Antisemitic violence at record high for Jews outside Israel

As Israel marks Holocaust Remembrance Day, a new report by Tel Aviv University shows surging cases of severe violence against Jews in the West in 2025.

The number of people murdered as a result of antisemitic violence in Western countries reached a record high in 2025, according to figures compiled by Tel Aviv University.

The new report, published ahead of Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 14, shows that 20 Jews were murdered in four different deadly attacks last year, the highest number for more than 30 years.

Incidents involving other sorts of physical harm, acts of vandalism against Jewish institutions and online hate rose in all Western countries surveyed in comparison to 2022, the year ahead of Hamas' October 7 attacks and Israel's war in Gaza , Lebanon and its subsequent war with the US on Iran .

Tel Aviv University has been publishing its report on antisemitic violence since 2001, relying on figures provided by law enforcement agencies, Jewish communities around the world, nongovernmental organizations and other groups.

The 2026 report also features a study on antisemitism in the health care sector, and a metadata analysis of documented perpetrators.

The most significant antisemitic attack in 2025 was the shooting at a Jewish community Hanukkah event in Australia's Bondi Beach near Sydney on December 14, where 15 people were killed and dozens more injured.

The overall number of antisemitic incidents in Australia rose slightly last year, from 1,727 in 2024 to 1,750 in 2025.

Both years marked a sharp rise from similar data in 2022, a year which saw 472 cases.

A similar tendency of a rise in antisemitic cases was documented in Canada , the United Kingdom and Belgium .

Antisemitism in the US 'worrying'
"Tying Israel's fate exclusively and jubilantly to [Trump's] persona, let alone bragging about the sway Israeli politicians or philanthropists have on him, is irresponsible folly of existential measure," the report said, alluding to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's public comments about what he called a "special connection" with Trump.

According to the report, the US leader poses a "a danger to the future of the [United States], and liberal democracy at large," due to what it labeled as Trump's "inflammatory, degrading political rhetoric," as well as his lack of recognition of "the evil that is fascist Russia" and his "contempt for the rule of law."
The report also mentions the waning support for Israel among US residents in both Republican and Democratic circles as a reason for worry for local Jews.

How Europe, the US can better protect Jewish communities
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Government cuts to education in Germany a threat
While the report states that the number of incidents that took place in Germany went down — 5,729 last year in comparison to 6,560 in 2024 — the number of cases involving physical violence remained similar.

In 2025, 144 such cases were recorded, while 2024 saw 148 attacks.

The data is taken from Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA).

Police in Germany recently told parliament that many of the antisemitic crimes are directly related to the escalation which followed Hamas’ October 7 attack in 2023 and Israel’s following war in Gaza, Berlin daily Tagesspiegel reported.

While many of the reported crimes involved attacks on synagogues and other Jewish institutions, the issue of criminalizing certain terms and symbols related to the pro-Palestine movement has triggered discussions in Germany.

One such example is the term "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." Since 2023, in the wake of Hamas' October 7 attacks, Germany legally classified using the term as a criminal offense, triggering criticism from activists and human rights organizations around the world.

Other motives for antisemitic violence include Islamism and right-wing extremism.

Antisemitic attacks in Germany rise sharply amid Gaza war
While the fight against antisemitism has been frequently mentioned as one of the German government's goals, the current coalition — led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz's center-right Christian Democratic Union — has made a series of budget cuts to education programs, also affecting many nongovernmental institutions that deal with antisemitism prevention.

Israel's antisemitism office 'emptying' term of meaning
One of the issues mentioned in the report is the handling of the issue by the far-right Israeli government, as well as local Israeli media.

According to the authors, Israel's politicians and media have "continuously expanded" the meaning of the antisemitism term, "at times in absurd or hasty ways," thus "emptying it of analytic meaning."
"The label of antisemitism is harsh and should be applied only after careful consideration and based on solid criteria," the report said, particularly criticizing the Israeli Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, led by right-wing politician Amichai Chikli.

Chikli's ministry "has not contributed in any meaningful way" to the fight against antisemitism, while being "an embarrassment" in some cases, the report said.

It recommended shutting the ministry down altogether after Israel's legislative election, planned for October, a move the report labels as "imperative."
The ministry has often been criticized by Jewish communities in Europe due to Chikli's connections with far-right European politicians.

The most prominent example came in March 2025, when several high-profile participants pulled out of a conference against antisemitism organized by the ministry due to the participation of far-right politicians from Hungary, Spain, Sweden and other countries.

Among the participants who canceled their participation was world-renowned Jewish philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, German government commissioner for the fight against antisemitism Felix Klein and Volker Beck, the head of Germany's most significant pro-Israel lobby group.

Several Important Jewish institutions also refrained from attending the conference, most notably the World Jewish Congress and the American Jewish Committee.