‘Antisemitism has become a political tool,’ since Hamas attack, Europe’s leading rabbi says

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“A day does not pass where we do not hear about attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions,” Europe’s leading rabbi, Pinchas Goldschmidt, told Euronews, warning that antisemitism has become “extremely dangerous” over the two years since the Hamas-led attack on Israel that started the war in Gaza.

Goldschmidt, President of the Conference of European Rabbis, said “a high percentage of Jews try to hide their Jewishness in public”.

“When they go in the streets, they do not wear their head covering the kippah, or if they have a Star of David necklace, they try not to show it,” he explained.

In many European countries authorities have reinforced security measure around Jewish sites and synagogues, Goldschmidt said, adding that in many cases these measures prevented attacks from happening. 

“Many of those attacks were pre-empted by the different security services, especially in Germany. Just a few days ago, we heard that Germany stopped another attack in Berlin. So we’re dealing with constant danger,” he warned.

But these measures do not stop all of the planned attacks with the most recent taking place in Manchester on 2 October when one person was killed and three left in a serious condition after a car ramming and stabbing attack outside a synagogue.

The attack occurred during worship at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish religious calendar, and is being treated by police as a terrorist attack.

“Authorities in many countries, especially in Western Europe, have been extremely helpful and vigilant to the Jewish communities. In France, there are thousands of policemen and soldiers being placed in front of Jewish houses of worship for the last two years. It has been also beforehand since Charlie Hebdo, but it has been greatly increased,” Goldschmidt said.

Goldschmidt says since the Hamas’ incursion into Israel two years ago and the military offensive in Gaza, antisemitism also has become a political tool in Europe and beyond.

“On the political level, anti-Semitism became politically correct again. It is being used by political parties openly,” across the political spectrum, he said.

“It has been become a tool by the far-right parties against immigrants,” Goldschmidt explained.

“And we, the Jews, are in the middle of that.”