Antisemitic incidents rise in Czech Republic in 2023 by 90% -report

Antisemitic incidents rose by 90% in the Czech Republic from 2022 to 2023, according to an annual report by the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic published on Monday.

There were a total of 4,328 antisemitic incidents recorded by the federation through open sources and submissions by community members. In 2022, there were 2,277 incidents reported, a 101% increase from 2021. The most dramatic increase occurred following the October 7 massacre and the Israel-Hamas war, with an average increase of over 250% in incidents from October-December.

The organization noted that its collection of incidents was not exhaustive, because of its open source collection and the dependency of victims to come forward, but that they could draw information about trends and the social climate in the country.

The federation emphasized that no anti-Jewish physical violence occurred in 2023 and that the Czech Republic remained a safe country for Jews. In the last five years, two attacks were reported to the FJC, in 2020 and 2021. Almost 99% of the incidents involved “publicly uttered statements, chants, and banners at demonstrations, posters, graffiti, videos, articles, publications, and all manifestations of antisemitism on the Internet, social media and communication platforms.”

There were six incidents of attacks and desecration of Jewish property. In July, “Israel is a Nazi state” was graffitied on the fence of a Brno Jewish cemetery, and in August tombstones were toppled at a Markvarec cemetery. There were also 18 incidents of written or verbal threats, insults, and harassment.

“F*ck you, f*ck all the f*cking Jews. Don’t try anything, or I’ll find you,” an employee of the Prague Jewish Museum was reportedly told in January.

IHRA definition of antisemitism

The ideological motivations behind many of the incidents could not be determined, but 20.45% of the incidents were recorded by the FJC as right-wing extremism. There were 6.63% of the incidents motivated by left-wing radicalism, 4.9% by radical Islamism, and 2.52% by Christian fundamentalism. FJC said that in the past left-wing extremism had been marginal as a motivation for antisemitism, but when compared to 2022 far-left antisemitic incidents rose by 226%. Islamic antisemitism also rose dramatically in 2023 by 381%.

Much of the left-wing and Islamic manifestations of antisemitism were connected to Israel and the war against Hamas. Almost a third of all incidents in 2023 were connected to anti-Jewish actions and comments related to Israel, and 67% were categorized as dehumanizing, demonizing, vulgar, and conspiratorial antisemitic statements.

The federation was guided by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism when classifying and analyzing different antisemitic incidents, and when related to Israel, also used Natan Sharansky’s test if the incidents involved demonization, double standards, and dehumanization.