On 19 October 2023, the walls of the promenade in Sea Point in Cape Town were marked with graffiti referencing the nascent conflict. Of the two documented instances, one displays the phrase "I STAND WITH GENOCIDE" superimposed on an Israeli flag, while the other simply says "HOLOCAUST, OCT'23." Both were condemned as antisemitic and hostile to the local Jewish community and swiftly removed by the City of Cape Town.[9][10]
A Jewish man walking to synagogue in the Johannesburg suburb of Sydenham was accosted by a male jogger screaming antisemitic insults at him. The jogger then assaulted the man, by knocking him over, kicking and punching him while he lay on the ground. A charge of assault has been laid at Sandringham Police Station.[11]
On 18 October 2023, the El Hamma synagogue of El Hamma, Tunisia, which is a Jewish pilgrimage site and contains the tomb of 16th-century Kabbalist Rabbi Yosef Ma'aravi, was severely damaged during anti-Israel riots, with hundreds of people filmed setting fire to the building.[14][15][16]
Asia
Armenia
On 15 November 2023, unknown assailants set fire to the Mordechai Navi Synagogue in Yerevan and disseminated the arson attack on social media.[17]
After the war began, the Associated Press noted a rise in antisemitism on Chinese social media sites, substantive enough that the Israeli embassy in Beijing had to filter comments on its social media account. An Israeli employee of the Israeli embassy in Beijing, China, was stabbed and injured by a foreign man on 13 October 2023.[18]
Antisemitic reactions to the Israel–Hamas war have been widespread on Chinese social media.[19][20][21] Antisemitic comments were not removed from Chinese social media sites indicating that the state is comfortable with these kinds of remarks, according to Eric Liu, an editor of China Digital Times.[22]
On 1 November 2023, unidentified vandals set a fire and sprayed swastikas on external walls overnight in the Jewish section of the Vienna Central Cemetery. The entrance lobby to a ceremonial hall was burned for the first time since the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom by the Nazis, but there were no injuries. The attack was condemned by Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer.[23][24][25]
A 16-year-old living in Steyr, Upper Austria was arrested on 7 December 2023 after allegedly planning to attack a synagogue in Vienna. The teenager announced on online chats that he intended to attack an unspecified synagogue. Authorities seized several electronic data carriers from his house, which stored images and videos with instructions for producing explosives, weapons, and ammunition.[26]
A periodic survey among 8,000 Jews in 13 EU member states, published on 11 July 2024 by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights,[27] indicated that 38% of the 363 Austrian respondents had experienced antisemitic harassment in the year before the survey. For instance, 62% of those polled encountered online antisemitism all the time in the year leading up to the survey and 18% said it had negatively affected their mental health.[28]
On 22 November 2023, at least 85 gravestones were damaged and many Stars of David were stolen from a cemetery in Charleroi.[29] Only the cemetery's Jewish section was vandalized.[30] On 19 December, swastikas and Stars of David were graffitied on gravestones in a Jewish cemetery in Kraainem.[31]
In February 2024, an Imam at the Belgian parliament recited a verse from the Quran explicitly calling for Muslims to kill and take Jews captive.[32]
In April 2024, a swastika was spray-painted on a Holocaust survivor's home in Fléron, alongside the words "Gaza free".[33]
In June 2024, a Holocaust memorial and a memorial for Nazi resistance fighters at park Bois de la Cambre were defaced respectively, with the latter spray-painted with a white swastika and Celtic cross.[34]
Cyprus
Israel confirmed the Mossad helped local authorities foil a terror plot against Israeli and Jewish people in Cyprus on 10 December 2023. Netanyahu's office accused the Iranian government of being behind the plot, and said on behalf of the Mossad that Israel was "troubled" by Iranian use of Turkish-controlled Northern Cyprus for both terrorism and as an "operational and transit area".[35][36]
Czech Republic
In August 2024, the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic reported 4,328 antisemitic incidents in the country in 2023, an increase of 90% from the previous year. From October to December, 1,800 incidents occurred, accounting for almost 42% of the incidents of the entire year.[37][38]
Denmark
Danish police arrested at least four suspected Hamas operatives who were planning attacks on Jewish or Israeli targets in Denmark.[39]
In February 2024, Denmark's Jewish community reported a record high of 121 antisemitic incidents in the country in 2023, 101 since the October 7 attacks.[40]
In October 2024, a group of 10 Danish imams refused to attend a meeting on antisemitism with the Integration Minister and Church Minister. Urfan Ahmed, a spokesperson for the Danish Muslim Union, denied that antisemitism was prevalent among Danish Muslims, despite a Jyllands-Posten survey finding that 35% of Danish Muslim respondents believed the October 7 attacks were justified.[41]
In response to a rise in antisemitic incidents in France, the French government banned pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the country. In a televised address on 12 October 2023, French President Emmanuel Macron warned, "Let's remember that antisemitism has always been the precursor to other forms of hate: one day against the Jews, the next against the Christians, then the Muslims, and then all those who are still the target of hate due to their culture, origin or gender."[42]
