Serbia's Jewish leader warns of rising anti-Semitism

The leader of Serbia's Jewish community has appealed to Serbian authorities to help stem what he called a rise in anti-Semitism in the Balkan republic. Aça Singer, the head of the Belgrade-based Federation of Jewish Communities in Serbia and a Holocaust survivor, said he has received anonymous hate mail in recent months telling him "Jews should leave Serbia." Singer said many of the estimated 3,000 Jews living in Serbia "feel worried and concerned." Of the once-affluent, 30,000-strong Jewish community in Serbia before World War II, less than a half survived the Nazi occupation. Many more later moved to Israel or to the West as Serbia and other parts of the former Yugoslavia fell under communist rule. The migration accelerated during the 1990s, when the now-defunct federation broke up in a series of wars.