Europe is burning with hatred — a fire that smolders with the stench of something deeply familiar and disturbingly reminiscent of the darkest chapters in modern history. The shadow of World War II seems to have crawled back out of the grave, bringing with it a surge of anti-Semitism that’s shaking the continent to its core. And this isn’t just a whisper in dark alleyways or crude graffiti scrawled by fringe lunatics. No, this time, the hate is bolder, louder, and dangerously mainstream.
The numbers tell a chilling tale: anti-Semitic incidents in Europe have doubled compared to 2014–2015. What’s worse, experts warn that anti-Semitism is no longer just a toxic side effect of radical fringe groups — it's gone mainstream, infiltrating the rhetoric of far-right nationalists, radical leftists, and Islamist extremists alike.
One of the most jarring flashpoints came on March 8 in Paris. Tens of thousands marched in celebration of International Women’s Day — but what should’ve been a day of solidarity turned ugly. Members of the movement Nous Vivrons (“We Will Live”), a group that defends victims of anti-Semitism and advocates for Jewish women assaulted by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, were forced into a separate column — isolated and essentially blocked from joining the larger march.
In the days leading up to the demonstration, social media had exploded with calls to bar “Zionists” from participating. When the march began, French police kept the Nous Vivrons contingent penned in, while pro-Palestinian activists hurled anti-Israel slogans and physically blocked Jewish feminists from reaching the Place de la République. “March 8, 2025, marked the day when neo-feminism morphed into anti-Semitism in the name of Palestine,” wrote a columnist for Le Figaro, summing up the twisted irony of the event.
France’s Jewish community — the largest in Europe, with roughly 440,000 people — has long felt the sting of insecurity. But that anxiety has now metastasized into full-blown fear. Synagogues aren’t just targets of insults — they’re going up in flames. In May 2023, a synagogue in Rouen was set ablaze by a 29-year-old Algerian man who lobbed a Molotov cocktail inside before lunging at responding officers with a knife. He was shot dead at the scene. The following year, that same synagogue and the rabbi’s residence were defaced with swastikas and graffiti reading, “Jewish rapists to the gas chambers.”
Jewish families are packing their bags. Young professionals are moving to Israel, while others weigh their options. “Some have already left,” says community activist Shmuel Lubezki. “Many others are seriously considering it.”
The Gaza war has only poured gasoline on this fire. In 2023, France’s Jewish security service (SPCJ) logged over 1,600 anti-Semitic incidents — more than in the previous three years combined. Over 1,200 of those incidents happened in the final months of 2023, in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 Hamas massacre. For comparison, the same period in 2022 saw only 107 such incidents. Among the attacks recorded in 2023, 85 involved physical violence.
And the violence kept surging into 2024. That year saw 1,570 anti-Semitic acts in France — including 106 cases of physical assault, the highest in a decade.
Some incidents rattled even those accustomed to grim headlines. In July 2024, two assailants attacked an elderly Jewish woman, throwing her to the ground, kicking her, and shouting, “Dirty Jew, this is what you deserve!” The month before, three teenagers beat and raped a 12-year-old Jewish girl, threatening to kill her while spewing anti-Semitic slurs. In December 2023, a knife-wielding man stormed a Jewish kindergarten in a Paris suburb, threatening to mutilate and rape the headmistress while invoking the October 7 massacre.
But there’s another layer of darkness: the quiet, creeping normalization of anti-Semitism in everyday attitudes. According to a September 2024 CRIF poll, 12% of French citizens now believe that Jews leaving France would be a good thing — up from 6% in 2020. Among those under 35, that number jumps to 17%. Even more alarming, 14% of French youth openly express sympathy for Hamas.
“This is unprecedented,” said CRIF president Yonatan Arfi. “Young people are growing increasingly receptive to anti-Semitic, Islamist, and conspiratorial narratives spreading through social media.”
Anti-Semitic stereotypes are rampant, particularly among French Muslims. Surveys show that 31% of French Muslims believe Jews are wealthier than the average French citizen, 27% claim Jews exploit Holocaust memory for personal gain, and 25% insist Jews have too much power in finance and business.
The rot isn’t confined to France. The UK saw a record 4,300 anti-Semitic incidents in 2023 — more than half occurring after October 7. In 2024, the total dipped to 3,500, but that’s still up to twice as many as in previous years. Six percent of those cases involved physical violence.
