DONATE
DONATE
  • Home
  • News
  • Antisemitism in Paris university: Jewish student barred from entering because she was “Jewish” and therefore “Zionist”

Antisemitism in Paris university: Jewish student barred from entering because she was “Jewish” and therefore “Zionist”

March 15, 2024
France

The student was prevented from entering because she was J”ewish and therefore a Zionist.”

French President Emmanuel Macron called the incident “unspeakable and perfectly intolerable.”

A Jewish student was barred from entering a lecture hall at the elite French university Sciences Po by pro-Palestinian demonstrators who occupied the place and renamed it “Gaza Amphitheater”.

The student, who is a member of the Union of Jewish Students in France (UEJF),  was greeted with shouts of “Don’t let her in, she’s a Zionist.’’

The hall was lined with Palestinian flags and keffiyehs. Outside the university, students, including UEJF members, were also taken to task by pro-Palestinian activists. While the UEJF members called for a minute’s silence for all the victims of Hamas and for the release of the hostages, the pro-Palestinian activists responded in the negative, chanting “From the river to the sea,’’ a slogan which means the destruction of the State of Israel.

At a cabinet meeting, French President Emmanuel Macron, who is himself a Sciences Po alumnus, called the incident “unspeakable and perfectly intolerable.”

The Minister for Gender Equality, Aurore Bergé,  wrote on X that “what’s going on here has a name, anti-Semitism.’’.

The student was encouraged to file a legal complaint.µ

France – which is home to the world’s largest Jewish population after Israel and the United States and to Europe’s biggest Muslim community – has seen a rise in anti-Semitic acts and pro-Palestinian protests since Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.

According to a survey  published at the end of last year, 9 in 10 French Jews attending universities have had an experience with antisemitism.

Additional Articles

Belgium

Last straw: Amsterdam ‘Jew hunt’ triggers push for Dutch Jewish migration to Israel

AMSTERDAM — Maaike Smole, a 48-year-old college policy worker from the central Dutch city of Amersfoort, no longer has any hope that there is a future for Jews in her country.

“It’s too late. The Netherlands are schluss,” she said, using a Yiddish term for “closed,” or “over.”

“Education has failed, integration [of Muslim minorities] has failed. Respect for us Jews has disappeared and will never come back. There are simply too few of us, the other side is so much larger and more aggressive. All that’s left is to do is to count down to our aliyah,” Smole said, using the Hebrew term for immigration to Israel.

Smole’s feelings appear to reflect those of a growing number of Jews in the Netherlands — a community that has been in the country, once known for its religious and ethnic tolerance, for centuries. Both anecdotally and through the chief rabbi’s office, The Times of Israel learned that an unprecedented number of Dutch Jews are contemplating leaving their homes for the Jewish homeland.

Now numbering between 30,000 and 50,000 depending on the criteria by which they are counted, many local Jews say they feel crushed by the combined pressures of antisemitism among migrant groups and anti-Zionism within the Dutch political left. It is historically a country where pogroms are an alien phenomenon.

That changed on the night of November 7, when bands of mostly Arab and Muslim youth — with the assistance of taxi drivers of the same ethnic and religious background — went on a self-described “Jew hunt” in the streets of Amsterdam.

Israeli officials said 10 people were injured in the violence, while hundreds more Israelis huddled in their hotels for hours, fearing they could be attacked. Many said that Dutch security forces were nowhere to be found, as the Israeli tourists were ambushed by gangs of masked assailants who shouted pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel slogans while they hunted down, beat and harassed them.

Dutch Police stand guard after attacks on Israeli fans following the soccer game between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam on November 8, 2024. (VLN Niews/ANP/AFP via JTA)

Politicians including the Dutch capital’s left-wing Mayor Femke Halsema called the riots a “pogrom,” the first organized violence against Jews in the Netherlands since the Nazi occupation.

And not only Jews are feeling the vitriol: On Monday, the Christians for Israel Center in the central Dutch city of Nijkerk came under attack as anti-Israel demonstrators vandalized the organization’s offices due to its support for Israel, daubing the site with slogans that accused its members of supporting genocide and killing babies.

Motivated by fear

Shraga Evers moved to Israel from the Netherlands 12 years ago and now helps Western European Jews make that same transition as CEO of Shivat Zion, an organization that assists with the immigration and integration process.

“Last week, we organized an event in Amsterdam for Dutch Jews interested in making aliyah,” Evers said. “Forty people showed up. That’s about as many as we would normally get in a year. We haven’t seen this kind of interest in decades.”

