{"id":324291,"date":"2026-03-02T01:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T01:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/324291\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T01:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T01:49:08","slug":"irelands-jewish-council-reports-143-anti-semitic-incidents-in-six-month-period-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/324291\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s Jewish Council reports 143 anti-Semitic incidents in six-month period \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A total 143 incidents considered anti-Semitic were reported to the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland<\/a> (JRCI) in the six-month period from July 2025 to January 2026, according to a report the body published on Monday. <\/p>\n

None of the incidents was \u201cindependently investigated or adjudicated\u201d, the report said, and less than a quarter (24 per cent) of the people involved reported such incidents to the authorities. <\/p>\n

There are approximately 2,200 people in Ireland\u2019s Jewish community.<\/p>\n

The self-reported incidents occurred before and during the six-month period, July 17th, 2025-January 9th, 2026 and have not previously been documented. <\/p>\n

There is no official State mechanism in Ireland for recording anti-Semitic incidents.<\/p>\n

The JRCI expressed \u201cdeep concern\u201d about the findings and urged \u201crapid development of a dedicated national plan to counter growing antisemitism\u201d.<\/p>\n

Its report represented \u201conly a partial picture\u201d of the reality, it said. \u201cInternational research consistently shows that antisemitism is significantly underreported due to normalisation, reporting fatigue, uncertainty about recognition, and limited confidence in institutional responses. Community members confirm that these factors also shape reporting behaviour in Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Examples provided in its report of the type of incidents referred to included a case where \u201ca patient reported fear of speaking up\u201d after \u201cremarks attributed to staff that the patient experienced as antisemitic\u201d, while another \u201cperson had to stop wearing their star of David to work due to constant abuse & antisemitic comments\u201d.<\/p>\n

Others included \u201ca poster displayed above the entry door to a local bar stating, \u2018ALL ZIONISTS ARE BARRED FROM The XXX pub\u2019\u201d, and \u201ca row of Graffiti of swastikas and the writing \u2018Jew Rat\u2019 all over a public road\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0If Ireland decide not to play Israel, it will have nothing to do with anti-SemitismOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

During an argument in school \u201ca young Jewish person received images of swastikas and was told that \u2018the classroom will turn into a modern-day gas chamber\u2019\u201d, while, following the Hamas massacre in southern Israel on October 7th, 2023, \u201ca professional relationship severely deteriorated and shifted into hostile remarks and practical obstruction that affected business and reputation\u201d.<\/p>\n

One family \u201cdescribed gradual social exclusion\u201d, while a provider was \u201crefused service after hearing they were originally from Israel, even though they are Irish citizens\u201d. <\/p>\n

Another incident involved a taxi driver who, on finding out the passenger was originally from Israel, \u201casked them to leave mid-way, while cursing and shouting abuse at them\u201d.<\/p>\n

Of the 143 incidents, 52 involved verbal abuse or slurs, 47 included vandalism or graffiti, 35 were threats or intimidation, 29 involved exclusion or discrimination, and 24 being direct digital targeting (hate emails and unsolicited messages). <\/p>\n

Fifty incidents took place in public spaces, with 21 in schools or universities, 13 in hospitality or retail settings, eight in the workplace, six in the home or a private context, and four on public transport. Twenty-five reports (17 per cent) \u201cincluded Holocaust denial & trivialisation and\/or antisemitic conspiracy theories, including classic tropes of Jewish control and manipulation\u201d.<\/p>\n

A total 43 incidents involved a shift \u201cto hostile and antisemitic because a Jewish\/Israeli identity cue was revealed\u201d.<\/p>\n

The report also showed \u201crecurring patterns where institutional responses contributed to distress\u201d due to a \u201crefusal to explicitly recognise antisemitism, premature case closures, reframing of incidents as neutral conflict\u201d. In such cases, \u201chow the response was handled became part of the harm experienced\u201d, the report said.<\/p>\n

Asked whether the reported incidents might be in response to the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza<\/a> and in the West Bank<\/a> by Israelis forces, Maurice Cohen, chair of the JRCI, said such was \u201cvictim blaming\u201d and risked \u201ca troubling inversion\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shifts attention away from those engaging in antisemitic behaviour and toward the victims themselves. Framing hostility against Irish Jews as an understandable consequence of events elsewhere is victim blaming,\u201d Cohen said.<\/p>\n

The \u201creal question is whether people in Ireland can live free from hostility because of who they are, regardless of developments abroad\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

The JRCI survey \u201crecords antisemitic incidents experienced by Jewish people in Ireland\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt documents behaviour directed at Irish citizens, not foreign policy. When anger about events abroad results in harassment, intimidation, or discrimination against Jews at home, that is not a political response. It is antisemitism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018It was dead people everywhere\u2019: Inside Australia\u2019s Hanukkah massacreOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Garda<\/a> said it takes \u201canti-Semitism and all hate crime very seriously. Every hate crime reported to An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na is professionally investigated and victims supported during the criminal justice process\u201d.<\/p>\n

The garda\u00ed encourage \u201cany victim of any crime to report this to An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na, including any indication that the crime may have a hate motivation. The increase in reporting of such incidents has been noted in each year of reporting, which is positive\u201d.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson also noted how \u201clast December following a terrorist attack on Australia\u2019s Jewish community, the Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly spoke with the Chief Rabbi of Ireland Yoni Wieder to express his sympathies and reassure Ireland\u2019s Jewish community\u201d.<\/p>\n

It was also the case that the Criminal Justice (Hate Offences) Act 2024 \u201ccommenced into Irish Law on 31st December 2024\u201d, which included \u201caggravation of certain offences by hatred\u201d, he said. <\/p>\n

In a statement Chief Rabbi of Ireland Yoni Wieder said that the report does not claim that antisemitism has become a daily reality for all Jewish people in Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat it does show is that antisemitism surfaces often enough, and in ordinary enough settings, that it cannot be dismissed as rare or confined to the margins of society. This means that for many, Jewish belonging in Ireland feels more fragile than it should,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A total 143 incidents considered anti-Semitic were reported to the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland (JRCI) in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,3409,61,60,43,145668,27129],"class_list":["post-324291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-gaza-strip","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-religion-beliefs","tag-west-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}