The October 7 Hamas terror attack has led to a level of anti-Semitism in Europe not seen in decades. This is especially evident in countries with relatively large Jewish populations, such as France, home to over 400,000 Jews – the largest Jewish population in Europe both in absolute numbers and proportionally. Similar trends are seen in the UK and Germany, with Jewish populations of 300,000 and 125,000, respectively. Since October 7th, Jews in these countries have increasingly faced verbal abuse, spitting, and assault in public. Jewish children and teenagers have been harassed at school, Jewish students threatened at universities, and countless anti-Semitic videos, comments, and images are circulating online. Multiple attempted attacks on synagogues and Jewish institutions have also been recorded.
The most appalling incident occurred in France. In June 2024, three youths in the Paris suburb of Courbevoie raped a 12-year-old Jewish girl out of anti-Semitic motives. This was compounded by arson attacks on synagogues, like in Rouen in May and near Montpellier in August. Jews have been assaulted, shoved, and insulted in the metro, near schools, and at their homes. Already on October 7th and in the days following, such incidents increased tenfold compared to previous months. In 2023, 1,676 anti-Semitic crimes were reported to the police in France, according to a joint survey by the French Ministry of the Interior and the Service de Protection de la Communauté Juive (SPCJ), an organization dedicated to protecting Jewish institutions in France. This figure is four times higher than in 2022, with three-quarters of incidents occurring in October, November, and December. Official 2024 statistics have yet to be published, but in August, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin reported 887 anti-Semitic acts in the first half of the year, a threefold increase over the same period in 2023.
Anti-Semitism has also been a political issue in France, especially during the parliamentary election campaign in the summer. The left-populist La France Insoumise (LFI) and particularly its founder Jean-Luc Mélenchon made headlines. Mélenchon downplayed anti-Semitism in France as a marginal issue in early June, and in a verbal exchange between two parliamentarians, an LFI member insulted a Jewish colleague as a “pig” and accused him of being “mired in the mud of genocide.” In the first election round on June 30th, the Nouveau Front Populaire, which includes LFI, came in second, just behind the right-wing nationalist Rassemblement National, which today claims a pro-Israel stance despite its clear anti-Semitic past.
In Germany, anti-Semitic attacks, especially from leftist extremist and Islamist circles, have intensified since October 7, reports Josef Schuster, President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany: “Revealing oneself as Jewish has become even more problematic.” Jews wearing kippahs have already faced street assaults in the past, but now even a necklace with a Star of David is enough to become a target. Schuster recalls how buildings in Berlin were marked with painted Stars of David to indicate Jewish residents.
A look at official statistics shows the surge in anti-Semitic crimes since October 7. Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office records such incidents in its annual statistics on politically motivated crime. While typically between 200 and 300 crimes are recorded per month, October 2023 saw around 1,300. These crimes were reported to the police, meaning they have come to official attention. According to the BKA, over half of all 5,164 anti-Semitic crimes last year occurred after October 7th. In the first six months of this year, according to a police statistic requested by Left Party representative Petra Pau, 1,508 anti-Semitic crimes were recorded. However, these are only preliminary figures, as the Interior Ministry clarified that many incidents could still be subject to “substantial changes” due to supplementary or revised reports.
In addition to insults and physical assaults, there have also been attempted attacks. For example, in the early hours of October 18, unknown individuals threw two Molotov cocktails toward a Jewish community center in Berlin. The Molotov cocktails shattered on the sidewalk, and security personnel were able to extinguish them quickly. The perpetrators recklessly endangered residents who could have been injured by the attack. Since then, police protection has been increased. Community members now hide their kippahs under baseball caps to avoid being recognized as Jewish.
Since October 7, German politics has expressed solidarity with the Jewish community. The message is that not only is Israel’s security a matter of German national policy, but so is the protection of Jewish life. Since then, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has reinforced the security around synagogues and issued a ban on activities of Hamas and a branch of the leftist Palestinian terrorist group PFLP. However, significant doubts remain about whether these measures will make life permanently safe for Jews in Germany.
What applies to Germany and France also applies to the UK. In October 2023, London police recorded 517 anti-Semitic hate crimes, twice as many as during the Gaza War in May 2021. In London’s police statistics, anti-Semitism is categorized as a hate crime, defined as crimes committed against a person based on ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation. The Community Security Trust (CST), a Jewish non-governmental organization, also records anti-Semitic incidents in the UK. The CST publishes data biannually, based on incidents reported by witnesses or victims. The CST also supports Jewish communities and organizations on security matters.
In 2023, the CST received reports of 4,103 anti-Semitic incidents, more than double the average in previous years. Of these, 2,699 incidents occurred on or after October 7. In the first half of 2024, the CST recorded 1,978 reports of anti-Semitic incidents, more than the CST typically registers in an entire calendar year. The issue of anti-Semitism and the Middle East conflict also concerns British politics. British Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Keir Starmer has tried to root out anti-Semitism in his party, which had proliferated under his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn. However, with Starmer’s pro-Israel stance on the Gaza war, Labour has lost significant support among its traditionally loyal Muslim electorate. In the spring, leftist populist George Galloway triumphed in a by-election for the House of Commons in the heavily Muslim constituency of Rochdale in northern England. In the general election in July, Corbyn and several independent Muslim candidates, who notably take an anti-Israel stance, were elected to Parliament.
One observation is evident in all three countries: anti-Semitic incidents peaked in the days directly following the Hamas attack—before Israel deployed ground troops in Gaza. At a time when social media and news outlets were circulating images of the Hamas assault, the killings at kibbutzim, and the kidnappings—not yet images of the suffering and hunger of the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza. Subsequently, anti-Semitic incidents stabilized at a higher level than before October 7.
The data from the UK, France, and Germany indicate that the primary motivation for many of these incidents was not Israel’s military response in Gaza but the massacre perpetrated by Hamas. The perpetrators appeared to demonstrate their support for the Islamist terrorist attack.