On 31 October 2023, Stars of David were painted in multiple spots across several building fronts in a southern district of Paris. Similar tags appeared over the weekend in suburbs of the city, including Vanves, Fontenay-aux-Roses and Aubervilliers.[43]
On 1 November 2023, Paris police chief Laurent Nunez opened a probe into antisemitic chants filmed on the Paris metro. In the video, youth are heard chanting, "Fuck the Jews and fuck your mother, long live Palestine. We are Nazis and proud of it."[44]
On 4 November 2023, a Jewish woman was stabbed in Lyon and a swastika was graffitied on her home.[45]
A report released in late January 2024, approximately 3.5 months post the October 7 attack, documented a significant uptick in antisemitic acts within France. The Service de Protection de la Communauté Juive (SPCJ) reported a 1000% surge in antisemitic incidents in 2023 compared to the previous year, totaling 1,676 recorded acts. The majority of these incidents targeted individuals, involving threatening words and gestures. Notably, the increase in antisemitic acts was not solely linked to the Israeli response to the October 7 attack; instead, it occurred immediately following the broadcast of the October 7 massacres.[46]
The SPCJ identified "Palestine" as a significant factor, mentioned in almost one-third of antisemitic acts since October 7. Additionally, French Jews reported feeling increasingly unsafe, with a 1,500% increase in antisemitic acts in private spheres and a surge of 1,200% in antisemitic acts within schools or educational settings, often related to Nazism.[46]
Between 7 October and 17 December 2023 over 1,200 French Jews opened Aliyah files to migrate to Israel an increase of 430% compared to last year. Many were driven by a combination of solidarity with Israel as well as rising antisemitism in France.[47]
On March 1, 2024, a Jewish man was assaulted by a Muslim teenager and was called a "dirty Jew" after leaving a synagogue in the 20th district in Paris. The victim was hospitalized.[48]
On 17 May 2024, a synagogue in Rouen was set on fire by an Algerian arsonist, damaging the synagogue significantly.[52][53]
On 19 June 2024, two teenagers were charged with the gang rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in Courbevoie while making antisemitic remarks.[54][55] A third boy was also charged for making antisemitic insults and death threats to the girl.[56] One boy admitted to hitting the victim due to her negative comments about Palestine.[57] The girl was reportedly called a "dirty Jew".[58]
On 27 July 2024, the Paris prosecutor's office launched an investigation into antisemitic crimes in a football match between Israel and Paraguay during the 2024 Summer Olympics.[59]
On 24 August 2024, an 33-year-old Algerian man set fires at the Beth Yacoov synagogue in La Grande-Motte in an attempt to burn it down. The fire caused a gas canister to explode, lightly injuring a police officer. The suspect said that he attacked the synagogue in support of Palestine and wanted to provoke a reaction from Israeli officials.[60][61]
On the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks, three individuals attacked a woman in Paris with a knife, shouting antisemitic slurs and referencing the massacre.[62] On 13 October 2024, a teenage Jewish boy was attacked and beaten in Levallois-Perret, calling him a "dirty Jew", throwing him to the ground, and kicking him in the mouth.[63]
In Berlin, the houses of several Jews were marked with a Star of David, echoing the marking of Jewish homes and businesses during Nazism.[65][66]
On 18 October 2023, two molotov cocktails were thrown at a synagogue in the Mitte neighborhood of central Berlin. One person was arrested.[67] Following the firebombing, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared, "Attacks on Jewish institutions and acts of violence on our streets are despicable and cannot be tolerated. Antisemitism has no place in Germany."[68][69]
On 22 October 2023, Chancellor Scholz said, "I am deeply outraged by the way in which antisemitic hatred and inhuman agitation have been breaking out since that fateful October 7, on the internet, in social media around the world, and shamefully also here in Germany. Here in Germany, of all places. That is why our 'never again' must be unbreakable."[70]
On 2 February 2024, a pro-Palestinian college student in Berlin assaulted a Jewish classmate until he was hospitalized after an argument about the Israel-Hamas conflict. According to the Police the Jewish student was punched in the face until he fell to the ground after which was he was kicked while lying on the ground before the attackers fled the scene. The victim suffered non-fatal facial fractures while the attacker was arrested by the police.[71]
On 5 April 2024, an unknown individual threw an incendiary device at the door of a synagogue in the northern city of Oldenburg, causing a small blaze and minor damage. German police have offered a cash reward for information about the arson attack.[72]
On 2 November 2024, a Stolperstein (a memorial for Holocaust victims) in Oschersleben was stolen. Ten more were stolen the previous month in Zeitz, and five in Halle.[73]
Greece
On 4 July 2024, Greek authorities arrested a Greek, Afghan, and Iranian for their involvement in an attempted arson attack against a synagogue in Athens.[74] On 17 July 2024, three individuals attacked Fahad Qubati, an Arab–Israeli tourist in Malia, Crete, suspecting that he was Jewish, resulting in injuries to his jaw and head. The attackers fled after a Tunisian national showed them a cross that Qubati was wearing to prove that he is Christian.[75][76]
