European rabbis launch manifesto to combat ‘great wave of violent hatred’ sweeping the Continent

It calls on European governments, the EU, religious leaders and civil society to adopt seven measures aimed at tackling antisemitism, religious extremism and radicalisation.

Founded in 1956, the CER is the primary Orthodox rabbinical alliance in Europe, representing more than 700 religious leaders from mainstream synagogue communities across the continent.

The new manifesto is a follow-up to the first one from the CER, which was published in 2015, following the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in Paris.

Goldschmidt, president of the CER, said the latest document comes three years after what he described as a “great wave” of antisemitism that has swept across Europe.

The manifesto points to a series of attacks and incidents as evidence of what it says is a worsening threat. In March 2026, four Hatzola ambulances were set on fire outside a synagogue in Golders Green, while days earlier a synagogue in Liège was attacked with explosives. A car was torched in Antwerp’s Jewish quarter and a Jewish school in Amsterdam was targeted.

The manifesto also cites the killing of two Jews in Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur 2025 and the stabbing of two people in Golders Green in April 2026.

It warns that the threat extends beyond individual attacks, pointing to hate marches, extremist networks and foreign funding, and cites how Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been linked by European security services and courts to plots and proxy attacks against Jewish citizens across the Continent.

“Today the warnings are written in blood and fire,” Goldschmidt writes in an accompanying opinion piece for The JC published today. “Jewish community ambulances burned outside a London synagogue. Explosives used against a synagogue in Liège. Jews murdered at prayer in Manchester.”

“Courts and security services have exposed transnational networks funding and directing these attacks,” he adds. “This is not a string of isolated incidents. It is an infrastructure of hatred, built on extremist organisations, foreign funding, radical institutions and the digital world.

“Europe’s answer cannot be another statement of grave concern. Nor can it be higher fences,” Goldschmidt continues. “Almost every Jewish school and synagogue in Europe now sits behind guards, steel barriers, concrete blocks.”

The Conference of European Rabbis (CER) unveiling their manifesto calling on European leaders to tackle antisemitism, Brussels, Belgium, September 3, 2026[Missing Credit]

The manifesto similarly warns that Jewish children are growing up believing armed guards outside their schools are normal.

“Security is necessary. It is not sufficient,” Goldschmidt writes. “We must confront the hatred that makes the security necessary in the first place.”

The manifesto sets out seven demands for European governments and the EU:

Train and Certify Religious Leaders

• Religious leaders should be equipped to uphold European values and reject hatred.
• Faith leaders who come to Europe from abroad should have a basic understanding of the democratic rights and responsibilities of their host country and meet minimum language proficiency requirements.
• Religious communities and institutions must ensure necessary training from a curriculum of key materials, including the issues of on freedom of religion or belief and Holocaust remembrance.
• Revoke visas, licences or permits from clerics who incite hatred or glorify terrorism.

Expose and Block Extremist Funding

• Money that spreads hate must be identified and stopped.
• Publish transparent registers of major foreign donations to religious institutions.
• Investigate funding linked to extremist states or organisations.
• Remove charitable status from institutions that promote antisemitism or radicalisation.
• Freeze funding streams connected to hate.

Strengthen Oversight of Religious Institutions

• Places of worship and faith-based charities must not be allowed to become centres of radicalisation.
• All religious communities and institutions should be subject to the same external audit requirements, regulated by a recognised authority.
• Inspect educational materials and staff where concerns arise.
• Coordinate intelligence between charity regulators, education authorities and law enforcement.
• Close institutions that repeatedly promote violence or hatred.

Appoint Community Safeguarding Officers

• Every religious institution should have a trained officer responsible for preventing extremism.
• Monitor hate incidents and warning signs.
• Maintain clear reporting procedures.
• Liaise with police and civil society organisations.
• Ensure safeguarding is embedded within community life.

Defend the Digital Space

• Online platforms have become incubators of antisemitism and radicalisation.
• Educate communities about online hate and extremist content.
• Expand the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) to ensure strict and swift regulation against incitement and hate speech.
• Require technology companies to remove incitement promptly.
• Strengthen cooperation between governments and platforms.

Zero Tolerance for Hate on the Streets

• Public demonstrations must not become vehicles for antisemitic intimidation.
• Prosecute those inciting to violence and promoting terrorist groups.
• Hold organisers accountable when incitement recurs.
• Ban organisations that repeatedly glorify terrorism.
• Enforce the law without fear or favour.

Create a European Register of Responsible Institutions

• Recognise congregations and organisations that commit to these standards.
• Establish a public framework of participating institutions.
• Promote best practice across faith communities.
• Build trust between communities and wider society.

Goldschmidt writes in the JC that Jewish leaders must move beyond issuing condemnations.

“Jewish leadership has spent too long condemning, regretting, warning,” he writes. “All three are sometimes necessary. None is enough.

“Leadership means entering the room, challenging the accepted position, insisting on change – even when it upsets people. This is not only a Jewish appeal. It is a test of Europe’s moral seriousness and political courage. A Europe that cannot protect its Jews from violence, and from the causes of that violence, cannot protect its own values.”