Earlier in the week marked the 75th anniversary of the Holocaust yet currently anti-Semitism is rising throughout the world. More information on the anniversary can be read in the blog post “Auschwitz 75 years’ on”.

December in New York showed a spike in violence towards Jews. Including a fatal shooting, stabbings and other attacks. In fact, more than half of the hate crimes reported in New York were directed towards Jews.  David Nirenberg – who has written extensively on the history of anti-Semitism discusses to what extent anti-Jewish violence be tied to other hate crimes, and to what extent should it be understood as having a distinct history and motivations.

The Anti-Defamation League noted there were 1,879 attacks against Jews during 2018, which is the 3rd highest year on record since they began tracking data in the 1970s. There are many reasons why anti-Semitism is rising and in his article Peter Dreier examines the reasons and how related they are to politics.

It is not just in the US where anti-Semitism is on the rise , there are numerous issues within the UK including a Nazi salute being given to a Jewish man. It is not just Nazi salutes, there have been attacks on rabbi’s, anti-Semitic rants aimed towards families, swastikas and hail Borris being graffitied in a Jewish suburb of London.  There has been a 10% increase of anti-Semitic crimes since 2018. Alona Ferber shows more evidence of the rise of anti-Semitism in her article.

People are noticing this rise and there have been demonstrations against it. In response to accused anti-Semitism of one party during the general election there was a rally organised by campaign against anti-Semitism “so that Jews and non-Jews alike can say clearly and with one voice that we stand together against antisemitism.” Football club Chelsea, honoured a poppy seller who was a prisoner of Auschwitz as part of their campaign “say no to anti-semitism”. In response to the attacks in December more than 10,000 protesters marched from Manhattan to Brooklyn in a display of solidarity. This “no hate, no fear solidarity march” was organised by UJA-Federation of New York, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Anti Defamation League-New York, AJC-NY, and the New York Board of Rabbis, to stand against hatred of any kind in New York.  More information on taking a stand against anti-Semitism can be found in the blog post; Take a stand against Antisemitism.