Ireland
In November 2024, the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in Education reported that textbooks used in Irish schools portrayed Judaism as "uniquely violent" and promoted a false narrative that Israel is the sole aggressor in the conflict. Irish Minister of Education Norma Foley refused to meet with Maurice Cohen, chair of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, and denied the teaching of antisemitism in Irish schools.[77]
On 25 April 2024, during the march in celebration of Liberation Day in Milan, a group of North African youths wearing keffiyas and Palestinian flags attacked the participants of the Jewish Brigade in Piazza del Duomo with kicks, punches and sticks.[78] A 19-year-old Egyptian man was arrested for beating a security guard with a stick. Eight other men from North Africa have been reported to criminal prosecutors.[79]
Latvia
Following the Israel–Hamas war, several Riga Stradiņš University students from Israel were reported to have received hate texts from other foreign students, with one person contacting the State Security Service in connection with anti-Semitic expressions and threats. Ministry of Education and Science said that it will assess the situation at the university regarding possible conflicts between foreign students in connection with the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, while the State Security Service confirmed that it is investigating the situation.[80]
Latvian Foreign MinisterKrišjānis Kariņš said, "Latvia must have zero tolerance against any manifestations of incitement to ethnic hatred, and possible conflicts between foreign students of Riga Stradins University (RSU) should be taken very seriously", stressing that, "If it really turns out RSU students are inciting ethnic hatred, it could result not only in expulsion from the university, but also from the country".[81]
Moldova
On 22 March 2024, a memorial for 6,000 Jewish victims of the Holocaust in Soroca Jewish Cemetery near Cosăuți was vandalized with graffiti that read "Free Palestine".[82]
Netherlands
Following the 7 October attacks, the local Jewish community voiced its concern that unrest in the Middle East could spread to the Netherlands, citing historical trends.[83] The National Coordinator for Combating Anti-Semitism of the Dutch government and the interest group Center for Information and Documentation Israel (CIDI) reported a considerable increase in antisemitic expression since the escalation of hostilities.[84] Recorded incidents, collected in accordance with the IHRA definition of antisemitism,[85] include acts of vandalism, verbal and physical abuse, intimidation, and bullying.[86][87]
On 25 October 2023, the CIDI filed a complaint against the owner of the popular Instagram account Cestmocro and a number of its followers for inciting hatred and violence against Jews. It also called on the cabinet of ministers to take an explicit position "against this form of incitement against the Jewish community."[88][89] Instagram removed the account Cestmocrotv of the same owner on 8 November.[90]
On 9 November 2023, an editorial cartoon by Jos Collignon in de Volkskrant attracted controversy for portraying the CIDI as an appendage on the "long arm of Israel" and for allegedly trivializing Jewish concerns.[91][92]
In December 2023, German prosecutors announced the arrests of four suspected Hamas members, one of whom was a Dutch national who had been apprehended in Rotterdam. The group had allegedly planned to attack Jewish sites.[93]
Allegations of antisemitism were raised after a series of lectures on the Holocaust at the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences (HU) were postponed indefinitely in January 2024, after pro-Palestinian activists had criticized the involvement of the CIDI in the development of the curriculum.[94][95] In a statement, the university announced that it needed "more time to place the events of 7 October and beyond in a broader perspective, with room for diverse opinions and beliefs", later adding that "the safety of speakers, students, teachers and visitors cannot be guaranteed".[96] The CIDI and fellow interest groups in the Central Jewish Consultation responded negatively, questioning the relation between Holocaust education and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and claiming that the HU had shown that "threats and intimidation work".[97] In the wake of widespread disapproval and criticism from politicians and other public figures, the university reversed its decision.[98]
On 3 February 2024, the historic synagogue of Middelburg was found to be defaced with swastikas. Mayor Harald Bergmann voiced his disgust and police started an investigation.[99] On 19 February, an underaged boy was detained for the act of vandalism and entered into a juvenile delinquency intervention program.[100]
On 10 March 2024, the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam was inaugurated by King Willem-Alexander in a ceremony attended by a number of Holocaust survivors and their descendants, Jewish community leaders, and foreign dignitaries, which included President Isaac Herzog of Israel.[101][102] In response, about a thousand pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in the vicinity to protest Israel's conduct in the war against Hamas.[103][104] The atmosphere of the protests around the Portuguese Synagogue was described as "grim", as protesters jeered at ceremony guests, threw projectiles, vandalized police vehicles, and skirmished with riot police, resulting in 13 arrests.[105][106]
