Drastic Increase in Anti-Semitic Incidents in Austria

PeopleOther ♦ Published: October 22, 2023; 13:58 ♦ (Vindobona)

In recent days, the Anti-Semitism Reporting Office of the Vienna Israelite Community (IKG) has noted a worrying increase in anti-Semitic incidents in Austria. This is directly related to the devastating attacks on Israel by Hamas, in which more than 1,400 people have been killed and over 200 kidnapped, while thousands of rockets have been fired at Israel.

Among others, the police are searching for those who tore an official Israeli flag from the Vienna City Temple. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons; Bella47, CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en)

Since the outbreak of fighting between Hamas and Israel, a total of 76 anti-Semitic incidents have been reported to the reporting center. This represents a 300 percent increase over the average number of reported incidents in 2022. Reported incidents include the smashing of a kosher grocery store window by an Arabic-speaking young man, intimidation of Jewish schoolchildren by…