Anti-Semitic violence soars worldwide: Israeli researchers

The number of violent anti-Semitic attacks worldwide surged 38 percent in 2014, according to a report released Wednesday by Israeli researchers.

The researchers, based at the Kantor Center at Tel Aviv University, registered 766 violent acts against Jews in 2014, ranging from armed assaults to vandalism of Jewish synagogues, community centers, schools, and cemeteries, while the number was 554 in 2013.

The Kantor center releases the report each year ahead of Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, which begins on Wednesday evening.

"2014 has been one of the worst years in the last decade, 2004-2014, in fact, it was the second worst year after 2009," the researchers said in a statement.

With most of the incidents occurring in Europe, the researchers noted that many Jewish leaders are pondering about the future of their communities in the continent.

"The overall feeling among many Jewish people is one of living in an intensifying anti-Jewish environment that has become not only insulting and threatening on a daily basis, but outright dangerous," the researchers said.

The highest number of violent cases was recorded in France, with 164 incidents in 2014 compared to 141 in 2013. The researchers found a sharp rise in violent attacks also in the UK (141 compared to 95), Australia (30 compared to 11), Germany (76 compared to 36, more than double), Austria (9 compared to 4), Italy (23 compared to 12), Sweden (17 compared to 3), Belgium (30 compared to 11) and South Africa (14 compared to 1).

Dina Porat, a historian who led the research said at a press conference that the main reasons for the increase were Israel's military campaign in the Gaza Strip in July and August, as well as a "general climate of hatred and violence" promoted by the rise of the Islamic State in the Middle East.

The incident of killing of four shoppers at a kosher supermarket in Paris was not included in the count because it occurred in January.

The incident, which followed a lethal assault on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, prompted the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call upon the Jews in France to immigrate to Israel.

His call was not well received by some French leaders. "The Jews of France are profoundly attached to France but they need reassurance that they are welcome here, that they are secured here," said France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls. Endit