A concert by Lenny Kuhr in Waalwijk on 24 March 2024 was disrupted by four people who unfurled a Palestinian flag and called her a terrorist and accused the singer's family in Israel of genocide.[107] Demissionary Minister of Justice and Security Dilan Yeşilgöz denounced the action and stated: "That is hatred of Jews. There is no place for that in the Netherlands."[108] The National Coordinator for Combating Anti-Semitism, Eddo Verdoner, also described the incident as antisemitic. Kuhr is Jewish and has relatives living in Israel, including a grandchild who is a conscript in the country's military.[109]
On 9 July 2024, a statue of Holocaust victim Anne Frank on the Merwedeplein in Amsterdam was discovered to be defaced. The statue's feet had been daubed in red paint and the word 'Gaza' was sprayed onto its pedestal. Mayor Femke Halsema condemned the act of vandalism as an "incredible disgrace" and called on witnesses to come forward.[110] On 4 August, the 80th anniversary of the Frank family's arrest, the statue was again smeared with red paint. This time the text 'Free Gaza' was sprayed onto the pedestal and the statue's hands were also daubed in paint.[111] Later in August, an information board in Gouda describing Frank's persecution and the publication of her diary was left illegible after a Palestinian flag was sprayed on it.[112][113]
A periodic survey among 8,000 Jews in 13 EU member states, published on 11 July 2024 by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights,[27] showed that respondents in the Netherlands experienced above-average levels of antisemitism.[114] The report indicated that 97% of the 561 Dutch respondents had encountered antisemitism in their daily life in the year leading up to the survey and 83% thought that antisemitism had increased in the last five years. 78% of those polled felt they were blamed at least occasionally for the Israeli government's actions because they are Jewish, 77% avoided wearing Jewish symbols in public at least occasionally (including 49% who never wear Jewish symbols for safety concerns), and 42% avoided certain places because they did not feel safe as a Jew. Moreover, 39% of respondents had experienced antisemitic harassment in the year before the survey and 6% had been victim of an antisemitic attack in the last five years.[115]
At a pro-Palestinian protest in Warsaw on 21 October 2023, a Norwegian medical student was pictured holding an antisemitic poster that showed the flag of Israel in a trash can alongside the text "keep the world clean."[124][125]
On 12 December 2023, far-right Polish lawmaker Grzegorz Braun used a fire extinguisher on a lit menorah and removed it from the wall during a Hanukkah celebration involving Polish-Jewish leaders and Israel's ambassador in the country's parliament.[126] Braun then said, "There can be no place for the acts of this racist, tribal, wild Talmudic cult on the premises of the Sejm." He was expelled from parliament as a result, and his actions were condemned by several Polish politicians and his own party.[127][128]
On Yom HaShoah, May 2024, a group of pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted the March of the Living, a remembrance march from Auschwitz to Birkenau to commemorate the Jewish victims of the concentration camps. Survivors of the 7 October attacks were also present at the march.[129][130]
On 11 October 2023, three days after the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel, vandals defaced the synagogue of Porto's Jewish community, leaving pro-Palestinian messages, including "Free Palestine" and "End Israeli apartheid".[132][133] On February 3, 2024, a housing protest in Porto escalated into an antisemitic demonstration, where participants held signs assigning blame to Jews and Zionists for economic challenges. Some signs called for the 'cleansing the world of Jews'.[134]
On 29 October 2023 a mob of antisemitic protesters stormed the airport in Dagestan in search of Israeli passengers from Tel Aviv.[135][136] On 23 June 2024, Islamic extremist gunmen in Dagestan attacked synagogues and churches, setting fire to the Kele-Numaz Synagogue in Derbent and a synagogue in Makhachkala.[137][138]
On 18 October 2023, the Or Zaruah synagogue in Melilla, a Spanish enclave in North Africa, was attacked by a mob chanting "murderous Israel" while waving Palestinian flags.[139][140][141] In October 2023, Isaac Benzaquén, president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain, met with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, denouncing the “anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish climate” in Spain that has caused many Jews to not wear Jewish symbols for fear of being attacked.[142]
In April 2024, a woman wearing a shirt with the date 7 October and an anti-fascist symbol was arrested by Spanish police after insulting and assaulting another woman for being Jewish during a pro-Palestine demonstration in Madrid.[143]
Since the start of the war, false claims of Swedish media such as the Bonnier Group silencing pro-Palestinian voices due to being run by Jews and Zionists have spread on social media.[144] One viral video posted in October 2023 claimed that all major Swedish media outlets are "owned by Jewish families".[145][144]
On 4 November 2023, pro-Palestinian demonstrators burned an Israeli flag and chanted "bomb Israel" outside the Malmö Synagogue. The European Jewish Congress condemned the incident: "Intimidating the Jewish community and blaming them for the events in the Middle East is blatant antisemitism."[146]
Switzerland
On March 2, 2024, an Orthodox Jew was stabbed by a 15-year old in Zürich.[147] The teen later said that he was doing the attack on behalf of Al-Aqsa, alluding to Jihadist concepts.[148]