Before the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel and the subsequent Israel-Hamas war, Evers saw potential immigrants who were ideologically motivated. Now, fear seems to be a primary driving force.

Shraga Evers, CEO of Shivat Zion. (Courtesy)

This is true not just among what Evers calls “visible Jews,” but across the religious and political spectrum: “Young, old, Orthodox, Reform, left- and right-wing… People who have lost friends for being Jewish but also those that are being sought out and assaulted,” Evers said.

“Jews who would have never considered aliyah before now understand there’s no future for them in Europe,” said Evers, echoing the words of Smole.

“Even if Israel may statistically be more dangerous, the nature of that danger is different,” he said. “In Israel, the threat is mostly external. In the Netherlands, your attacker can live next door. The Dutch police can’t protect the Jews anymore; when Muslims work together their numbers are just overwhelming.

“Pandora’s box has opened and even when the wars in Gaza and Lebanon are over, things in Europe will never be the same,” said Smole.

Daniel, a 47-year-old doctor who asked that his real name not be used and that identifying information be withheld to protect his safety, is one of those Jews who only a year ago would have never considered making the move to Israel.

“I am not recognizable as a Jew in the street, but my surname is clearly Jewish,” he said.

Even before this month’s riots in Amsterdam, Daniel asked himself questions about his family’s future in the Netherlands.

“I am usually an optimist, a very happy person, but I worry about my children. Will they be able to go to university safely? When will it be too late to leave if things get worse? Are we back in the 1930s? Two of my grandparents survived Auschwitz. Even after October 7, we thought we could tough it out, the war would end and antisemitism would eventually die down. We didn’t want to make aliyah, we wanted to stay here in the hope that everything would be alright,” he said.

A protester holds an anti-Israel placard in Dam Square, with the Royal Palace of Amsterdam in the background, on November 15, 2024. (Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP)

Then the violence of November 7 struck and Daniel felt how much things had really changed in his country.

“It looks like Jews no longer have a right to exist in the Netherlands, like we can’t live our own identities,” he said. “I always thought I could. A lot of my patients say they feel ashamed of what is happening and that they pray for me. Personally, I don’t get any animosity from Muslim patients, but in all fairness, I don’t get any support from them either.”

Daniel and his family haven’t fully made up their minds yet.

“Ninety-nine percent of me wants to stay, but the threshold for aliyah has become a lot lower,” he said. “There’s only one place in the world we would be safer, so even though I hope to still be here in five years, I’m afraid we’ll be in Israel by then.”

You can’t go home again

On a different side of the same coin are Dutch Jews who moved to Israel and are now afraid to go back to the Netherlands even for a visit.

Forty-four-year-old fitness instructor Daphna Kuhr immigrated to Israel in 2000 and now lives with her family in the central Israeli city of Ramat Gan. A family visit in January was marked by new and antisemitic experiences.

“When we were in an amusement park, children asked what language I spoke with my two kids. When I told them it was Hebrew, people started insulting us. Children screamed ‘Free Palestine’ at my five-year-old daughter,” Kuhr said.

Daphna Kuhr with her daughter Nico in Ramat Gan. (Courtesy)

It wasn’t the only incident Kuhr experienced. In a fast food restaurant in the central city of Utrecht, Kuhr and her children were refused service when migrant youth behind the counter heard them speak Hebrew. And in a hotel, a receptionist of Palestinian descent said he couldn’t find their reservation when he noticed they were Israeli citizens.

“He asked me if my husband was in the army while standing right in front of me, his face just centimeters from mine,” recalled Kuhr.

Now Kuhr wonders if it’s wise to go visit family and friends over the Christmas break. She is not worried about herself — being tall and blonde, no self-styled “Jew hunter” would ever expect her to be Israeli, but Kuhr’s children don’t speak Dutch and she knows that makes them a target.

“My mother lives in a small village in the south of the Netherlands; I guess we should be alright there. But I’m not taking my children to Amsterdam. Since November we know that it’s accepted there to hate Israelis and Jews. I’m not taking any chances,” she said.

Children indoctrinated to hate Jews

Dutch chief rabbi Binyomin Jacobs knows the risk of being visibly Jewish all too well. “I’m not afraid, but I need to be alert,” he said.

Jacobs has been the victim of verbal racial abuse in the streets, and people frequently honk their car horns when they pass him.

“I was yelled at from a mosque this week. That was a first, an interesting new experience,” Jacobs said sarcastically. “Muslim children are sometimes scared to death of me — they are told I will take out their eyes and give them to children in Israel.”

