Alexander Kudascheff, the editor-in-chief of the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, asserted that Europe “must stand united against rampant anti-Semitism” in an op-ed published on the website on Monday. Kudascheff began his argument by responding to the recent terror attacks that have targeted Jews in Europe.

This terror targets all of us, but it particularly targets Jews in Europe. It targeted Jews in Paris in a shop that sells kosher food, it hit Jews in a synagogue in Copenhagen. It humiliates them by targeting Jewish graves – for years, Jewish cemeteries have been desecrated across Europe, in particular in France, where tombs were vandalized just this past weekend.

Many will shrug off these news reports, but it is important to stress that these vandals disturb the peace of the dead and offend the feelings of relatives and friends. They vilify people’s memory, which is disgusting no matter whether the perpetrators are far-right extremists or Islamists.

Kudascheff acknowledged that Europe has “a history of persecution, discrimination, social ostracism and murder” of Jews, and called on Europeans to act to prevent the “exodus of Jews from the continent.”

After criticizing Europe for “remaining levelheaded even in the face of Islamist terrorism,” Kudascheff said Europeans should “get more involved in the fight against anti-Semitism.” More than that he writes:

Europeans must give Jews in their countries the feeling that as a matter of course, they stand by their side. It’s a scandal that many people appear to have got used to police protection for Jewish kindergartens, schools and synagogues.

The growth of anti-Semitism in Europe was captured in a study released last year by the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University, which asserted that anti-Semitic attacks are “an almost daily phenomenon” in Europe.

[Photo: DW (Deutsch) / YouTube ]