On 13 October 2023, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said, "There's been a quite frankly disgusting rise in antisemitic incidents."[150] On 20 October 2023, The Guardian reported that according to the Metropolitan police, there has been a 1,350% increase in hate crimes against Jewish people since the war started.[151]
In August 2024, the Jewish charity group Community Security Trust recorded 1,978 antisemitic incidents in the UK in the first half of 2024, more than double compared to the year prior.[152] On 5 August, pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated outside of Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in London as it played a performance of Fiddler on the Roof, a story about a Jewish man attempting to preserve his traditions in the Russian Empire during the 20th century.[153]
On 17 October 2023, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, "Since this conflict broke out, there has been a very scary rise of antisemitism here at home."[154] On 8 November, Trudeau added, "We're seeing right now a rise in antisemitism that is terrifying: Molotov cocktails thrown at synagogues, horrific threats of violence targeting Jewish businesses, targeting Jewish daycares with hate, this needs to stop."[155]
On 7 November 2023, there was an attempted arson attack against Congregation Beth Tikvah synagogue and a Jewish Community Center in Montreal.[156][157]
Eta Yudin, vice president of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) said that her organization was aware of over a dozen alleged hate crimes and over 25 "hateful incidents" in the month since the Hamas attack.[157]
Multiple cases of anti-semitism was reported in the Concordia University with Jewish students facing verbal and physical threats from both other students and faculty members. On 8 November 2023 footage of Professor Yanise Arab shouting at Jewish Concordia students to "go back to Poland, sharmuta (whore in Arabic)" went viral alongside another video of a student using the slur kike.[158]
On 9 November 2023 in Montreal, two Jewish children's schools, Talmud Torah Elementary and Yeshiva Gedola, were targeted with gunfire overnight, leaving bullet holes.[159][160] On 12 November, Yeshiva Gedola was struck with gunfire for a second time. In a press conference that day, Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante said, "The Jewish community in Montreal is currently under attack."[161]
Shortly after midnight on 27 November 2023, a Jewish community center belonging to the Jewish Community Council of Montreal was attacked with a Molotov cocktail.[162]
Jewish students and teachers of the Peel District School Board complained to the National Post about antisemitism and violent threats. A teacher posted "Jews are the problem" in a private Facebook group while students chanted "we call for Jewish genocide," during a protest. [163]
On 29 May 2024, a Jewish school in Montreal was struck by at least one bullet.[164] On 31 May, a man set fire to the entrance of a synagogue in Vancouver.[165]
On 21 August 2024, around 125 Jewish institutions in Canada, including synagogues, Jewish community centers, and hospitals, were sent bomb threats through email. According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the emails stated that explosives were placed in black backpacks and would detonate in "a few hours". No explosives were found in the buildings that received threats.[166][167]
On October 9, 2023, a sukkah at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt was vandalized with anti-Israel graffiti.[168] On October 10, a man threw rocks through the glass doors of a synagogue and cafe in Fresno, California, the second with a note reading "All Jewish businesses will be targeted".[169] On October 11, at Columbia University, a woman assaulted an Israeli man with a stick after he confronted her for ripping down posters with pictures of and information about kidnapped Israelis. She has been charged with a hate crime.[170] On October 11, a man was arrested for sending threatening emails to a synagogue in Charlotte, North Carolina.[171] On October 14, a man in New York's Grand Central Terminal punched a woman in the face and told her it was because she was Jewish.[172]
On October 15, 2023, in Berkeley, California, a billboard calling out antisemitism was defaced with antisemitic and anti-Israel graffiti, praising the Hamas attacks. Several San Francisco buildings were vandalized with similar messages, sparking condemnation by Mayor London Breed and District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.[173] Around seven members of White Lives Matter California held a demonstration on a bridge in Walnut Creek, holding up signs reading "No More Wars for I$rael" and promoting the neo-Nazi propaganda film Europa: The Last Battle.[174]Cornell University Professor Russell Rickford spoke at an October 15 rally, saying he had found Hamas's attack "exhilarating" before learning that it had targeted civilians. Cornell's leadership condemned his remarks, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Congresswoman Claudia Tenney called for him to be fired. Rickford apologized for the remarks in The Cornell Daily Sun. On October 21, it was announced that he would take a leave of absence for the remainder of the semester.[175]
On October 19, 2023, the Illinois Comptroller's office fired one of its lawyers, Sarah Chowdhury, over antisemitic remarks she made on the Instagram page of another lawyer, who is Jewish. Chowdhury was also fired from her position as president of the South Asian Bar Association of Chicago.[176] On October 20, a building next to a Jewish fraternity at the University of Pennsylvania was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti reading "The Jews R Nazis".[177]