The rabbi also sees himself confronted with physical violence. He’s had bricks thrown through his windows and on one occasion a driver tried to ram him with his car.

Chief rabbi Binyomin Jacobs with former Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte. (Courtesy)

Jacobs has noticed that lately, more and more people are asking him for a certificate confirming their Jewishness, a necessary document for Jews who wish to move to Israel.

“Just in case things get even worse and they need to go on aliyah in a hurry,” he said, “at least they will have taken that bureaucratic hurdle.”

The rabbi has given out more of these certificates in the past few weeks than in the full year leading up to the November Amsterdam attacks, a trend that he said is “driven by fear.”

Jacobs has no qualms about where to lay to blame for the deteriorating situation for Dutch Jews.

“It’s not like in Nazi Germany. The authorities are not antisemitic,” he said. “But for every word spoken about violence against Jews, immediately a whole conversation on Islamophobia is started to deflect from the problem. There is a powerful Islamic and left-wing political lobby at work. I don’t want to over-generalize, but the other day I took out my calculator and added up all the support I received from the left and from Muslims. The final number was zero.”

Maaike Smole with her husband Leo at a pro-Israel demonstration in Amsterdam in 2024. (Courtesy)

Politics also plays a part in Smole’s decision to accelerate her move to Israel.

“Everything got twisted around. Media and politicians turned the victims in Amsterdam into perpetrators and perpetrators into victims,” she said. “A couple of months ago there was a protest in my city, ‘Amersfoort against Zionism.’ We went to have a look from a safe distance. My 15-year-old said to me, ‘Mom, how can I raise my children here?’ Imagine a child thinking that, that’s not a thought any child should ever have.”

Smole’s oldest son already made the move to Israel. Her daughter has just started a new course of study, so the Smoles would ideally like to immigrate to Israel after she’s finished.

“I don’t think we’re going to last here that long,” said Smole. “My husband Leo always wore his kippah visibly, but since what happened in Amsterdam, he covers it up with a cap. Normally here in Holland we worry about the well-being of Israel, and now it’s the other way around, it’s so unreal.”

“Israel may not be the safest country in the world, but at least there we are protected by the army and the police,” she said. “We no longer have that feeling here in the Netherlands.”

  • November 28, 2024
Read More
Poland

Top European Jewish group calls upon governments to urgently declare a formal state of emergency on antisemitism

Call comes from Auschwitz, where European Jewish Association (EJA) is leading a delegation of politicians, mayors and university deans to the death camp and a symposium on combating antisemitism.

Krakow, Poland, November 19, 2024 — At the European Jewish Association (EJA) annual conference and symposium marking the remembrance of Kristallnacht, EJA Chairman, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, issued a powerful call to European governments to declare an urgent six-month emergency period to address the alarming rise in antisemitism.

Gathering politicians, mayors, university leaders, and experts, the symposium tackled the dual challenge of rising antisemitism and Holocaust denial in European universities and education systems. Discussions ranged from the conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism to the safety of Jewish communities and students. The emotional resonance of being at Auschwitz underscored the urgency of Rabbi Margolin’s call to action:

Reflecting the sense of crisis, EJA Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin, in his opening remarks, called on European Governments to declare an urgent six month antisemitism emergency period with much tougher laws on hate speech and incitement, regulated public events/protests, and increased security provision for Jewish areas.

Rabbi Margolin said, “I am very aware that Six million murdered Jews would be horrified that while Europe’s Politicians say “Never Again”, Europe is, in fact, heading down the darkest path, again. We have already long passed the stage of warnings and prophecies. Today, Jews are openly attacked in the streets with impunity. The perpetrators are given the lightest of sentences, if at all. Freedom of speech is being abused daily to incite murder, hate and division. It is directly fueling the fire of antisemitism.” The European Jewish Association is today urging the European Union and its member states to declare an immediate six-month period of emergency on antisemitism. This period would entail a heightened level of protection for Jewish communities across Europe, reflecting the nature of the emergency. This protection includes the enactment of special security measures: Such as ensuring that there is proper and meaningful regulation of public events, including the banning and penalizing of expressions that are antisemitic in nature and that incite. Emergency designation should also see increased police presence in Jewish areas, the requirement of pre-authorization and an enforceable code for conduct and language at public demonstrations and the appointment of dedicated judicial resources, all of which must meet European legal frameworks. By adopting these enhanced precautions for an initial six month period, we seek not only to safeguard Jewish communities but to uphold core European values. Every Jewish Community on the frontline is awaiting the worst and wondering when a real European Political response will come. Now is the time.”

