Anti-Semitic incidents fall to 15-year low in South Africa

Drop comes despite global trend of increasing anti-Semitic activity in countries with significant Jewish populations

By JTA 4 February 2020, 6:13 am

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Illustrative photo of the Old Synagogue on Paul Kruger Street in Pretoria, South Africa. (CC BY-SA PHParsons, Wikimedia Commons)

Anti-Semitic incidents fell to a 15-year low in South Africa, the country’s Jewish umbrella group said.

There were 36 recorded incidents of anti-Semitism in 2019, compared with 62 the previous year, according to the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, which collects the statistics. Only one of the incidents involved physical assault, and there were no cases of damage and desecration to Jewish property.

The statistics buck a global trend of increasing anti-Semitic activity in countries with significant Jewish populations. Some 75,000 Jews live in South Africa, with most concentrated in Johannesburg.

“We can be proud that at a time when attacks against Jews are everywhere growing both in number and severity, our country has consistently bucked the trend,” Shaun Zagnoev, the Jewish Board’s national chairman, said in a statement. “As a result, South Africa continues to be a country where Jews can fully identify with and practice their religion without fear.”

This comes despite widespread anti-Israel sentiment in the country and in the South African government.