An “Explosion” of Antisemitism: What Is Happening Across Europe Since October 7, 2023

Antisemitism in Europe is experiencing an alarming resurgence, reaching levels that some European Union officials have described as reminiscent of the continent’s “darkest hours.” This is not a matter of perception or political framing. It is documented, quantified, and accelerating. Since October 7, 2023, Europe has seen an explosion of antisemitic acts — a wave of violent incidents, harassment, conspiracy theories, and the desecration of Jewish sites that has left Jewish communities across the continent feeling besieged in their own cities.

The rise has been dramatic, documented, and geographically comprehensive — from the Atlantic coast to Scandinavia, from the Benelux to the Balkans. No corner of the continent has been untouched. And no community has been left entirely safe.

Antisemitism in the Classroom: A Generation Being Taught to Hate

Among the most disturbing dimensions of the current crisis is its infiltration of European educational institutions. Antisemitism is not only in the streets and on social media — it is in classrooms, in universities, in the spaces where the next generation is supposed to be learning the lessons of history rather than repeating its worst chapters.

The UNESCO survey data is stark: three in four EU teachers have witnessed antisemitic incidents in their schools. More than 60% report encountering Holocaust denial or distortion from their students. Perhaps most telling of all: teachers across Europe now report that they no longer dare to take students on educational visits to Auschwitz — the physical site of the most documented genocide in human history — for fear of the responses it might provoke.

Jewish students across the continent are avoiding displaying religious symbols or attending certain classes for fear of physical attacks. In Belgium, Jewish students and professors at the ULB have witnessed sustained bullying. Some professors have lost their jobs. The university — an institution built on the principle of free inquiry — has become a place where Jewish identity must be concealed for safety.

The European Jewish Association Emergency Conference: Mapping Solutions

In response to this existential threat, the European Jewish Association convened an emergency conference bringing together parliamentarians, security experts, intelligence professionals, and Jewish community leaders to confront the crisis and map concrete solutions. The images below are from this landmark gathering.

“If Everyone Decides to Leave, What Will Remain in Europe?”

Voice from the Conference

Shannon Seban

Executive Director of European Affairs

“If everyone decides to leave, what will remain in Europe? We have a responsibility to protect Jewish heritage here. We need to stay, to fight, and to work together.”

Shannon Seban’s words capture the existential dimension of the current moment. The question she poses is not rhetorical — it is the question that tens of thousands of European Jewish families are asking themselves. The answer that the Jewish community, and European society as a whole, is capable of giving will define what kind of continent Europe remains.

The impulse to leave is entirely understandable. When Hatzola ambulances are burned in London. When Jewish graves are desecrated in Charleroi. When synagogues are bombed in Liège and Amsterdam. When Jewish professors lose their jobs for being Jewish. The rational response of any person facing systematic persecution is to seek safety. But the choice to stay — to fight, to refuse to cede the public square, the university, the synagogue, the street — is the choice that has sustained Jewish communities in Europe through centuries of adversity. It is a choice that deserves the full protection of European states.

Emergency Measures: What European Governments Are Doing — and What Remains Insufficient

Faced with what EU officials are increasingly describing as an “existential threat” to Jewish life in Europe, political measures are being taken. Some are significant. All are late.

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  The Council of Europe is calling for strengthened cooperation to counter toxic online rhetoric and the transnational networks that produce and amplify it.
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  The European Union has released funds to secure places of worship and schools — providing a financial foundation for the physical protection of Jewish institutions that are now, demonstrably, under threat.
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  Belgium has deployed soldiers to protect sensitive Jewish sites — a measure that reflects the gravity of the threat, even as it represents a troubling acknowledgment of how far the situation has deteriorated.
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  The EJA Conference proposed a targeted legal framework approach: pursue extremist networks through existing laws — tax evasion, logistical violations, financial regulation — while cutting off funding streams that sustain these operations.