Representative Chris Smith, chair of the House human rights subcommittee, said that while Jews faced the threat of violent attacks from some Islamists they were also struggling against rising anti-Semitism “among European social-democratic and leftist parties,” The Daily Telegraph’s Raf Sanchez reported.
The House human rights subcommittee pointed to the rise of neo-Nazi-like parties in the Ukraine, Greece and Hungary, adding that the efforts on the part of Western European states to ban circumcision and kosher slaughtering can also be counted as targeting Jewish communities.
“I think the secularists and the Islamists create a very volatile and potent synergy of hate,” Smith told the hearing, saying that European anti-Semitism is often masked as criticism of Israel.
Witnesses of several religious groups from Europe and the U.S. told the committee that European Jews are more vulnerable than their American counterparts to prejudiced policies by their governments.
Rabbi Andrew Baker, of the American Jewish Committee, said that some Dutch Jews feel unable to protest against laws banning kosher slaughter in Holland for fear of provoking a backlash.
“Some of them told us: ‘We fear that Dutch citizens are more disposed to animal rights than principles of the Jewish faith,'” Rabbi Baker said.
“The secularists give no quarter or understanding and even less respect for people of faith and it manifests even more strongly against Jews,” Smith told The Daily Telegraph.
Some of the European witnesses called on the U.S. government to crack down on antisemitic websites hosted on American servers, but members of Congress warned that free speech provisions in the Constitution limited what could be done.
Zuhdi Jasser, the president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, applauded the doctrine of “muscular liberalism” that British Prime Minister David Cameron laid out in 2011.
Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrats in Parliament, was also praised for sacking a Liberal Democrat peer who suggested that the state of Israel could not continue to exist in its current form.
Earlier in February, the ADL published the following list of Global Anti-Semitism: Selected Incidents Around the World in 2013:
France
February 5, 2013 – Toulouse – A woman with a history of aggression toward Jews threatened a 16 year-old boy wearing a kippah with a knife. The incident occurred close to the Jewish school, where three children and a rabbi were murdered by Mohammed Merah, an Islamic radical terrorist.
Februrary 4, 2013 – Marseille – A 20-year-old Jewish man wearing a Star of David pendant was mugged and robbed twice outside Marseille’s main train station. Two men on a scooter tore the chain off his neck and called him a “dirty Jew.” Moments later, another group of young men approached the victim and hurled anti-Semitic insults before stealing an MP3 player and 100 Euros. They also reportedly hit the victim.
January 3, 2013 – Toulouse – Anti-Semitic slogans, including a swastika alongside the words “SS” and “get the f*** out”, were graffitied on a local chapter of the Paris Psychoanalytical Society. The incident occurred less the a year after a terrorist killed a rabbi and three students at a Jewish school in the city.
Paraguay
January 14, 2013 – Asunción – Graffiti’s of Nazi symbols were found in a neighborhood.
Romania
February 8, 2013 – Timisoara – Vandals spray-painted “death to Jews” and a swastika on the wall of the city’s Jewish cemetery.
Russia
February 18, 2013 – Ulyanovsk – Vandals damaged a Menorah lamp near a building belonging to the local Jewish community.