Reads: “Jews are banned from here! Nothing personal. No antisemitism. Just can’t stand you.”
Credit: Frank Bach – Shutterstock & Viral X post
Is Western society sleepwalking into an era where hatred against Jews becomes normalised once more? From vandalised synagogues in Canada to one German shop owner’s brazen sign banning Jewish customers, recent incidents paint a grim portrait of escalating intolerance.
Over 140 European rabbis, including eight from Spain, have penned a desperate letter to EU institutions, warning of an “unprecedented” increase in antisemitism since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. They describe a “spiral” of hostility triggered by the ensuing Gaza conflict, turning into in physical threats, intimidation, and a pervasive sense of abandonment among Jewish families. In Spanish cities like Madrid and Salamanca, antisemitic graffiti targets Jewish-owned shops, while online platforms give voice to conspiracy theories blaming Jews for global ills. The resurgence, leaders say, echoes history’s oldest hate is now being supercharged by social media algorithms that trap users in echo chambers of bigotry.
Social media fuelling antisemitic rhetoric in society
The turning point came on October 7, 2023, when Hamas’s assault on Israel ignited a global backlash, with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue documenting a 50-fold spike in antisemitic comments on Canadian YouTube channels alone. By 2024, a survey of Jewish doctors in Ontario revealed one-third contemplating emigration amid rising threats, including arson attacks on synagogues and schools. Worldwide, the Antisemitism Research Center reported incidents doubling since 2023, despite Jews comprising less than 1 per cent of the global population.
On the anniversary of her arrest by Nazis, August 4 1944, exactly 80 years to the day, Anne Frank’s monument in Amsterdam was smeared with blood-red paint and the slogan ‘Free Gaza’.
The Diary of Anne Frank, or ‘Diary of a Young Girl’ as it was original published, became a ‘must-read’ for school children and a societal vow to never again permit the horrors of Nazi barbarity in Europe. Yet here we are just 8 decades later and a modest memorial reminding the World of her plight and that of all Jews across Europe, persecuted and senselessly slaughtered for nothing more than their family heritage, we find anti-Semitism returns to a Europe that has seemingly forgotten its vow.
Social media “Echo chambers” intensifying antisemitic prejudices
A 2025 review of 129 studies by researcher David Hartmann confirmed how digital echo chambers deepen prejudices, building on a 2023 New York University analysis showing platforms’ failure to curb repeat hate-sharers. In Germany, the Flensburg shop incident unfolded on a Wednesday in early 2025, its removal by police failing to erase the visible sign inside, which led to immediate vandalism with “Nazis out” slogans. The events, just 80 years after Auschwitz’s 1945 liberation, reveal a timeline of peril accelerating unchecked.
The impact is causing ripples across the world, fracturing communities and importing Middle Eastern tensions into Western streets. In Canada, Dean Lavi of the London Jewish Community Centre laments a “massive rise” in violence, where normalised aggression against differing views has led to shootings at Jewish institutions. Europe’s Jewish Association decries a potential “exodus” unseen since World War II, with rabbis like Menachem Margolin insisting words of solidarity fall short, and families now questioning their future amid “growing harassment and physical threats.”
Societal divides and baseless conspiracy theories
Globally, the increase divides societies along ideological lines, weaponising narratives of colonialism and foreign policy to stoke Islamophobia along with antisemitism. It has failed to remind many of the 1930s, when economic woes and propaganda in Europe powered a meteoric rise in antisemitism, culminating in the Holocaust’s horrors. Back then, boycotts and scapegoating Jews for societal ills paved the way for genocide; today, social media’s speed amplifies similar tropes, from stereotypes on TikTok to falsehoods implicating Jews in unrelated deaths, like the baseless Charlie Kirk conspiracy. As Felix Klein, Germany’s antisemitism commissioner, labelled the Flensburg case “antisemitism in its purest form,” the world watches history’s shadows lengthen, threatening democratic fabrics woven post-1945.
Politicians from Flensburg’s mayor to EU lawmakers urge boycotts, investigations, like the four complaints against shop owner Hans Velten Reisch for incitement, and a “human rights union” that shields minorities.
Education and solidarity offer hope, but experts warn: without urgent, concrete action, the digital generation’s clicks could deepen division. As Lavi says, “There’s more people online who hate Jews on any given day than there are Jews.” The path forward depends, perhaps, on resolve, eighty years post-Auschwitz, Europe and the West cannot afford complacency. Will leaders act decisively, or will echoes of the 1930s drown out calls for unity?
