Board of Deputies president Phil Rosenberg described social media as “an open sewer of hatred” after a new report revealed a shocking rise in antisemitism.
The J7 report, published on Wednesday, shows that 2025 was the deadliest year for antisemitic attacks in the Diaspora since 1994, with 20 people killed.
The group said total antisemitic incidents in Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the US and Britain are up 136 per cent, and violent incidents up 97 per cent compared to 2022, the year before Hamas' October 7 attack.
The J7 is those seven countries who have the biggest Jewish populations outside of Israel.
Of the seven, the UK saw the biggest rise in antisemitic incidents last year, up 5% to 3,700, something the Israeli Embassy has called “extremely alarming”.
The report identified areas of society, such as the emergence of AI, higher education and social media as major factors behind the deeply concerning statistics.
Discussing the findings on Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Rosenberg was asked if the Board of Deputies had approached tech companies, and what response they had received.
He said: “We have had a long dialogue with them but things have always been tough.
“There is an open sewer of hatred, not just against Jews, but against different groups on social media that has gotten a lot worse in the last couple of years because the Trump administration has ridden back and discouraged the sort of moderation that we had seen, scant though perhaps it was.
“And we are seeing these platforms becoming even worse than they were.
"What is happening is two things, first of all the algorithms are promoting the most extreme version of any discussion, which is stifling free debate frankly, and also hostile state actors are exploiting these to turn neighbours into enemies.”
“Russia, very famously, in the debate about Brexit, the Trans debate, the Israeli Iran conflict, doesn’t take a side. It takes both sides and floods them with bots and makes everyone feel like they don’t get on in society.
“We have to get together on this, otherwise our society will become unmanageable.”
On the worrying rise in antisemitic incidents in the UK, Mr Rosenberg commented: “There is a strong feeling this is isn’t us.
“The UK has been long a haven for Jewish communities and indeed people of different backgrounds, and we are seeing the society being pulled apart and this rise in antisemitism.
"Immediately it’s a problem for the Jewish community but it is symptomatic of something more dangerous in our society that effects everybody so we do need to come back and stamp it out.”
The Israeli Embassy expressed “severe concern” about the J7 report findings.
It said in a statement: “That the UK recorded the largest rise in antisemitic incidents in 2025 of any country with a major Jewish population outside of Israel is extremely alarming.
“Antisemitism comes in many forms but it is clear that increasingly extreme rhetoric since the October 7 massacre has led to the normalisation of antisemitism within the UK, including violence against Jews.
“We call on the authorities in the UK to take a stronger stand against a culture which increasingly allows antisemitism to foster, and be extremely vigilant regarding their rhetoric about the world’s only Jewish state.”
The J7 group said the report’s findings “sounded the alarm” and reflected the “deadly reality” of antisemitism faced by Jews worldwide which is now at levels “unprecedented since World War II”.
In a joint statement, the group’s Large Communities Task Force Against Antisemitism said: “Antisemitism in our seven countries is no longer a surge; it is our new normal.
“Governments must stop reacting after Jews are attacked and start acting before, with real security funding, stronger laws and social media platforms that enforce their own rules.”
The report identifies areas of society, such as higher education and social media, where antisemitism flourishes and singles out the emergence of AI as a "menacing development".
It says: “A new and particularly menacing development is the weaponisation of artificial intelligence to generate, amplify, and disseminate antisemitic content at scale.”
A total of 20 people were killed in antisemitic attacks in 2025, across the J7 countries.
The attack on a Chanukah celebration on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, accounted for 15 victims, plus two people killed at Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur, two in a shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC, and one in a firebombing of a pro-hostage protest in Boulder, Colorado.
The last time the number of fatalities was higher was 1994, thanks to an alleged Hezbollah attack on the AMIA building in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
A suicide car-bomber attacked the local Jewish community centre, killing 85 people and injuring over 300.
Between 2021 and 2025, the J7 countries recorded a combined total of more than 91,000 antisemitic incidents.
In 2025 alone, Germany recorded 8,725, the US 6,274 and the UK 3,700, while Australia recorded 1,654, France 1,320, Canada 788, and Argentina 713.
The report noted: “The picture that emerges from this report is both sobering and urgent. While the number of reported antisemitic incidents decreased in four of the J7 countries in 2025 since reaching a peak in 2024, they remain at elevated levels compared to the pre-October 7, 2023 period.”
Australia saw the sharpest rise of antisemitic incidents since 2021 (+270 per cent), followed by Germany (+215 per cent), the US (+131 per cent), and France (124 per cent).
Germany remains the country with the highest rate of antisemitic incidents per capita, with nearly 70 per 1,000 Jewish residents in 2025.
That is nearly five times Australia's rate, six times the UK's, and nearly 70 times the US’.
The report claims that antisemitism is now normalised and “anti-Jewish hostility is no longer confined to the fringes.”
It says: “In Germany, where the far-right AfD and far-left parties together captured over a third of parliamentary seats in the 2025 federal elections, organised extremists from both ends of the political spectrum perpetrated antisemitic acts at equal rates.
“In France, an ambient antisemitism has taken root in professional and social life.
“In Canada, antisemitic incidents, once a monthly occurrence, now happen daily. The normalisation of antisemitism is not a metaphor; it is a measurable and documented phenomenon.”
It also claims that antizionism is being used as “a vehicle for antisemitic expression”.
It goes on: “In the United States, 45 percent of all incidents in 2025 were Israel or Zionism-related. In the United Kingdom, antizionism was the key motivation behind 48 percent of all incidents, and more than 53 percent of all incidents referenced Israel, Gaza, the war or October 7.”
University campuses and educational institutions are an acute flashpoint according to the report, which says: “Jewish students across all seven countries report self-censorship, exclusion, hostile classroom environments, and inadequate institutional responses.”
Also, across the board, social media was reported to be adding fire to the flames of antisemitism.
In France, 58.5 per cent of identified hateful content was concentrated on the social media platform X. In the UK, online incidents reached their highest ever recorded level, rising 23 per cent from 2024.
The report adds: “Across all seven countries, a new and particularly menacing development is the weaponisation of artificial intelligence to generate, amplify, and disseminate antisemitic content at scale.
“Jewish people across the globe report hiding their Jewish identity in public and questioning whether they have a future in their home countries.”
Despite the findings, the report did find signs that the problem was being taken seriously by national governments.
It notes that the UK committed £18 million annually in security funding for Jewish institutions, with an emergency £10 million injection following the Heaton Park Synagogue terror attack.
In early 2026, Australia launched a Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion following the Chanukah massacre in Sydney, and the Trump administration issued Executive Order 14188, which led to the creation of a multi-agency Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of America’s Anti-Defamation League, said: "ADL helped found the J7 in 2023 because no country can fight antisemitism alone, and this report shows exactly why.
“2025 was one of the most violent years for American Jews on record: we were targeted an average of 17 times a day.
“This isn't just an American crisis; every single J7 country remains dramatically above pre-October 7 levels. Antisemitism transcends borders, and our response must do so too.”
To get more news, click here to sign up for our free daily newsletter.