The spectre of antisemitism is haunting Europe and the rest of the world. The oldest hatred is finding new forms of expression and repertoires, but the targets remain the same. A synagogue in Melbourne is set alight. Jews in Amsterdam are hunted through the streets. Children in Leeds, London and Manchester hide symbols of their identity.
In the UK, from January to June 2024, the Community Security Trust (CST) recorded reports of 1,978 anti-Jewish hate incidents, up from 964 in the first half of 2023. Jewish people across the EU continue to face high levels of antisemitism, according to the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA). More than 8,000 Jews in 13 EU countries, including Germany and France, were interviewed. 96% said they had encountered antisemitism in their daily life. The vast majority had experienced harassment online.
There has been an explosion in anti-Jewish hatred and violence since the 7 October attack on Israel, manifest in sporadic acts of violence, symbols of hate worn with pride on marches, attacks on businesses, and a poisonous discourse which transposes murderers with resistance fighters and describes rape and hostage-taking as legitimate anticolonialism.
Pic: ELNET
Over one hundred campaigners, academics, community leaders, and politicians met in Vienna this week under the aegis of the European Leadership Network (ELNET) to discuss this world-wide tsunami of antisemitism. There was a focus on antisemitism on university campus, in international sport, in the arts, and on social media. This last has seen exponential growth since the 7 October massacre, with absurd denialism of documented facts and sickening justification for blood lust. We are all a few clicks away from vile antisemitism masquerading as commentary and analysis.
The workshop I attended was on antisemitism in the universities, with excellent contributions from student leaders and academics. The pattern is the same – the occupation of shared spaces by antisemitic sloganising, name-calling and demonising, holding Jewish students accountable for the actions of the Netanyahu government.
More fences, more bullet-proof glass, more razer wire is not a solution. Education is vital: explaining what antisemitism is and isn’t, how it works, and how it is spread
This is the opposite of any notion of the campus as the agora or forum, where ideas are freely exchanged. This is the totalitarian imposition of a uniform set of ideas, with apostates cast out from the public square.
Dave Hirsh, newly-minted professor of sociology at Goldsmiths, London, explained the work of the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism in analysing antisemitism in its modern forms. Jew hatred is as old as the hills, but morphs in each era, subverting the dominant ideas of each age, from religion to economics to anticolonialism. Without constant investigation, analysis and explanation, the mainstream can overlook antisemitism in the media, online, in conversation, and within their own frames of reference.
Paul Richards. Pic: Biteback Publishing
There is so much good work going on inside parliaments and assemblies, in academia, within institutions such as trade unions, and in the media to challenge the hateful narratives and myths. Yet one of the recurrent themes of the conference was the need for action. There was a frustration that those in power within governments, institutions and the judicial system seemed ignorant of what constitutes antisemitism. There was a sense that authorities overlook or dismiss reports of antisemitism. There is also the recognition that institutions themselves are institutionally antisemitic.
There is no single simple solution. States must continue to protect their citizens from violence and threats, with extra security measures, more police, and a judiciary prepared to hand out the harshest sentences to racists. But more fences, more bullet-proof glass, more razer wire is not a solution. Education is vital: explaining what antisemitism is and isn’t, how it works, and how it is spread.
This should start with legislators, decision-takers, and policy-makers, ensuring that no public official or representative can claim ignorance as a defence. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, with all its examples, must be adopted by organisations and governments. The unregulated wild west of social media must be tackled, with stronger sanctions against those who spread hate online. The role of hostile state actors such as Iran must be exposed, and the flow of funding into Europe must be choked off.
However, my main takeaway from the conference was that it cannot be left to Jewish organisations and communities to tackle the spectre of antisemitism alone. As with all progressive struggles, there is a vital need for allyship, whereby those unaffected directly by oppression and hatred have a solemn responsibility to act. To be an ally is to speak out, to engage, to act. Antisemitism is an aggressive cancer, and it attacks us all.
- Paul Richards is a columnist and former Special Adviser to the UK Labour Government.
