Following the Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack in Israel, there has been a rise in antisemitism globally, leading to incidents targeting Jewish communities. Over the past year, schools, community centers, and places of worship have been subjected to threats, intimidation, and physical harm.
Rabbi Moshe Hauer, the executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, shared with Fox News Digital that in 2024, the perceived security level among American Jews has changed. Hauer expressed the challenge of feeling less secure in a place that was once considered home. The normalization of antisemitism in the U.S. has made it a part of daily life, rather than a societal concern.
The abruptness of this shift has been unsettling, according to Hauer. He noted feeling alienated from those once considered allies in the fight for justice and rights. Suddenly, their support seems to have vanished, leaving the Jewish community feeling isolated and unrecognized.
At York University in Canada, antisemitic graffiti was scrawled in a classroom on Oct. 26, 2023. (Courtesy of Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus)
More than nine synagogues worldwide have been the targets of arson since Oct. 7, according to a social media post from Hen Mazzig, a senior fellow at the Tel Aviv Institute. The latest attack occurred on Dec. 18 in Montreal at a synagogue which was also targeted in November 2023, the New York Post reported. Just two days later, shots were fired overnight at a Jewish elementary school in Toronto. It was the third shooting at the school since May, according to the Times of Israel.
Another recent arson attack took place at a synagogue in Melbourne, Australia, on Dec. 6. The Simon Wiesenthal Center responded to the incident by issuing a travel advisory for Australia, explaining that the country’s leaders had failed to stand up against “persistent demonization, harassment, and violence against Jews and Jewish institutions.”
A member of the Jewish community recovers an item from the Adass Israel Synagogue on Dec. 6, 2024 in Melbourne, Australia. An arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne forced congregants to flee as flames engulfed the building early on Friday morning. (Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)
Just a month earlier, the Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a similar advisory for the Netherlands after a soccer match led to a “Jew Hunt,” in which Jewish fans were tracked down and assaulted in the city. The incident sparked another attempted “Jew Hunt” in Antwerp and attacks on a Berlin youth soccer team.
When Cooper’s group placed the travel advisory on the Netherlands, he told Fox News Digital that “theoretically, you could slap a travel advisory on almost every place in Western Europe.”
Anti-Israel protesters hold a banner and chant at a protest in London on Dec. 9, 2023. (Photo by Andy Soloman/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
In the U.S., with anti-Jewish intolerance infiltrating elite universities, workplaces, the medical community, and the entertainment industry, Rabbi Cooper summarized that “the challenges ahead are going to be quite daunting.” He also noted that he has hope on account of the resiliency of the Jewish community and the safety provided by American democracy.
Cooper said that many appointees from President Trump’s incoming administration, including incoming U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Rep. Elise Stefanik, are “defenders of our community.” When they begin implementing new policies, he said that he believes that “a lot of good things can happen very, very quickly.”
