20 Jews murdered, 815 severe antisemitic attacks took place worldwide in 2025

Diaspora Ministry also records 124 million antisemitic posts on X and over 4,000 anti-Israel demonstrations during the year

By Zev Stub
  • Zev Stub is the Times of Israel's Diaspora Affairs correspondent.
 28 January 2026, 1:56 pm
A menorah is pictured after the seventh candle is lit for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah as mourners stand next to floral tributes laid out in memory of the victims of antisemitic terror shooting attack at Bondi Beach, in Sydney, December 20, 2025. (David Gray / AFP)

Twenty Jews were murdered worldwide and some 815 severe antisemitic incidents were documented in 2025, according to a report released Tuesday by the Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Ministry.

The total number of attacks was down from 2024, the ministry said without elaborating, while the number of deaths rose significantly from the one confirmed antisemitic murder in 2024, of Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan.

The report also recorded approximately 124 million antisemitic posts on X, formerly Twitter, and over 4,000 anti-Israel demonstrations, of which 365 were classified as posing a high or extreme risk to Jewish communities.

Antisemitic activity and rhetoric skyrocketed after Hamas launched its war against Israel on October 7, 2023. The data was presented during the International Conference on Combating Antisemitism, held in Jerusalem on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

A daycare center is set on fire in Sydney, Australia, with antisemitic graffiti next to it on January 21, 2025. (Screencapture/X)

The highest numbers of incidents were recorded in the United States (273), the United Kingdom (121), Australia (45), France (44), and Canada (37), the ministry said.

The murders included 15 killed in the Hannukah terror attack at Bondi Beach in December, two killed in a Yom Kippur attack in Manchester, two Israeli embassy staff members killed outside the Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, in May, and a woman killed at a pro-Israel vigil in Boulder, Colorado, in June.

The victims of the December 14, 2025, Sydney Hanukkah terror shooting: top row (left to right) – Reuven Morrison, Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, Dan Elkayam, Alex Kleytman, Rabbi Eli Schlanger; middle row (left to right) – Edith Brutman, Peter Meagher, Tibor Weitzen, Marika Pogany, Matilda [last name withheld]; bottom row (left to right) – Tania Tretiak, Boris Tetleroyd, Adam Smyth, Sofia and Boris Gurman. (Composite: Times of Israel; Images: Courtesy/social media, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Other noteworthy incidents included an Israeli tourist hospitalized in Greece after a pro-Palestinian attacker bit off part of his ear in July; an elderly Jewish woman stabbed in a grocery store in Canada in August; the torching of a Sydney childcare center in January; the beating and attempted kidnapping of an Israeli in Wales in March; and the torching of a Melbourne synagogue with 20 people inside in July.

Belongings of members of the Jewish community are seen at the scene of a terror shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney on December 15, 2025. (DAVID GRAY / AFP)

The data showed a clear correlation between spikes in violence and incitement and international security developments related to Israel’s war in Gaza, the report said without elaborating.

Beyond physical attacks, antisemitism deteriorated in the information sphere, with a rise in fake news, manipulated images and videos, and false narratives on social media and in international discourse, the ministry added.

(L) Melvin Cravitz and (R) Adrian Daulby, killed October 2, 2025, during a terror attack on a synagogue in Manchester, England, in undated photos. (Greater Manchester Police)

“On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we are required not only to remember but to act,” said Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli. “Antisemitism is not only a Jewish problem, but a global threat that endangers the entire free world. Together, we will fight this common enemy and prevail.”

Yaron Lischinsky, right, and his partner Sarah Milgrim, both employees of the Israeli Embassy in the US who were killed in a shooting in Washington, DC, on May 21, 2025, in an undated photo. (Israeli Embassy in Washington)

Separately, a survey published Tuesday by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) found that 78% of more than 2,000 teachers surveyed in Europe “encountered at least one antisemitic incident between students.” Some 27% said they’d witnessed nine or more such incidents, and 42% said they’d seen other teachers acting in an antisemitism manner. Almost half (44%) said they encountered students doing Nazi gestures or drawing or wearing Nazi symbols.

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