Where shall we go?
In between the war in Gaza and the rise of the far-right in Europe, it is again Jews in the middle. A merely three years after the European Union presented its plan of combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life in the continent, Europe is experiencing its biggest rise in antisemitism. So far, only 14 EU countries have published a national plan to address antisemitism. It is time to face this existential issue seriously. When will Jewish concerns be finally taken seriously?
It all started to go downhill with October 7th and the violent, polarising debate on the Israel-Hamas war. Jews were quickly targeted at large demonstrations across Europe and had to hide their identity by removing Jewish symbols, hiding their names on mailboxes and refraining from speaking Hebrew. And now, the picture is getting clearer following the results of the European Parliament elections — far-right parties have gained power, especially where Jewish populations are the largest.
In France, the EU country with the highest population of Jews, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally received the highest percentage of votes. In Germany, Alternative Für Deutschland (AfD) made incredible strides despite the controversy around its European representative Maxmillian Krah, who sees no problem with people wearing SS uniforms. But threats do not come from the far-right alone. Jewish institutions are being vandalised across the EU by some protestors against the war in Gaza. Just a month before the EU elections, the Jewish memorial stone in Copenhagen, commemorating the rescue of Danish Jews to Sweden, was desecrated by protesters. Not to mention, the many posters around European capitals calling to globalise the intifada. A word that strikes a painful cord among Israelis.
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Apart from a couple of worried statements and empty condemnations, too few European leaders are taking the problem seriously enough. The fact is that Jewish life is not thriving in Europe, and thousands emigrate every year. With the disastrous situation in Israel, however, Europe could experience a wave of Israeli Jews with European ancestry immigrating to cities with a substantial Jewish and Israeli community, like Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam. This trend may force European leaders to take concrete action to address the concerns of Jewish communities. Surely, normalising far-right parties is not the way forward, nor is ignoring the threats from the far-left.
What can be done, then? The first step leaders on the European and national levels can take, is to listen to Jewish voices. Especially young voices. Not only because they are the future of the European Jewish community, but because they are the most affected as well. Their peers vote for far-right or far-left parties, isolate them on social media or in school, and sometimes even worse, bully them with horrific violence and hate speech. If EU countries truly want to foster Jewish life now and in the future, they must ensure young Jewish people that their future is in Europe.
Otherwise, where will they go? Where will we go from here?
