identificational basis for regarding and judging all Jews,” JPPI said.

The group concluded that antisemitism may haunt European Jews for years to come and called on Israel to work with international bodies to set out “clear and measurable objectives” for fighting it.

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Judge Marianthi Pagouteli condemned for wishing that the Nazis would have “eradicated” all Jews.

By JNS

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS) is criticizing the appointment of the Greek Supreme Court’s new vice president for her previous support of an antisemite and Holocaust denier.

The Jewish group said on Sept. 2 regarding Judge Marianthi Pagouteli’s position that it “expresses the strong resentment of the Greek Jewry for the appointment at the high level of the Greek Justice of a person who cannot defend the declared position of the Greek State against anti-Semitism, even more so in the capacity of the vice president of the Supreme Court of our country.”

Judge Pagouteli was appointed to the position by the ruling right-wing Nea Dimokratia party.

Members of the Greek Supreme Court, the Aeropagus, are tenured until reaching mandatory retirement age of 67.

During the infamous trial in Greece of right-wing extremist author Konstantinos Plevris regarding his antisemitic book Jews, the Whole Truth, Pagouteli, who was a judge of appeals at the time, joined the minority vote in support of his acquittal. In a 32-page report explaining her vote, she justified Plevris’s views.

She reportedly noted that Plevris “did not designate a subhuman Jew as a Jew in general, but as a war criminal Jew” and that the author adopts “the Nazi view that the white race does not want Semites in Europe without intent to offend or provoke acts of violence.”

She added that Plevris “rightly points out” how Jews who follow the teachings of the Talmud are “manifestly lacking in humanism.”

In the first edition of his book, Plevris, who was eventually convicted in the case, described himself as a “Nazi, fascist, anti-democrat, racist and anti-Semite,” and the “high priest” of Greek neo-Nazism.

Marianthi was condemned in 2013 for having an Internet blog in which she denied the Holocaust, compared Zionists to Nazis and said she wished that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler would have “eradicated” all Jews.

Around 6,000 Jews live in Greece.

World Israel News staff contributed to this report.

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Because of Israel’s “failure to recognize war crimes,” local Jews will no longer be welcome at his business, says Belgian car garage proprietor.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

The owner of a Belgian car garage sent an email explicitly prohibiting Jews from patronizing his business, due to Israel’s policy on the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

According to the Forum of Jewish Organizations, Ludo Eyckmans, the proprietor of an auto repair shop near Antwerp, wrote that “as of today, our Jewish clients are no longer welcome for maintenance of their cars or solving electronic problems.”

Because of Israel’s “failure to recognize war crimes” reportedly perpetrated by Russia in Ukraine, local Jews would no longer be welcome at his business, Eyckmans wrote.

The Forum of Jewish Organizations told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) that they had responded to Eyckmans in a letter explaining that Belgian Jews have nothing to do with Israel’s foreign policy decisions.

The group also noted that Eyckmans’ actions are illegal under Belgian law, which prohibits the denial of services based on religious faith or national origin.

This is far from the first time that Belgian professionals have punished local Jewish customers for Israel’s foreign policy or military decisions.

JTA reported that in 2014, during a flare-up of violence between Gaza and Israel, a Belgian café put up a sign — later removed by police — stating that Jews were not welcome.

Additional incidents in 2014 included a Belgian doctor refusing to treat a Jewish woman with a broken rib, recommending that she “visit Gaza to get rid of the pain,” and a store employee ignoring a Jewish customer “as an act of protest.”

Israel has carefully toed the diplomatic line between Russian and Ukraine, cementing its place as one of the few democracies in the world to enjoy warm relations with both Moscow and Kyiv.

Israel has set up a field hospital in Ukraine and assisted with medical aid, but Ukrainian officials have repeatedly slammed the Jewish state for not publicly taking its side nor providing the embattled eastern European country with military support or supplies.

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The Jewish community of 100,000 or so has been divided largely across religious-political lines,.

By Orit Arfa, JNS.org

In an unusual Hungarian election, whereby ideologically disparate opposition parties united to attempt to prevent Prime Minister Viktor Orbán from serving his fourth consecutive term (and fifth total), the Hungarian people gave him the mandate to continue to lead the nation at a time of increasing scrutiny over its approach on the Russia-Ukraine war.

Orbán and his Fidesz party won the vote by around 20 points, even gaining two parliamentary seats.

Overshadowed by the war in bordering Ukraine, the elections served as a referendum for Orbán’s national-conservative approach. While the 58-year-old has been a polarizing figure in Europe for, in part, defying EU mandates to accept Muslim migrants at the height of the immigration crisis in 2015, the election confirms that he reflects a generally patriotic and traditional Christian Hungarian populace.