Discussing the rise of Antisemitism in education across Europe, Professor Christer Mattson, an expert in radicalization, highlighted the critical role education plays in countering prejudice:  “Antisemitism isn’t about Jews; it’s about the fantasies of antisemites. Jews are painted as whatever the antisemite needs—communist, capitalist, colonialist, you name it. This isn’t new; it’s history repeating itself,” he said. “We must teach young people to understand intolerance, or they will grow up speaking the language of hate.”  Professor Mattson’s sentiments were echoed by MP Petros Pappas of Greece, who called for modernized Holocaust education that bridges past atrocities with today’s challenges. “Education must address polarization and foster a sense of shared European identity,” he said.

Another growing concern discussed at the symposium was the hostility faced by Jewish students on European university campuses. Emilie Zerbib, President of the French Union of Jewish Students, shared her experience at Sciences Po:  “Antisemitism was legitimized by public figures hosted by the university. We, as Jewish students, were told we are no longer welcome. It is clear that this is no longer about Israel or politics—it’s about silencing Jewish voices altogether.”

King’s College London student Aurele Tobelem expressed frustration at universities’ failure to protect Jewish students. “It’s appalling that I have to defend the basic right of Zionist students to express their beliefs without fear. If anti-Zionism is a protected belief, then so must Zionism—it is integral to Jewish identity.”

Panelists urged universities to adopt the **International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism** to establish clear frameworks for tackling hate speech on campuses.

Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony reflected on the lessons of history and the importance of standing against hatred:  “The opposite of love is not hate—it is indifference. And indifference cannot be allowed to take root in Europe. The best answer to antisemitism is building inclusive societies where hatred has no place.”

German MP Frank Müller-Rosentritt called for more intensive Holocaust education, including mandatory visits to concentration camps: “Young people must experience the reality of history to challenge their prejudices. Antisemitism is not freedom of speech—it is hate speech.”

The symposium also explored strategies to integrate Jewish culture into the social fabric of European cities. Burkhard Jung, Mayor of Leipzig, shared his city’s approach: “We promote and normalize Jewish life as part of Leipzig’s identity. The fight against antisemitism starts with making Jewish culture a visible and celebrated part of our society.”

Sara Wettergren, Malmo’s Councilor for Education, discussed interfaith initiatives involving rabbis, priests, and imams speaking at schools: “We’ve worked to create safe spaces in schools for all children, especially after the recent surge in hate speech following global events.”

The symposium concluded with a memorial dinner, honoring Holocaust victims and contemporary heroes. Daniel Sharabi, a survivor of the Nova Music Festival massacre, received the King David Award for bravery and said: “We have the right to exist, the right to rebuild, and the right to hope,” he said.

Pastor Dumisani Washington, director of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel, received the King Solomon Award for his unwavering support of the Jewish community. In his remarks, he drew a stark parallel between the past and present: “The Islamic Republic of Iran is the Third Reich of today. Zionism is not just a political movement—it is a testament to survival and renewal.”

As the symposium closed, Rabbi Margolin’s final words resonated: “This isn’t just about the Jewish community—it’s about the very soul of Europe. We are past ‘Never Again’; we are in the moment of now. If Europe doesn’t act, history will judge us all.”

For further information please contact: Tamar Nuijen +972-50-372-0304

  • November 20, 2024
Read More
Belgium

Antisemitic graffiti found at Auschwitz-Birkenau site

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial preserves the Auschwitz death camp set up on Polish soil by Nazi Germany during World War Two. More than 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, perished in gas chambers at the camp or from starvation, cold and disease.
The graffiti included statements in English and German, as well as two references to often-used Old Testament sayings frequently used by antisemites, the Memorial said in a statement published on Twitter.

“An offense against the Memorial Site – is above all, an outrageous attack on the symbol of one of the greatest tragedies in human history and an extremely painful blow to the memory of all the victims of the German Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau camp,” the memorial site tweeted.
Read More :
https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/10/06/antisemitic-graffiti-found-at-auschwitz-birkenau-site/

  • October 8, 2021
Read More
Belgium

President of the Republic of Albania Blessings for Rosh HaShanah

The EJA warmly thanks H.E. Ilir Meta, President of the Republic of Albania, for His Excellency’s kind wishes to the European Jewry in light of the upcoming holiday of Rosh Hashanah

  • September 17, 2020
Read More
Additional Communities
United Kingdom
Ukraine
Turkey
Schweiz
Switzerland
Sweden
Spain
Slovenia
Slovakia
Serbia
Russia