I keep coming back to the issue of antisemitism (specially in Europe) as this always seemed to me so horrifying: after two thousand years of discrimination, after Shoah antisemitism has never really left Europe and in recent years, for various reasons, it has increased according to many sources and data collected. So if you wonder about this recurring topic I assure you it is not out of obsession (I will write soon about many issues as due to my professional duties I was recently writing much to rarely) it is out of necessity.
Just recently FRA (Fundamental Rights Agency in EU) published report about current antisemitism in 8 European countries, namely: Belgium, France, UK, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia and Sweden. I encourage you to read it, but let me share with you here the most important findings: 66% of the respondents believe antisemitism to be a problem in EU, the same percentage of Jewish parents of the school age children in EU worry about their safety because of their ethnic background or religion (over half of the parents worry about physical safety of the children). 76% of the respondents believe antisemitism is on the rise in EU and half of all people surveyed feel endangered in physical way. Nearly 60% just during the last 12 months heard opinions that Shoah (Holocaust) never happened!!!
I don't know about you but for me this level of insecurity suggests something is fundamentally wrong!Had somebody told me 2/3 of Christians in rural Egypt feel endangered I'd have no problems believing i, maybe even I would think that having been in their shoes I would expect 90% of my co-believers to be scared. But wait a minute, it is not developing country at the time of unrest, it is 8 European countries! It is something to be ashamed of an - even more - something to be understood and rectified as soon as possible as antisemitism is a kind of cancer speaking volumes about problems in society.
And stories? One is described here. In a country where it is considered rude to stare at somebody no matter how differently he/ she looks and where many kinds of religious outfit may be encountered the reactions to kippah were just... plainly rude. They were also offensive and intimidating, specially as it was in Malmo where the attacks on religious Jews and trials to set synagogue on fire occurred during last few years. I may easily imagine it is very hard to be in this situation, can you?
I have some personal experience with it. Few years ago my, at that time 7 years old, son took part in the play in which he was wearing kippah. Straight from school we went to the airport in big European capital. At the arrivals hall he went to buy himself some juice. Never in my life had I watched him with such fear and was so ready for intervention - including times when he was climbing trees, skiing down the black route (double diamond) or stepping on the bus on his own for the first time. I could tell how people were watching him, as a kind of extraterrestrial. And it should be so natural.... I must say that at this one moment I understood how hard it is to be a Jew in Europe, now, in XXI century....
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