Perhaps the most shocking episode came in Amsterdam in November 2023. There, pro-Palestinian demonstrators turned violent, stalking Israeli soccer fans across the city, beating them, ramming them with cars, and throwing them into canals. More than 20 people were injured. Israel denounced it as “a Jewish pogrom.”
Across Europe, Jewish communities are retreating into silence and invisibility. People remove mezuzahs from their doorframes, ditch their Star of David necklaces, and avoid wearing kippahs in public. Jewish students face harassment on campus, and synagogues and cemeteries are repeatedly vandalized.
“We are fighting for the survival of Jewish life in Europe,” said Menachem Margolin, chairman of the European Jewish Association. “Jews in traditional dress, or those with mezuzahs on their doors, are being harassed, threatened, and targeted. We are being forced to hide who we are just to feel safe.”
This isn’t just a passing storm — it's a gathering hurricane. The continent that once vowed “Never again” is now watching anti-Semitism crawl back from the shadows — louder, bolder, and more dangerous than it's been in generations. The fire is spreading. And this time, it’s not just some back-alley blaze — it’s a raging inferno burning right at the heart of Europe’s identity.
Europe’s Anti-Semitism Crisis: The Hate That Won’t Die
Europe is staring down a resurgence of anti-Semitism — a dark, festering force that’s burrowed its way back into society, seeping into corners both expected and unexpected. From Germany to Switzerland, Austria to Ireland, anti-Semitic incidents have exploded at an alarming rate, rattling not just Jewish communities in major cities, but even those in places where Jewish populations are sparse.
In Germany, home to roughly 120,000 Jews, the numbers are stark. Between October and December 2023, authorities recorded more than 2,200 politically motivated anti-Semitic crimes — a staggering fourfold increase compared to the same period in 2022. By 2024, that number had surged to 4,500 incidents. "Jewish life in Germany is under greater threat today than at any point since the Holocaust," warned Felix Klein, the German government's commissioner for combating anti-Semitism. According to Klein, hatred of Jews has now permeated every layer of society.
Ireland’s Radical Shift
Among the most unsettling developments unfolded in Ireland, which after Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel emerged as one of Europe's most vocal critics of the Jewish state. Dublin not only recognized Palestine as an independent state but went so far as to accuse Israel of genocide in Gaza. Ireland then joined South Africa’s lawsuit against Israel at the International Court of Justice, prompting Israel to close its embassy in Dublin — a rare and drastic diplomatic move.
But Ireland’s hostility didn’t stop at government pronouncements. In 2024, a report by the educational NGO Impact-se revealed that Irish school textbooks were riddled with shockingly distorted narratives about Jews and Israel. One textbook described Auschwitz — the Nazis' most notorious death camp — as nothing more than a “prisoner-of-war camp.” Another claimed Jews were simply “people who don’t like Jesus,” while yet another framed Judaism as a religion that “encourages violence and war.”
“Pro-Palestinian marches, inflammatory rhetoric from politicians and media, and now the indoctrination of students — this is causing real anxiety and confusion in our community,” said Maurice Cohen, head of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, in an interview with The Insider. According to Cohen, Irish anti-Semitism has deep historical roots. Decades ago, Irish nationalists sympathized with Jews fighting British rule in Palestine, viewing them as kindred spirits in their own struggle for independence. But in the years that followed, that narrative shifted — today, Irish sentiment skews overwhelmingly pro-Palestinian, with Israel seen as a colonial aggressor.
Further complicating matters is Ireland’s long-standing connection to Palestinian militant groups. During the 1970s and ‘80s, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) maintained close ties with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), further cementing anti-Israel sentiment in certain political circles.
Anti-Semitism’s Long, Ugly Revival
Experts stress that this explosion of anti-Semitism didn’t materialize overnight. While Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel may have lit the match, the tinder had been piling up for years.
Jean-Yves Camus, director of the Observatory of Political Radicalism at the Jean Jaurès Foundation, traces the surge back to the year 2000 — when the Second Intifada erupted, torpedoing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. That year, anti-Semitic incidents in France spiked from just 82 cases in 1999 to 744 in 2000, rising further to 974 by 2004. Even during periods of relative calm in the Middle East, European anti-Semitism never returned to pre-2000 levels.
The COVID-19 pandemic further fueled the flames. Conspiracies about a “Jewish lobby” orchestrating lockdowns and vaccine campaigns gained traction, providing fresh fuel for anti-Semitic narratives.
By 2023 — before war erupted in Gaza — anti-Semitic incidents were already surging across major Jewish communities in the United States, France, the UK, and Italy. According to Tel Aviv University’s Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, the Hamas attack simply “threw gasoline on a fire that was already burning out of control.”
