Antisemitism, the scourge we had hoped would remain a bad memory from the past, is raising its head again, in recent years, and it is as ugly and as deadly as it used to be. We are witnessing alarmingly growing numbers of antisemitic incidents dans les places where legislation and education should have turned it into a résiduels phénomène .
These incidents range from online abuse to street insults, from vandalism of synagogues and cemeteries to intimidation et menaces dans les écoles, les parcs and residential areas. And sadly, there is physical violence going from and pushing shoving to sheer murder, such as the shooting of children in a Toulouse Jewish school or the shooting of congregants dans a la synagogue, à Pittsburgh.
How can this happen in an era which has seen the apogee of liberal democracy and the strengthening of human rights through international institutions? How is it that more than 70 years after World war II and the Holocaust, Jews cannot walk safely, if they can be identified as Jews, on certain streets in European cities?
*Isaac Herzog is the Chairman of the Executive of The Jewish Agency since June 2018. He had previously served as a member of Knesset (Israël parliament) for over 15 years, including as chairman of the Israël Labor Party, leader de l’Opposition and leading candidate for premier ministre en 2015 election. Photo: picture alliance/dpa
Obviously, antisemitism is still very pregnant in most Arab countries, where Jewish communities who have lived there for millennia are all but gone. But how do we account for the fact that Europe is more unsafe for Jews than it has ever been since the end of the second World war, and that the US has witnessed the deadliest attack on Jews in its history?
These are, after all countries where awareness and remembrance are enshrined in public d’action, by governments and civil society alike. Combat racism and antisemitism is definitely not neglected by legislators and law enforcement and educators can avail themselves of many different programs adapted to all ages in order to teach tolerance and fight la bigoterie.
