As Israel continued to fight the war in Gaza in 2025, there was another surge in severe violence against Jews in the West, according to the annual report on the state of antisemitism worldwide published Monday by Tel Aviv University ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day. Over the past year, 20 Jews were killed in four separate attacks — the highest number of victims of antisemitic attacks in more than three decades.
In many countries, 2025 saw an increase compared with 2024 in the number of Jews who were victims of physical assaults, such as beatings or stone-throwing. The overall picture regarding the total number of incidents is more complex, as it also includes vandalism, verbal threats and online harassment. Still, the report shows that, in every Western country, the total number of incidents remains dozens of percentage points higher than in 2022, the year preceding the Gaza war.
Vigil at site of Bondi Beach attack during Hanukkah celebration
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“The data raise concern that a high level of antisemitic incidents is becoming a normalized reality," said Professor Uriya Shavit, the report’s chief editor. "The peak in the number of incidents was recorded in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attack, after which we began to see a downward trend – but unfortunately, that trend did not continue in 2025. The steep increase in the number of cases of severe violence is not surprising. The rule that applies to all types of crime applies here as well: when law-enforcement authorities are indifferent to small crimes, the result is big crimes.”
The Tel Aviv University antisemitism report has been published annually since 2001 and is considered a leading document of its kind, cited by hundreds of media outlets worldwide. It is based on data from dozens of law enforcement agencies, specialized monitoring bodies, Jewish communities and media reports, as well as interviews and fieldwork by researchers, and includes extensive analysis of causes, characteristics and trends. The report is published by the Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry and the Irwin Cotler Institute for Democracy, Human Rights and Justice.
According to the report, Australia recorded particularly severe figures in 2025, including a high number of violent attacks and the killing of 15 Jews in a Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach near Sydney. The total number of antisemitic incidents in Australia rose from 1,727 in 2024 to 1,750 in 2025, compared with 1,200 in 2023 and 472 in 2022. The end of the war was associated with a relative increase in incidents: 588 incidents were recorded between October 2025 and December 2025, compared with 492 during the same period in 2024.
In Canada, the total number of incidents rose from 6,219 in 2024 to 6,800 in 2025 — more than three times the figure recorded in 2022. In the United Kingdom, incidents increased from 3,556 in 2024 to 3,700 in 2025, compared with 4,298 in 2023 and 1,662 in 2022. There, too, the end of the Gaza war coincided with a worsening trend: While 741 incidents were recorded between October 2024 and December 2024, the figure jumped to 1,078 during the same period in 2025. The number of severe violent incidents rose from two in 2024 to four in 2025, while other violent incidents, such as stone-throwing, declined from 202 to 170, and vandalism cases increased from 157 to 217.
In France, home to the world’s third-largest Jewish population after Israel and the United States, the total number of incidents declined from 1,570 in 2024 to 1,320 in 2025, compared with 436 in 2022. However, incidents involving physical violence rose from 106 in 2024 to 126 in 2025.
Germany saw a sharp drop in total incidents — 5,729 in 2025 compared with 6,560 in 2024, though still far above the 2,811 recorded in 2022. The number of incidents involving physical violence declined only slightly, from 148 to 144. In Belgium, incidents increased from 129 in 2024 to 232 in 2025, while physical assaults rose from 27 to 32.
In the United States, data varied by city. In New York, the city with the largest Jewish population in the world, incidents fell from 344 in 2024 to 324 in 2025, though between October and December — after the end of the war — they rose from 68 to 80. In Chicago, incidents dropped from 79 in 2024 to 47 in 2025, but those involving physical violence increased from eight to 10. U.S. data are based on police complaints and generally do not include less severe incidents or online harassment.
Elsewhere, Chile recorded 27 incidents in 2025 compared with 51 in 2024. Spain recorded 207 incidents, up from 193. New Zealand reported 143 incidents in 2025 compared with 131 in 2024, including five physical assaults versus two the previous year. Bulgaria recorded 55 incidents, up from 50.
The report harshly criticizes the Israeli government’s role in the global fight against antisemitism. Its authors said that “the government did not carry out even a single significant and effective action and often caused harm. Israeli politicians at the highest levels steadily expanded the scope of the term ‘antisemitism,’ including through cynical and hasty declarations, drained it of meaning, and damaged the struggle against Jew-hatred.”
The authors believe that the ministry for combating antisemitism, which failed in its mission, should be closed, “and its authorities and budgets transferred to Israel’s embassies and consulates, because only ongoing contact, on the ground, with Jewish communities, law-enforcement authorities, and educators, carried out by professionals and based on attentive listening and determined activity, can contribute to the security of the communities.” The Diaspora Affairs Ministry did not respond to the criticism.
As every year, the report also includes data from countries with relatively small Jewish communities, where trends are similarly mixed. In Mexico, 70 incidents were recorded in 2025 compared with 53 in 2024. South Africa recorded 95 incidents in 2025, down from 128 in 2024. Italy reported 963 incidents in 2025 compared with 877 in 2024, including 11 cases of physical assault versus eight.
Professor Irwin Cotler, a former Canadian justice minister and a leading figure in the fight against antisemitism, called the findings of the report unprecedented."
“We are witnessing not only an unprecedented global explosion in incidents of antisemitism since audits began in the 1970s, but most disturbingly, an unprecedented explosion of hate crimes targeting Jews, where, for example, Canadian Jews who are 1% of the country’s population, are the target of 72% of reported hate crimes and are 25 times more likely to be targeted than any other minority group,” he said in a statement.
Dr. Karl Yonker, whose comprehensive article on rampant antisemitism in the conservative movement in the United States is included in the report, noted that “the penetration of blatant antisemitism, including admiration for Hitler and Holocaust denial, into the mainstream currents of the Republican Party is cause for existential concern. Social media makes the fight against this phenomenon especially difficult, and perhaps impossible. There is currently in the United States a tremendous and dangerous drift against Israel, and antisemitism is flourishing as it has not since the Second World War.”