From Classic Hate to Radical Anti-Zionism
What alarms experts most is the evolving nature of this hatred. Old-school anti-Semitism — rooted in far-right extremism — has now found a new ally: radical anti-Zionism. This ideology masquerades as political criticism of Israel, yet often crosses the line into outright Jew-hatred.
“Today, many claim they aren’t anti-Semitic, just anti-Zionist,” says Carole Nuriel, director of the ADL’s Middle East division. “But let’s be clear: anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. Zionists are simply those who believe Jews have the right to a homeland. Denying that right — or demonizing Israel as some colonial evil — is nothing short of bigotry.”
The slogan “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free,” frequently heard at anti-Israel rallies, has been singled out as one of the most overtly anti-Semitic messages in circulation. According to the ADL, the phrase implies the destruction of Israel and the expulsion — or extermination — of its Jewish population. In fact, both Bavaria and the Czech Republic have banned the slogan as hate speech, and authorities in the Netherlands have labeled it as incitement to violence.
The Shadow of Soviet Propaganda
Ksenia Krymer, a historian of Jewish studies and the Holocaust, argues that the roots of today’s radical anti-Zionism can be traced back to Soviet propaganda campaigns of the late 1960s. Determined to undermine Western influence in the Middle East, Moscow aggressively pushed the narrative that Zionism was synonymous with colonialism, exploitation, and genocide.
“The Soviets weaponized this narrative to influence communist parties in the West,” Krymer explains. “That rhetoric seeped into leftist intellectual circles and, ironically, has now found fertile ground among progressive movements that claim to stand for social justice.”
The result is a twisted worldview in which Israel is cast as an imperialist aggressor — while Palestinian militants are framed as heroic resistance fighters. This distorted narrative has left Jewish communities uniquely vulnerable, as hatred toward Israel spills over into attacks on Jews worldwide.
And yet, while global protests rage against Israeli military actions, the world shows little concern for the plight of other suffering minorities. “There’s barely a whisper of protest about China’s repression of Uyghurs, the suffering of Afghans in Pakistan, or the violence in Sudan and Yemen,” Krymer observes. “But when it comes to Gaza, the outrage is deafening.”
The Return of an Ancient Hatred
For generations, Europeans reassured themselves that anti-Semitism had been pushed to the fringes — a shameful relic of the past. But that illusion has been shattered. Anti-Semitism is no longer whispered in backrooms; it’s shouted from podiums, woven into political platforms, and spread like wildfire across social media.
As Professor Monika Schwarz-Friesel of the Technical University of Berlin puts it, “Today, Israel has become the ‘collective Jew.’ The same medieval myths about Jews as ‘child murderers,’ ‘land thieves,’ and ‘destroyers of nations’ are now being projected onto the Jewish state.” The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, she warns, is not the cause of this hatred — it’s merely the spark that ignites an old fire.
“The very existence of Israel — the fact that Jewish life endures — is a thorn in the side of every anti-Semite,” Schwarz-Friesel concludes.
Europe, once determined to bury its darkest demons, now finds itself face-to-face with a hatred it swore would never return.
Caught Between Extremes: Europe’s Jews Face a Political Crossfire
The Gaza war has triggered a political paradox that’s left Europe’s Jewish communities in an unexpected — and deeply unsettling — position. Traditionally aligned with liberal and left-leaning parties, many European Jews are now gravitating toward right-wing movements that promise tougher stances on radical Islam and growing anti-Semitic violence.
“The greatest threat to French Jews today comes from Muslims and far-left radicals,” says Shmuel Lubezki, rabbi of Rouen’s synagogue. “The left is normalizing anti-Semitism by disguising it as ‘anti-Zionism.’ Many Jews turned to far-right parties in recent elections because they see them as a counterweight to the radical left. The far-right hates Muslims, and for some Jews, that hostility has paradoxically created a sense of reduced danger.”
Surveys confirm this shifting landscape. According to data from CRIF (the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France), 55% of far-left supporters from La France Insoumise (LFI) and 52% of Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National voters hold negative stereotypes about Jews. Yet the starkest contrast emerges in their views on Hamas. Among LFI supporters, 25% openly sympathize with Hamas, while 44% refuse to label the group as a terrorist organization — even after the October 7 massacre. In contrast, just 4% of Le Pen’s supporters back Hamas, and 75% recognize it as a terrorist group.
