”Jews fear for their safety. So much so that they are asking to move to Israel. They prefer Israel in wartime to Europe in peacetime,’’ said Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Chairman of the European Jewish Association.

An Orthodox rabbi from the Netherlands has even called on the country’s Jews to immigrate to Israel as he accused the Dutch authorities of failing to address the root causes of the Amsterdam pogrom.

European Jewish leaders have not been surprised by the pogrom that happened in Amsterdam last week when Israeli football fans were chased and brutally beaten in the streets of the city after a match between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Since several years, leaders have warned about the rise of antisemitism in Europe and the lack of real action by political authorities. The situation has even worsened since October 7 and the war in Gaza with figures of antisemitic incident skyrocketing in several Western European countries.

According to Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Chairman of the European Jewish Association (EJA), a federation representing hundreds of Jewish communities across Europe, which is very active on fighting antisemitism, ”we see more and more Jews who don’t feel comfortable, safe and who want to move to Israel.’’

‘’They fear for their safety. So much so that they are asking to move to Israel. They prefer Israel in wartime to Europe in peacetime,’’ he told Euronews.

Already at an ‘’emergency conference’’ for Jewish leaders across Europe organized by EJA in Amsterdam last June on the topic, , Rabbi Margolin had called on Israel to prepare for an influx of European Jews.

‘’If the continent’s governments continue to tolerate this flood of Jew-hatred, they can expect hundreds and thousands of us to leave,’’ he said.

Rabbi Margolin, who had previously criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for encouraging European Jewry to make aliyah, changed his mind given the worsening situation.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu, we are not there yet but be ready. Get your government agencies ready. Because

If European governments carry on as they have so far, if they continue to tolerate this flood of Jew-hatred, they can expect hundreds and thousands of us to leave,” Margolin told the June conference.
“Europe can only continue to be our home if governments in Europe want us to stay and help us in our fight,’’ he then said.

His organization will hold next week a symposium in Krakow titled ”80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz but Europe is still not free from antisemitism” with a particular emphasis on physical attacks on University campuses and how anti-Zionism is replacing antisemitism. The symposium will be followed by a visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.

In 2021, the European Commission presented the first EU strategy against anti-Semitism in Europe and several members states issued national plans to combat this plague But the war in Gaza has been the catalyst for an upsurge in anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in the streets, universities, sport and in mainstream politics.

Margaritis Schinas, Vice-President of the European Commission, said he is “in constant contact with Europe’s Jewish communities and their leaders”. “I have made many visits to Europe and beyond. And I know that many Jews feel threatened and worried,’’ he added.

In France, one year after the October 7 attack, the number of anti-Semitic acts has risen by 192%, according to the Ministry of the Interior.

Following the Amsterdam events, an Orthodox rabbi from the Netherlands has even called on the country’s Jews to immigrate to Israel as he accused the Dutch authorities of failing to address the root causes of the incidentS, Jewish News Syndicate reported.

His call reflects a growing sense of insecurity in the Netherlands, whose society is deeply divided on immigration and whose Jewish community is traumatized by its near annihilation in the Holocaust. Rabbi Meir Villegas Henriquez, from Rotterdam’s Ohel Abraham beit midrash (Jewish study center), deplored that ‘’we inhabit a new demographic reality that simply cannot be changed, not with the current political class.”

“Prepare to make aliyah,” he said, using the Hebrew word for immigrating to Israel. “Talk to your children, or grandchildren, and explain to them that there’s really no future here. Help them study Hebrew. Invest in real estate, web shops, remote jobs—all the necessary steps to make the move to Israel possible.”

He blamed Dutch authorities’ “years of tolerating jihadism” for the Amsterdam attacks, in which some 25 Israelis were wounded, five moderately and led to Israel sending planes to return 2000 supporters to their country.