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Berlin Attack Puts Focus on Rising European Anti-Semitism

At the same time a report on the incidence of anti-Semitism in Europe was presented, an Israeli man was attacked by six Palestinians in Berlin.

On Sunday European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor presented a study of European anti-Semitism (.pdf) for 2013 at Tel Aviv University. The Jerusalem Post highlighted some of Kantor’s remarks during his presentation:

“Normative Jewish life in Europe is unsustainable,” European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor said on Sunday. Presenting the results of a study on worldwide anti-Semitism in 2013 by the eponymous Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University, Kantor cited increasing rising anti-Semitism and decreased “fear and insecurity” as factors leading to a European Jewish decline.

Citing a November study by the European Union’s Agency for Fundamental Rights that showed that almost a third of Jews in several European countries are mulling emigration, Kantor asserted that “Jews do not feel safe or secure in certain communities in Europe.”

The Kantor Center’s report asserted that anti-Semitic attacks are “an almost daily phenomenon” in Europe.

As if to illustrate that point, the Jerusalem Post also reports that late last week a Jewish man was assaulted in Berlin after being accosted by six youths. The Post cited a report that appeared in a German newspaper B.Z.

The youths surrounded the man and his wife, and struck his face. His wife was not injured.

The Israeli told police that the same group of youths asked him about his nationality earlier in the day in front of his building. He replied that he is Israeli. The youths told him in Arabic that they are Palestinians and they made derogatory remarks about the Jewish state.

The situation in France is especially pronounced as it is reported two-thirds of French Jews – currently the country with the third largest population after Israel and the United States – are considering leaving. One third of French Jews cited Israel as the place they would emigrate to. Last year, analysts charged that the European Union’s foreign policy was a factor in the increased anti-Semitism.

[Photo: SuperCATWITCH / YouTube ]