This divide is no accident. LFI’s leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has long been notorious for his anti-Israel rhetoric. He has branded French Jews as “an arrogant minority preaching morality to everyone,” and accused them of bearing responsibility for the death of Jesus Christ. After the Hamas massacre, Mélenchon and his allies refused to condemn the attack, instead describing Hamas as a “resistance movement.” One LFI lawmaker, Rima Hassan, even claimed the October 7 massacre was a “justified act of war” and insisted that “Israel has no right to self-defense.”
These extremist stances have driven a wedge between the French Jewish community and the country’s traditional left. According to a joint study by Fondapol and the American Jewish Committee (AJC), 92% of French Jews believe LFI is directly responsible for the surge in anti-Semitism across France. Even more alarming, 57% of those surveyed said they would consider emigrating if an LFI candidate won the next presidential election. “It seems like there’s no future for Jews in France,” lamented Moshe Sebbag, chief rabbi of Paris’s Grand Synagogue, following LFI’s electoral gains.
The Right-Wing Pivot
Sensing this political vacuum, far-right populists are increasingly positioning themselves as defenders of European Jewry. One striking example is Dutch politician Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV), which won the November 2023 election. Wilders campaigned heavily on his support for Israel, calling it “the only true democracy in the Middle East” and vowing to relocate the Dutch embassy to Jerusalem while shutting down the Netherlands’ diplomatic mission in Ramallah.
Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National has followed a similar playbook. Throughout her campaign, Le Pen repeatedly pledged to shield French Jews from Islamist extremism. In late 2023, several members of her party even marched in a pro-Israel rally organized by France’s Jewish community — a symbolic gesture that carried significant weight. The move prompted a diplomatic shift: Israel, which had previously maintained a strict boycott of Le Pen’s party due to its far-right roots, formally opened dialogue with Rassemblement National. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar personally directed diplomats to engage with Le Pen’s party, as well as with other once-ostracized far-right movements like Sweden’s Sweden Democrats and Spain’s Vox party.
In March 2025, Rassemblement National leader Jordan Bardella is scheduled to visit Israel and participate in an international conference on combating anti-Semitism — a sign of the growing political realignment.
“For a long time, Jewish voters in France aligned themselves with the political mainstream,” explains Sebastien Mosbah-Natanson, a sociologist at the Sorbonne. “But now things are changing. For many Jews, the far-right is seen as the only force openly standing with Israel and the Jewish community.”
In districts with sizable Jewish populations, candidates from Rassemblement National significantly outperformed previous election cycles — a testament to this shifting allegiance. Yet for many Jews, embracing Le Pen remains deeply uncomfortable. The party’s roots in the anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying circles of Jean-Marie Le Pen — Marine’s father — remain a bitter stain. While Marine Le Pen has worked to sanitize the party’s image, those scars run deep.
Some Jewish voters have instead turned to Éric Zemmour’s Reconquête party — a nationalist movement founded by Zemmour, himself a French Jew of Algerian descent. While Reconquête espouses hard-right rhetoric similar to Le Pen’s, it lacks Rassemblement National’s dark historical baggage.
A Political Minefield
Even among Jews seeking stronger security policies, Le Pen’s platform raises concerns. Her proposals to ban halal meat and Islamic headscarves have alarmed some Orthodox Jews, who fear such moves could expand to include kosher practices and other expressions of Jewish identity.
As the 2027 French presidential race looms, analysts predict Jewish voters may gravitate toward Bruno Retailleau, France’s current interior minister. Retailleau advocates stricter immigration policies but lacks the extremist branding that taints Le Pen.
Ultimately, Europe’s Jewish communities are being forced into an uneasy balancing act. The left, once a natural ally, has drifted dangerously close to embracing anti-Zionist — and often openly anti-Semitic — rhetoric. The right, while promising protection, carries its own risks — from xenophobic narratives to flirtations with Holocaust revisionism.
Caught between these extremes, Europe’s Jews find themselves in an unprecedented dilemma: choosing between political forces that each pose a threat — just in different forms. In a continent where anti-Semitism is no longer confined to the political fringes, navigating this minefield has never been more perilous.
The AfD Paradox: Germany’s Far-Right Party Walks a Tightrope Between Pro-Israel Rhetoric and Holocaust Revisionism
Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has found itself straddling a strange political divide — loudly proclaiming its support for Israel and Jewish communities while simultaneously flirting with Holocaust revisionism and nationalist rhetoric that reeks of Germany’s darkest past.
