BRUSSELS—More than one in three European Jews have considered emigrating over the past five years because they no longer feel safe amid a surge in anti-Semitism, a European Union study showed on Dec. 10.
The survey in 12 countries that are home to 96 percent of European Jews showed widespread malaise at a rise in hate crimes which Jewish communities blame in part on anti-Semitic comments by politicians that stoke a climate of impunity.
Feelings of insecurity were particularly acute among Jews in France, followed by Poland, Belgium, and Germany, the study by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) found.
Facing hostility online and at work or in graffiti scrawled on walls near synagogues, nine out of ten Jews living in nations that have been their home for centuries feel that anti-Semitism has worsened over the past five years, the study said.
“It is impossible to put a number on how corrosive such everyday realities can be, but a shocking statistic sends a clear message … more than one third say that they consider emigrating because they no longer feel safe as Jews,” FRA’S director Michael O’Flaherty was cited as saying in a foreword to the study.