A man broke into a Jewish family's home in Los Angeles on October 25, 2023, yelling "Free Palestine" and "Kill Jews".[178] On October 25, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported antisemitic incidents in the U.S. had increased 388% since the war began, including assault, harassment, and vandalism.[179] On October 29, threats against the Jewish community at Cornell University were posted online, threatening to shoot, rape, and murder Jewish students and encouraging violence against them. The FBI is investigating the incident as a hate crime. On October 31, the New York State Police announced they had a person of interest in custody.[180][181] On November 3, CNN reported the arrest of 20-year-old Jordanian national Sohaib Abuayyash for plotting a terrorist attack against the Jewish community in Houston, Texas.[182] At the University of Massachusetts, a Jewish student attending a peaceful event on November 3 calling for the release of hostages was attacked by another student, who also spat on an Israeli flag.[183]
Paul Kessler, an elderly Jewish man, was fatally injured after being involved in an altercation with a pro-Palestine protester while both were attending dueling demonstrations on November 5, 2023, in Westlake Village, Los Angeles County, California. Investigation into his death is still ongoing.[184] In November 2023, a man in Union Square tore down Israeli hostage posters. He then allegedly followed a Jewish couple and yelled anti-white and antisemitic statements, including "Die Jews, Die!" He denied antisemitic motives.[185] On November 6, a woman was arrested after ramming her car into a Black Hebrew Israelite school in Indianapolis, Indiana, mistakenly believing it to be an "Israel school."[186] On December 7, a man fired two rounds from a shotgun into the air outside a synagogue in Albany and made threatening statements, but no injuries were reported. The shooter was confronted by a nearby driver and fled after claiming he was being wronged; he is also alleged to have said "Free Palestine" at some point during the attack. Albany police arrested the shooter about a block away.[187] The shooter was identified as Mufid Fawaz Alkhader, a 28-year-old resident of Schenectady who was born in Iraq.[188]
On November 11, 2023, The Intercept reported the Anti-Defamation League was including Jewish anti-war and peace rallies in its analysis of antisemitic attacks.[189][relevant?] On December 30, Bernie Steinberg, the former director of HarvardHillel, told The Harvard Crimson that pro-Israeli activists should stop "weaponizing" charges of antisemitism against pro-Palestinian activism, writing, "It is not antisemitic to demand justice for all Palestinians living in their ancestral lands."[190][relevant?]
In January 2024 a game between the girls' varsity teams from The Leffell School and Roosevelt High School Early College Studies in Yonkers was stopped when Roosevelt students began hurling antisemitic slurs at Leffell students. The New York City Public Schools Alliance reported that one of the students yelled "I support Hamas, you fucking Jew" and during the third quarter became aggressive and violent during the play resulting in injuries of Leffell's players.[191][192]
On 11 February 2024, 36-year-old Genesse Ivonne Moreno opened fire in Lakewood Church with an AR-15, injuring two people. Moreno was shot and killed by two off-duty police officers shortly after. Police said that she also threatened that she had a bomb, though police found no trace of explosives in her backpack or car. Her gun had a sticker with the word "Palestine", and police said they uncovered antisemitic writings, but no further details were given.[193][194][195]
In May 2024, around half of the Seattle Wing Luke Museum's employees walked out to protest a new exhibit on racism and antisemitism titled "Confronting Hate Together", claiming that part of the exhibit "conflate[s] anti-Zionism with antisemitism".[196][197]
On 29 May 2024, a man was arrested after saying antisemitic statements and attempting to ram pedestrians with his car outside of an Orthodox Jewish school in New York City. He was charged with second-degree attempted murder as a hate crime.[198]
On 10 June 2024, a demonstration organized by Within Our Lifetime took place near a memorial exhibit in lower Manhattan for the victims of the Re'im music festival massacre, in which over 360 people were killed. Some participants chanted antisemitic slogans, waved Hamas flags and celebrated the deaths.[199][200] The next day, according to the New York Times, Democratic Representative AOC described the protest as "atrocious antisemitism - plain and simple".[201] Two days later, five houses (three in Manhattan, two in Brooklyn) belonging to Jewish leaders and board members, including Brooklyn Museum director Anne Pasternak were vandalized with red paint and pro-Palestinian graffiti. Red triangles were spray-painted onto one of the houses.[202] The NYPD recorded 45 antisemitic hate crimes in New York City in June 2024, 57% of the total number of hate crimes.[203]
On June 23, 2024, pro-Palestinian demonstrators attempted to block people from entering the main entrance of the Adas Torah synagogue, Los Angeles, which was hosting a seminar about real estate in Israel and the West Bank. The demonstration deteriorated into violent clashes between the anti-Israel participants and pro-Israel counter-protesters. A Jewish woman was beaten at the scene.[204] President Biden tweeted "I'm appalled by the scenes outside of Adas Torah synagogue in Los Angeles. Intimidating Jewish congregants is dangerous, unconscionable, antisemitic, and un-American."[205] At least two lawsuits have been filed against the protest groups, alleging that they violated the law by blocking people from attending a religious event.[206]
