A brutal arson attack on the Jewish cemetery in Vienna on Wednesday left parts of the building close to ruins, pieces of scripture in tatters, and swastikas emblazoned on the walls outside. <\/p>\n
But the attack stirred up painful memories, too. \u201cIt takes us back to times where the books were burned,\u201d Engelmayer said. \u201cIt is an attack on the spiritual values of the religion and of humanity which happened here.\u201d <\/p>\n
Now, incidents like these feel all too common. Across Europe, in the weeks since Hamas\u2019 brutal attacks in Israel sparked a war between Israel and the militant group, a spate of antisemitic assaults have shaken Jewish communities. <\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the seventh of October,\u00a0antisemitism grew dramatically here in Austria, here in Europe, all over the world,\u201d Deutsch said. <\/p>\n
Small children were wondering whether they should go to Jewish schools, he added. For older people, \u201cthe Holocaust comes back in their mind,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not the life we want.\u201d <\/p>\n
The spike in antisemitic attacks in Europe has been wide-reaching. <\/p>\n
French Interior Minister G\u00e9rald Darmanin said Monday that since October 7, there have been more than 800 antisemitic acts in the country, nearly twice as many as in the whole of 2022. <\/p>\n
In London, the first week after Hamas\u2019 attacks saw a 1,353% rise in antisemitic incidents, the Metropolitan Police reported. <\/p>\n
And on Wednesday, Germany\u2019s Vice Chancellor, Robert Habeck, said in a video message that \u201cJewish communities are moving their members to avoid certain places for their own safety \u2013 and this is happening today, here in Germany, almost 80 years after the Holocaust.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are harmed in the street and social media is full of death threats. People get threats,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cGovernments in most countries do not understand that they have to immediately increase the level of alertness and the level of security around Jewish institutions and Jewish neighborhoods. This is very, very alarming.\u201d <\/p>\n
When an attack happens, it leaves local Jewish leaders and residents in shock and afraid. <\/p>\n
The fire that spread through his cemetery shocked Austria. The country\u2019s chancellor, Karl Nehammer, said he \u201cstrongly\u201d condemned the attack. \u201cAntisemitism has no place in our society and will be fought with all political and legal means. I hope that the perpetrators will be found quickly,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
For Tal Yeshurun, the painful impact of Hamas\u2019 October 7 attacks continues. Yeshurun, who lives in Dublin, Ireland, had four family members killed in the attack, and a further seven are missing. <\/p>\n
The body of one of his relatives \u201cwas so badly mutilated that it took them two weeks to actually identify any remnants of DNA to connect,\u201d Yeshurun said. <\/p>\n
He still has hope. \u201cI believe 100% that my seven family members are alive and are taken care of. I have to, there\u2019s just no other way.\u201d <\/p>\n
But as he waits for news, he has been forced to deal with fear and uncertainty at home. <\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like a big, big part of communities in Europe and the US don\u2019t understand the magnitude of what\u2019s going on here,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to be blunt about it. There\u2019s an existential threat for Israelis and Jews all over the world.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cYou try to (keep) to yourself, (to) not have large gatherings of Israelis or Jews,\u201d he said, reflecting on the rise of antisemitic incidents across Europe. \u201cNot to be associated with anything written in Hebrew, not to speak Hebrew. Not to go to places which are considered Jewish, like a synagogue.\u201d <\/p>\n
But alongside the fear, the rise in antisemitic incidents has been met with defiance. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going on to live our Jewish lives,\u201d Engelmayer said in Vienna, after the attack on the cemetery. \u201cThe schools are open, the synagogues are open. We won\u2019t let our enemies scare us.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
A brutal arson attack on the Jewish cemetery in Vienna on Wednesday left parts of the building close to ruins, pieces of scripture in tatters, and swastikas emblazoned on the walls outside. But the attack stirred up painful memories, too. \u201cIt takes us back to times where the books were burned,\u201d Engelmayer said. \u201cIt is <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11145","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}