“This raises concerns that, rather than a backlash to a specific geopolitical crisis, high levels of antisemitism have become a normalised feature in societies with large Jewish minorities,” state the authors of the report, which was compiled by the university’s Centre for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry and the Irwin Cotler Institute – the latter being dedicated to Holocaust remembrance and tackling antisemitism.
Two red swastikas were daubed on the outside of Magen David Yeshiva in Brooklyn (Picture: Nicole Malliotakis/ X)[Missing Credit]
Canada, which has a Jewish population of around 400,000, documented approximately 6,800 instances of antisemitism in 2025, compared to 6,219 in 2024. In 2022, the figure stood at 2,769.
The year’s most serious physical assaults on Jews in Canada included the stabbing
of a Jewish woman in her seventies while she was shopping in the kosher section of an Ottawa
grocery, and the assault of a Hasidic Jewish father who was beaten in a park in Montreal
in front of his children.
Australia, which has a Jewish population of roughly 117,000, saw a record 1,750 antisemitic incidents in 2025, up from 1,727 in 2024.
Italy’s Jewish population of 26,800 was subjected to 877 antisemitic incidents in 2024, and a record 963 in 2025, marking an almost four-fold increase from the 241 recorded pre-October 7, in 2022).
Floral tributes left by mourners at the promenade of Bondi Beach in Sydney, December 17, 2025 (Credit: DAVID GRAY / AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images
Antisemitism surged independently of war severity, according to the report, suggesting that increasing antisemitism rates did not track with the ongoing Gaza War or the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza. In fact, in places such as Britain and some cities in the United States, such as New York, the end of the war in Gaza coincided with fresh spikes in antisemitic incidents.
The authors of the report note: “The Antisemitism Worldwide Report has not been a messenger of good news in recent years. Still, a year ago, the Report for 2024 introduced an optimistic note. It corrected the conventional wisdom according to which the number of antisemitic incidents increased since 2023 as the war in Gaza progressed and demonstrated that hate crimes against Jews reached their peak in the immediate aftermath of October 7, 2023, and then were on the decline. There were thus reasons to hope that a downward trend would continue in 2025, especially with the ending of the war in October, and with governments around the world affirming their commitment to combating antisemitism. Unfortunately, this has not been the case.
Videos shared on social media showed a swastika and the words "f*** the Jews" and "Heil Hitler" in the sand at Hendon Golf Club (Photo: X/Twitter)[Missing Credit]
“Our data for 2025 points to worrying trends. The year witnessed 20 casualties killed in four antisemitic attacks in three countries. This is the highest number of casualties in one year for over three decades. While in several countries the total number of incidents moderately decreased in 2025 in comparison to 2024, in several other countries, including Britain, Australia, Italy, and Belgium, it moderately increased.
“In several countries that saw a decrease in the total number of incidents in comparison to 2024, including France, the number of incidents that involved physical assaults increased. Across the globe, the number of antisemitic incidents remained dozens of percent higher than in the period before the war.”
Rabbi Benzion Alperowitz woke on Shabbat morning to discover a swastika spray-painted outside his house (Image: Rabbi Benzion Alperowitz)[Missing Credit]
The authors criticised the Israeli government as well, alleging it “contributed nothing” to the worldwide fight against antisemitism, and diluted the term through political overuse. They called for the dismantling of the Israeli government ministry tasked with combatting antisemitism and for its functions to be shifted to Israeli embassies and consulates instead.
The scene after four Hatzola ambulances were set on fire next to Machzike Hadath Synagogue, on March 23, 2026, in the Golders Green area of London (Images: Getty)[Missing Credit]
Professor Uriya Shavit, the report’s editor-in-chief, said the data collected suggests that “a high level of antisemitic incidents is becoming a normalised reality”.
“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,” he continued. “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.”
