Antisemitic attacks rise fivefold in Vienna after Hamas invasion
VIENNA SUFFERED from an explosion of antisemitism last year in the aftermath of Hamas’s invasion of Israel, a new report has concluded.
The Reporting Centre for Antisemitism — an arm of the Jewish Community of Vienna similar to Britain’s Community Security Trust — found that there was a fivefold increase in the number of daily antisemitic incidents between October 7 and the end of 2023.
Prior to that, reported antisemitic incidents in Vienna had been in decline, with the average number per day going down from 1.97 in 2022 to 1.55 in the first nine months of 2023.
After October 7, however, that figure shot up to 8.31. After logging just 24 antisemitic incidents in September, the Reporting Centre for Antisemitism verified 200 in October, 226 in November, and 294 in December.
This upward trend is the mirror image of what has transpired in Britain since the October 7 attacks.
In response, the Austrian government this week announced a new package of measures to combat antisemitism online.
Constitutional affairs minister Karoline Edtstadler confirmed the government plans to intensify cooperation with social media providers and help develop AI systems that can more readily recognise and identify antisemitism and other forms of hate speech online.
The government also plans to increase support for online Holocaust education and fund a public awareness campaign on antisemitism.
“Past experience has shown that any escalation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict automatically leads to a flare-up of antisemitism worldwide,” the Reporting Centre for Antisemitism noted, but the sheer volume of incidents after October 7 made 2023 a record year for antisemitism since the Jewish Community of Vienna began monitoring incidents in 2008.
The most high-profile incident occurred in November at Vienna’s Jewish cemetery, which was the subject of an arson and vandalism attack that remains under investigation. Incidents of damage, desecration and assault all increased in 2023, though Jews in Vienna were most likely to encounter Jew-hatred online.
While those with a far-right background remained the largest group of perpetrators, those with a Muslim background were responsible for the majority of antisemitic assaults and threats. In October, a stone was thrown through the window of a kosher butcher’s shop in Vienna. The male attacker shouted “Allahu Akbar!” before running away.
“At the end of the day, from the victim’s point of view, it doesn’t matter who was responsible,” president of the Jewish Community of Vienna Oskar Deutsch said on the report’s publication, calling the headline figure a “horror number”.
But he added: “We’re not letting the situation get us down,” noting that Jewish life in Vienna is continuing more or less as normal.
The Reporting Centre for Antisemitism praised “the decisive way Austria’s government and politicians spoke out against the terror attacks by Hamas”, widespread “opposition to antisemitism” within civil society, and the security services for protecting Jewish lives.
Incidents of damage, desecration and assault all increased
The security services were praised for protecting Jewish lives