An estimated 100,000 Jews live in Hungary, mostly centered in and around Budapest. The Jewish community has been divided over Orbán largely across religious-political lines.

Organizations affiliated with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement generally take a friendlier stance towards the self-professed pro-Israel, pro-Jewish leader, while Jewish liberals, unofficially represented by the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities, generally side with his would-be ousters.

Still, this election featured some gray areas that made it difficult for even a left-of-center electorate, Jews particularly, to whole-heartedly embrace an anti-Orbán coalition. The six-party “United for Hungary” included the right-wing Jobbik party, whose leaders have made antisemitic statements in the Hungarian parliament in the past, including a call to draw up a list of Hungarian Jews who could pose a threat to national security.

Jobbik has rebranded itself as moderate and claimed to have purged its ranks of extremists; however, some of its openly racist members simply split away to form “Our Homeland,” which, to Jewish dismay, just won seven seats.

‘The collateral damage was done’

Rabbi Shlomó Köves, the chief rabbi of the Orthodox EMIH–Association of Hungarian Jewish Communities, has been a vocal opponent of Jobbik’s legitimization. Its past bona fide anti-Semitic statements, he said, are much more worrying than the liberals’ complaints of Orbán minimizing Hungary’s role in the Holocaust in an attempt to inspire national pride.

Köves judges first by the prime minister’s record.

“If I look at Hungary today, and only from a Jewish perspective, I see that [it] is one of the safest places for Jews in Europe,” he said.

The rabbi recalled how he had been afraid to wear a kippah in Budapest as a teenager, saying that Jews no longer need to fear doing so, unlike in other European capitals. “If you look at the number of antisemitic assaults, Hungary has one of the lowest in Europe wherever there is a large Jewish community. I see that Hungarian politics in government have shifted to be very favorable towards Israel.”

While he sees an upward trend of conservative Jewish voters, particularly among the younger generation, the current state of Jewish security in Hungary was not enough to sway old-time liberal Jews. The late Jewish Hungarian philosopher and Holocaust survivor Ágnes Heller stated in Hungarian media that cooperation with Jobbik would be justified to defeat Orbán, shocking even some left-of-center Jews.

“She was explaining how it was one of these collateral damages that you have to take to fight Orbán’s regime,” said Köves. “The problem is that the collateral damage was done now though the fight itself was not even successful.”

“Antisemitism is party-neutral,” said Tomáş Wagner, a Jewish journalist from Budapest. “There are only parties where it is important to openly show antisemitism. This is a small party called ‘Our Homeland.’ The other parties officially stand up for the Jews, but nonetheless, many of them are antisemitic. In my opinion, the majority of Jews in Hungary are more left-wing, especially the older ones.”

Some parallels to Israeli politics

Hungary’s election has some parallels to Israel’s political constellation, particularly between the reigns of Orbán and Benjamin Netanyahu.

Both Orbán and Netanyahu were been long-serving prime ministers with a recess in-between their first two tenures. Fidesz is most closely aligned with Israel’s Likud (to the extent that party leaders abide by its national-conservative principles). Their aspiring ousters created a coalition of parties from left to right, headed by conservative leaders—with Israel’s ad hoc coalition succeeding.

The two iconic leaders met in Israel in 2017. As part of the Hungarian delegation to Israel, Köves remarked how perceptions of Orbán in Israel were split along political lines, just as they are in Europe: the left slammed Orbán as a “fascist” while the right hailed him as the leader of pro-Israel sentiment in the E.U.

In their most recent elections, the prime ministers’ personas, length of tenure and perceived corruption, rather than specific policies, were the main targets of attack.

“The topics of opposition were not mainly on the content side; instead, they focused on Fidesz and Orbán’s alleged corruption, anti-EU policies, and on complaints that he is damaging Hungary’s international reputation, instead of building it up,” said Martin Böhm, a researcher on Jewish issues at the conservative Mathis Corvinus Collegium Foundation.

Böhm said that Orbán’s “Hungary First” stance on immigration has largely become consensus, leaving Orbán’s relationship with Putin as the opposition’s most hopeful, last-ditch argument. Social media sites were awash with pictures of Orbán and Putin’s handshake in 2017 and “pro-Putin” epithets.

While Hungary has accepted around half a million Ukrainian refugees and supports NATO’s role in countering Russia, it has opposed an EU-wide energy embargo as well as a potentially confrontational weapons transport via Hungary, sparking anger from its European neighbors, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Orbán said that suddenly cutting-off Russian energy, on which it has long been dependent, would have disastrous effects on Hungary’s economy.

“I think people feel the way Orbán said,” noted Köves. “To help the refugees but not to be dragged into the war. And also, they want to have heating in their houses, which would not be possible without energy from Russia.”

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