October Sees Uptick in Far-Right Antisemitism, 6 IHRA Adoptions, CAM Monthly Report Finds

The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) Information Hub tracked a total of 163 media reports of antisemitic incidents worldwide in October 2021, the exact same number as the previous month.

CAM’s Monthly Antisemitism Report classifies incidents of Jew-hatred (including physical assault, verbal harassment, vandalism, and hate speech) by the ideologies of the perpetrators.

Of October’s incidents, 53.4% had far-right motives (a 17.6% rise from September), while 13.5% had far-left motives, and 10.4% had radical Islamist motives. The remainder — 22.7% — had unidentifiable motives.

During October, renewed attention was drawn to Ireland’s pervasive antisemitism problem following several high-profile Jew-hatred incidents, including a prominent politician’s use of the term “Jewish supremacy” and a best-selling novelist’s refusal to publish her latest book in Hebrew due to her support of the BDS movement.

October also saw the continuation of a concerning trend of antisemitic incidents at middle and high schools worldwide, including a swastika drawn at a middle school in Darien, Connecticut; razor blades left hidden under swastika stickers near a school in Dunton Green, England; antisemitic graffiti scrawled at two Denver-area high schools in Colorado; and antisemitic slogans and symbols spray-painted at an Anderson High School student parking lot in Austin, Texas.

Meanwhile, the European Commission published its first-ever EU Strategy on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life. “By fighting antisemitism, we fight for democracy, and we fight for Europe,” European Commission Coordinator for Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life Katharina von Schnurbein said during an exclusive CAM briefing on the plan.

In October, there were six adoptions of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism — most notably by the Commonwealth of Australia, Republic of Poland, and French Senate.

The full monthly report can be viewed here.

For more information on CAM’s antisemitism incidents data, which is collected on a weekly basis, visit: combatantisemitism.org/newsletters