In a statement released just hours after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, AfD’s parliamentary group declared: “We unequivocally condemn this terrorist attack. We stand in full solidarity with Israel and the Jewish people.” The party has also campaigned for a full ban on the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement in Germany — a campaign that seeks to isolate Israel economically and diplomatically.
On the surface, AfD’s pro-Israel stance seems clear. But scratch beneath that and you’ll find a party with a long track record of trivializing Nazi atrocities and perpetuating anti-Semitic tropes.
AfD co-founder Alexander Gauland infamously referred to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime as “just a speck of bird shit” on Germany’s otherwise “glorious thousand-year history.” He’s also argued that Germans should “take pride” in the achievements of Wehrmacht soldiers in both World Wars — a stance that alarmed historians and Jewish organizations alike.
“AfD members have repeatedly claimed that German schoolchildren shouldn’t be dragged to concentration camps as part of their education,” says historian Ksenia Krymer. “They’ve argued that Germans need to stop ‘beating themselves up’ over Nazi crimes and move on from feelings of guilt. At AfD’s recent party congress, Elon Musk echoed these very sentiments. But let’s be clear — Musk didn’t invent this narrative. He simply amplified what AfD has been pushing for years.”
Despite AfD’s attempts to rebrand itself as pro-Israel, Israeli authorities have kept the party on their diplomatic blacklist — a position they’ve reversed for other controversial European far-right groups like France’s Rassemblement National and the Dutch Party for Freedom. Israel’s continued refusal to engage with AfD underscores the deep suspicion that surrounds the party’s true intentions.
Jewish Communities Reject AfD’s “Protection”
For Germany’s Jewish community — roughly 120,000 strong — AfD’s pro-Israel rhetoric rings hollow. Years ago, former AfD leader Frauke Petry claimed her party was “the only guarantee for the security of Jewish life in Germany” because of its hardline stance against Muslim immigration. But Jewish leaders swiftly rejected this notion.
The Central Council of Jews in Germany condemned AfD as a “racist and anti-Semitic party” that “spreads hatred, divides society, and poses a threat to democracy.”
On the eve of Germany’s snap Bundestag elections in February 2024, the Central Council doubled down on this warning. Its president, Josef Schuster, issued an open letter urging Jewish communities to reject both AfD and the far-left Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), arguing that both parties endanger not only Jews, but German society as a whole.
“Far-right anti-Semites and far-left enemies of Israel and Ukraine both find a home in AfD and BSW,” Schuster warned. “It’s clear these groups have no interest in promoting peace or stability in Germany.”
Anti-Semitism as a Political Glue
Experts point to a disturbing trend that now defines Europe’s rising anti-Semitism: it’s no longer confined to one political camp. While far-right groups like AfD attempt to whitewash Nazi crimes and diminish Holocaust remembrance, far-left radicals cloak their anti-Semitism in militant “anti-Zionism,” often justifying violence against Jews under the guise of opposing Israeli policy.
“We’re being attacked from all sides — by Hamas supporters, by far-left ‘anti-imperialists,’ by Islamists, and by far-right nationalists,” said Sigmount Königsberg, Berlin’s Jewish community commissioner for combating anti-Semitism. “Political groups that are normally sworn enemies are now united by one thing: their shared hatred of Jews. And it’s more aggressive than anything we’ve seen in decades.”
A Dangerous Crossfire
For Europe’s Jews, navigating this toxic political climate has become a high-stakes balancing act. The radical left — historically seen as allies of minority communities — is now openly embracing pro-Palestinian extremism while ignoring anti-Semitic violence in its own ranks. Meanwhile, the far-right is marketing itself as a “shield” for Jewish communities, even as it pushes narratives that undermine Holocaust remembrance and promote ethnic nationalism.
This growing convergence of anti-Semitism from opposite ideological poles has left Jews cornered — unsure whether to turn to the left for social protection or to the right for security against Islamist extremism.
AfD’s paradoxical position — condemning Hamas while downplaying Nazi crimes — epitomizes this troubling dilemma. While some Jews see the party’s anti-Islam platform as a form of protection, others recognize the dangers of allying with a movement that has repeatedly flirted with revisionism and nationalism.
As historian Ksenia Krymer warns, Europe’s Jewish communities are no longer facing a threat from a single extremist fringe. “Today’s anti-Semitism isn’t coming from one side — it’s spreading across the political spectrum,” she says. “Jews must remain vigilant. Because when both the left and the right turn on you, history has shown that catastrophe is never far behind.”