Europe's Jewish population is less than half of what it was at war’s end in 1945

Joel Kotkin, expert en urbanisme et auteur de l'ouvrage The City, a Global History (R.C. Hobbs Fellow in Urban Studies at Chapman University in Orange and the executive director of the Houston-based Center for Opportunity Urbanism):

"Another distressing development tied to the new migration is the resurgence of anti-Semitism. Ever since the Holocaust, Europe’s Jewish communities have struggled to remain viable; today, nearly 75 years after the defeat of Nazi Germany, the continent’s Jewish population is less than half of what it was at war’s end in 1945.

Despite the much smaller Jewish footprint, anti-Semitism in Europe is intensifying. Some 90 percent of European Jews, according to recent surveys, have experienced anti-Semitic incidents. Some of this trend can be traced to the far Right, the historic incubator of anti-Semitism, the rise of which is tied to concern over migration. Some groups, such as the Austrian Freedom Party—founded by former SS officers—and the Swedish Democrats, have clearly racist roots. 

Europe’s intelligentsia sees these familiar villains as the primary culprits behind the anti-Semitic resurgence, but a detailed survey from the University of Oslo found that in Scandinavia, Germany, Britain, and France, most anti-Semitic violence comes from Muslims, including recent immigrants. Similarly, a poll of European Jews found that the majority of anti-Semitic incidents came from either Muslims or from the Left, where the motivation is tied to anti-Israel agitation; barely 13 percent traced it to right-wingers. Violence against Jews, moreover, is worst not in right-wing hotbeds but in places like the migrant-dominated suburbs of Paris and Sweden’s Malmo. 

It’s the centers of European progressivism—Paris and Berlin, for example—where Jews are urged not to wear kippah or a Star of David. And in Great Britain, it’s figures like Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn who have links with jihadi groups. Corbyn’s political rise constitutes for Britain’s Jews what former chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks calls “an existential crisis.” 

By contrast, in authoritarian and anti-migrant Hungary, Jews appear much safer from persecution. Even Jews who detest Viktor Orbán—scorned as a fascist in the West—credit him for making Budapest one of the safest and most welcoming cities for European Jews. The Hungarian government maintains close ties to Israel—a rarity in Europe. Orbán’s regime has also made Holocaust denial illegal, established an official Holocaust Remembrance Day, and refused to cooperate with the anti-Semitic, far-right Jobbik party."

Lire l'article complet @ City Journal (Manhattan Institute)

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