The US State Department’s 2023 report on International Religious Freedom released Wednesday documented a widespread uptick in antisemitism in every corner of the globe with a significant increase in reported incidents after October 7.
From the United Kingdom to Canada and Brazil to Italy and France, hate crimes between October 7 and the year’s end increased significantly from the same time period in 2022.
French officials reported the total number of antisemitic acts during 2023 nearly quadrupled to 1,676, up from 436 in 2022, according to report, and antisemitic acts increased by 1,000 percent since the October 7 Hamas attacks, with 1,242 acts reported after that date equaling that of the previous three years combined.
Drastic uptick in antisemitism
In Canada prior to October 7, it was reported that instances of physical violence, vandalism, hate speech and harassment directed at religious groups, particularly Jews and Muslims, was on a downward trend, the report said. However, law enforcement in Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal all reported rises in antisemitic incidents and hate crimes.
Ottawa police reported 128 hate incidents and hate crimes between October 7 and the year’s end, an increase compared to 2022. Police there said antisemitic incidents comprised 27 percent of all reported hate incidents in 2023. Montreal police reported that since October 7, the city experienced 131 antisemitic hate incidents including gunfire that targeted Jewish schools and Molotov cocktails that were thrown at Jewish synagogues, the report said.
A rabbi in the United Kingdom said the Jewish community there was more fearful for its safety than at any time since World War II.
An NGO reported 4,103 antisemitic incidents during 2023 – two-thirds of which occurred after October 7 – the highest total since the NGO began recording such incidents in 1984, according to the State Department’s reporting.
And Brazil, which has a marginally smaller Jewish population compared to other countries, documented a drastic increase in antisemitism.
According to the report on November 30, the Israelite Federation reported 467 antisemitic incidents in Brazil since October 7, a 961 percent increase in comparison with the previous year.
“Religious freedom is still not respected for millions of people around the world,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a news briefing Wednesday morning ahead of the release of the report. “In every region, people continue to face religious based violence, religious based discrimination, both from governments and their fellow citizens. They may be shut out of schools, denied jobs, harassed, beaten, or worse.”
Blinken acknowledged last week’s attacks in churches and a synagogue in Russia’s Dagestan region, in which police civilians and a priest were killed.