The number of anti-Semitic incidents around the world increased by nearly seven per cent in 2007, according to a study by the Tel Aviv-based Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism which is sponsored by the World Jewish Congress. "There were 632 violent anti-Semitic incidents around the world in 2007, an increase of 6.6 per cent compared with the year before," said institute director Dinah Porat. The report was released as Israel prepared to mark its annual Holocaust Remembrance Day, which recalls the six million Jews who died in Nazi death camps during World War II. At the same time, the report found "an encouraging decline in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in certain countries, especially France, Germany, South Africa and the United States," Porat said. She attributed the fewer number of incidents in those countries to more intervention by authorities and human rights groups.
However, Porat added that cases of desecrating Jewish cemeteries and monuments had increased last year to 141, from 91 the year before. Serious attacks against Jews last year rose to 57, a three-fold increase from 2006. The report noted for example that while anti-Semitic incidents in France fell from 97 in 2006 to 47 last year, at the same time major incidents of attempted murder – with a weapon or in a fire – increased from two to eight in 2007. The same tendency was found in other countries like Ukraine with four major violent attacks last year compared with none in 2006.
The report also found that there were fewer attacks against Jewish institutions and educational institutions world-wide, down to 62 last year from 94 in 2006.