On 9 August 2024, three Columbia University deans resigned during an investigation into antisemitic texts they exchanged in May while students expressed concerns about antisemitism on campus during a speaking event.[207] On 10 August 2024, 22-year-old Victor Sumpter stabbed a Jewish man in his 30s near the headquarters of the Chabad Lubavitch movement in Crown Heights, Brooklyn while yelling "Free Palestine". The Jewish man was hospitalized and was expected to recover. Sumpter was arrested and charged second-degree assault as a hate crime.[208]
On October 15, 2024, a rabbi in Montgomery County, Maryland, was attacked with a wooden stake. The incident is being treated as a hate crime.[209] On October 22, 2024, the Philadelphia synagogue Congregation Mikveh Israel was targeted with vandalism, arson, and an attempted break-in.[210] Several other Philadelphia synagogues had been targeted with antisemitic, anti-Zionist, and neo-Nazi graffiti in April.[211]
On October 26, 2024, a man in Chicago was arrested and charged with 14 felonies after shooting a 39-year-old Jewish man who was walking to synagogue. The gunman, Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, also shot at police and paramedics before being apprehended. Alderman Debra Silverstein called for the case to be treated as a hate crime.[212] On November 1, authorities charged Abdallahi with terrorism and hate crime charges.[213] Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson condemned the attack following Silverstein's criticism of his initial failure to identify the victim as "a Jewish man, wearing traditional Jewish garb, walking to a Jewish place of worship on the Jewish day of rest."[213] Abdallahi, a Mauritanian national and illegal immigrant, had been released into the U.S. following his apprehension by the San Diego Sector Border Patrol in March 2023.[214]
On October 29, 2024, a visibly Jewish man walking in Crown Heights, Brooklyn was slashed in the face by a man wearing a ski mask. In August, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released an analysis that stated that antisemitic incidents made up 65% of all felony hate crimes in New York City in 2023.[215] On November 9, a masked man attempted to kidnap a Hasidic Jewish boy in broad daylight in Brooklyn.[216]
In 2024, over 1000 entertainers, authors and artists signed an open letter, released by the non-profit Creative Community for Peace (CCFP), opposing boycotts of Israeli and Jewish authors and literary institutions. The letter decried efforts to "demonize and ostracize Jewish authors across the globe".[217][218]
In fall 2024, campus protests using chants such as "Divest!" and "Ceasefire now!" reportedly evolved in a direction more explicitly endorsing Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis.[219] Some protesters used slogans such as "Glory to the resistance!", called the October 7 attacks "Al-Aqsa flood", celebrated Yahya Sinwar, and used the Hamas inverted red triangle. Jewish students were called "baby killers" and "terrorists", according to a Baruch College student.[220]
Antisemitic slogans and graffiti were noted on medical campuses including UCLA and UCSF, along with demonization of Israel, rationalizing terrorism, and faculty posting antisemitic tropes and “derogatory comments about Jewish health care professionals”.[221]
In November 2024, hundreds of posters depicting Jewish faculty members as "wanted" were spread across the University of Rochester campus. The posters accused Jewish faculty members of ethnic cleansing, racism, hate speech, and intimidation. University President Sarah Mangelsdorf called the incident an act of antisemitism.[222]
On the November 2024 anniversary of Kristallnacht, the only glatt kosher restaurant in the U.S capital, Washington D.C., was vandalized by breaking glass. Kristallnacht, the Nazi-ordered night of antisemitic attacks on Jewish homes, synagogues and businesses, was known as the ‘night of the broken glass”.[223]
Two Jewish students were attacked by masked men at DePaul University in Chicago in November 2024, resulting in a concussion, a fractured wrist, and other injuries.[224] Chicago had 50 reports of antisemitic hate crimes in the first half of 2024,[225] an increase from previous levels, while the number of attacks against Muslims and Arabs was down.[226]
The novelist and historian of Israel Dara Horn said that there has been a proliferation of “fact-resistant slogans that demonize Jews” since October 7th across America, offering the example of “Genocide supporters!”. Horn called these accusations “recycled from medieval blood libels and KGB talking points”.[227] Genocide accusations have been criticized in strong terms as a kind of "blood libel". [228][229][230]
Adam Kirsch described the convergence of anti-Zionism with "older patterns of anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish thinking", citing as an example the protesters who chanted "MSK shame on you, you support genocide too"[231] because of a donor's politics.[232]
On October 9, 2023, participants in a pro-Palestinian rally in Sydney organized by Palestine Action Group, were widely reported to have chanted "Gas the Jews" in front of the Sydney Opera House.[233] however a subsequent police review found that the phrase being chanted was "where's the Jews" and there was evidence of other "offensive and completely unacceptable" chants being said at the rally, such as "fuck the Jews".[234][235]
