Inside Israel (March), an evangelical newsletter on Israeli affairs, reports that there is increasing sympathy among European Jews with the prospect of leaving the continent with the rise of anti-Semitism.
The newsletter quotes prominent Dutch politician and former EU commissioner Wits Bolkestein as expressing his concern for the future of Orthodox Jews in the Netherlands, citing “the anti-Semitism among Dutchmen of Moroccan descent, whose numbers keep growing.” Bolkestein also urged Jews to encourage their children to emigrate to the U.S. or to Israel due to a lack of confidence in the Dutch government’s ability to fight anti-Semitism. Some prominent Dutch citizens share Bolkestein’s views, including Benjamin Jacobs, the country’s chief rabbi. Last year, Jacobs told the news source Arutz Sheva that “the future for Dutch Jewry is moving to Israel.”
Fears of harassment and violence continue to grow in countries such as Norway, according to the newsletter. Muslims make up a significant portion of the population in some cities. In the southern city of Malmo, for example, 60,000 Muslims comprise the population. The remaining 700 Jews report experiencing hate crimes, prompting the synagogue to hire security and install rocket-proof glass in the windows.
“Elsewhere, Jews have been assaulted with stones, and in Austria, 38 percent of Muslim youth believe that Hitler ‘did a lot of good for the people.’ Given this increasingly hostile environment, it is not surprising that growing numbers of Jews have been moving to Israel from France and the UK in recent years.”
(Inside Israel, P.O. Box 22029, San Diego, CA 92192-20290)
