Holocaust Remembrance Day 2014

Every year the world remembers the victims of the Holocaust. Remembrance services will be held on 28 April this year.

It is quite appropriate that the results of a new survey about the rise of anti-Semitism were released just before Holocaust Remembrance Day. The survey confirmed a very disturbing development, namely the drastic rise of anti-Semitism in Europe. It seems that the world learned very little from this tragic period in history.

This phenomenon needs to be analysed more closely. What is the driving force behind Jew hatred? Is there historical or spiritual reasons?

Over the past year 554 registered violent anti-Semitic acts were recorded. “Normative Jewish life in Europe is unsustainable,” European Jewish Congress President Dr. Moshe Kantor said on Sunday. Kantor cited increasing anti-Semitism and rising “fear and insecurity” as factors leading to a European Jewish decline.

According to the survey, almost half of the Jewish population is afraid of being verbally or physically attacked in a public place because they are Jewish and 25% of Jews will not wear anything that identifies them as Jewish or go near a Jewish institution for fear of an attack. Countries that facing the worst anti-Semitism are Hungary, France, Belgium and Sweden.

Hebrew University’s Robert Wistrich, considered one of the foremost experts on anti-Semitism worldwide, cautioned that Jewish life in much of Europe will eventually become untenable. He further said: “The Jews in Europe do not have a future…..I think that their future is bleak.”

Extrapolating from the success of far right parties such as Jobbik, Svoboda in Ukraine, the National Front in France, and Golden Dawn in Greece, Wistrich said he believes that the nationalist Right would make significant gains in upcoming elections for the European Parliament.

Could the reasons for the unprecedented hatred toward Jews be found in their design to reflect God’s character? The Jewish people were set apart from all other nations for very specific purposes.

We need to discern the times we live in.