After two years of decline, there was “considerable escalation” in the level of violent acts and vandalism against Jews in 2012, according to the global anti-Semitism report for 2012 presented April 7 by the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University.
The report, presented on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, showed there were 686 violent acts and vandalism, up from 526 in 2011. They include 273 attacks on people, including 50 with a weapon, 166 direct threats on lives, and the desecration of 190 synagogues, cemeteries, and monuments.
France had the most attacks with 200, up from the 114 in 2011. Next was the United States with 99; the United Kingdom, 84; Canada, 74; and Australia, 53.
The report said the increase was due in part to the terror attack on the Otzar Hatorah school in Toulouse in March 2012, which killed a rabbi and three children and led to a series of copycat incidents against the Jewish community in France.
Also, Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza led to a short-lived increase in anti-Semitic acts, as did an escalation in the activities of the extreme right wing and the strengthening of parties with a clear anti-Semitic agenda, notably in Hungary and Greece, as well as in Ukraine.
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