Between October and December 2023, Australia experienced a surge in both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia following the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Hamas on 7 October.[238][239] Between 7 October and 8 November, the ECAJ recorded 221 antisemitic incidents, with 42 being recorded in one week alone. Documented hate crime incidents have included spitting at women, gun threats, threats to synagogues and Jewish schools, graffiti, property damage, hate mail, and verbal abuse. The Victorian Police also recorded 72 reports of antisemitic incidents between 7 October and 9 November, resulting in 37 investigations and 10 arrests. ECAJ's research director Julie Nathan believed that many incidents of antisemitism went unreported.[239] By 9 December 2023, ECAJ estimated there had been a 591% increase in reported antisemitic incidents in Australia in 2023. Notable incidents have included a Sydney Jewish man being verbally abused for wearing a kippah[238] and Jewish parents advising their children to hide Jewish clothing in public.[238]
Elsa Tuet-Rosenberg, Matt Chun and Zaineb Mazloum, and Clementine Ford launched a doxxing campaign against Jewish creatives in Australia releasing personal details of over 600 including those with no direct connection with Israel and have not made public comments about the Hamas massacre or the war in Gaza resulting in a campaign of antisemitic harassment and death threats. Several of their shop were graffitied with "No Jews" messages while a couple received death threats to their 5-year-old child with a photograph of their child with a message saying "I Know where you live".[240][241][242]
On October 12, 2024 (Shabbat and Yom Kippur), a bakery in Sydney owned by Jewish television chef Ed Almagor was vandalized with the word "beware" and an inverted red triangle.[243]
On November 7, 2023, pro-Palestinian graffiti was sprayed on the fence of the Beth Shalom centre in Auckland's Epsom suburb. An unsuccessful attempt was also made to set the property on fire. Google Maps had mistakenly listed the property as the local Israeli consulate. The incident was condemned by ACT Party Member of Parliament David Seymour, who reported the matter to Police.[244]
In mid November 2023, New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) and The Disinformation Project reported a surge in both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in New Zealand following the Israel-Hamas war. Antisemitic content surfaced on both social media and gaming platforms. According to Disinformation Project researcher Kate Hannah, New Zealand Jews were increasingly conflated with all Israelis and the Israeli Government. Hannah said that these attitudes were anti-semitic, xenophobic and contributed to division in New Zealand society. Similarly, New Zealand Jewish Council spokesperson Juliet Moses reported a surge in anti-semitic threats of violence, death threats and extreme abuse both online and offline since 7 October.[245]
In mid December 2023, a survey conducted by the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand reported that New Zealand Jewish children were encountering an increase in antisemitic abuse, intimidation, and bullying. In two cases, one child was physically assaulted and another had a swastika and a Star of David drawn side-by-side on their school shirt. While the Holocaust Centre usually dealt with two formal anti-Semitic complaints each year, the number of complaints had increased by five times in the past two months since 7 October 2023. According to the Holocaust Centre, 40% of the incidents reported in the survey involved dehumanising and demonising allegations about Jews. These included children being greeted by their peers with Nazi salutes, being called "dirty Jews," being told "Jews control the world," and jokes about Jews being gassed, and the blood libel claim that Jews "chopped off baby's heads." However, only 40% of parents reported these incidents to their schools with the majority preferring to resolve the matter with the parent of the bullying child.[246]
On 18 October 2023, the US and Israeli embassies in Buenos Aires received bomb threats via email, including one which said "Jews we are going to kill you all." Federal police evacuated the areas around the embassies in response, and an investigation was opened to find the source of the threats.[247]
On 30 December 2023, three foreign nationals from Lebanon and Syria were arrested under suspicion of planning an attack as the country held the Maccabiah Games.[248] The three, reportedly waiting for a 35-kilo parcel from Yemen, were suspected to be part of a terror cell, and they rented rooms in a hotel which was no more than two blocks away from the Israeli embassy.[249]
Brazil
On 8 November 2023, Brazilian authorities announced they had arrested two suspects in a Hezbollah-backed terror plot to attack synagogues and other Jewish targets in the country.[250]
Colombia
On 8 October 2023, a column on the Israeli embassy in Bogotá was vandalized with a swastika, Star of David, and the word "terror" in Hebrew.[251]
^"Zorgelijke stijging antisemitische incidenten in Nederland" [Worrying increase in antisemitic incidents in the Netherlands] (in Dutch). Center for Information and Documentation on Israel. 7 November 2023. Archived from the original on 14 November 2023. Retrieved 14 November 2023.
^Wald, Hedy S.; Roth, Steven (2024). "The Moral Imperative of Countering Antisemitism in US Medicine – A Way Forward". The American Journal of Medicine. 137 (10). Elsevier BV: 915–917. doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2024.06.015. ISSN0002-9343. PMID38944230.
