Top 10 anti-Semitic, anti-Israel incidents of 2014

Calling 2014 a year of “unprecedented explosions of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel hatred,” the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s annual list of the top anti-Semitic and anti-Israel incidents in the world is an eerie reminder of the hatred building across the world 80 years ago, with most of the incidents taking place in European countries ranging from Belgium to Hungary. Arguably the number one organization protecting Jews against Anti-Semitism across the world, the Wiesenthal Center believes these ten examples are tragically indicative of burgeoning threats and challenges to the Jewish people not encountered since the end of WWII.

The number one incident was the outrageous story of a doctor in the Belgian city of Antwerp who refused to treat a 90 year-old Jewish woman who’d broken a rib.  He told the woman’s son who had called on her behalf, “Send her to Gaza for a few hours, then she will get rid of the pain. I’m not coming,” the doctor said and hung up.

Meanwhile, a café in Liège has a sign hung with the message, “Dogs welcome, Jews not.”

The center also pointed out that Belgium was the site of the deadliest attack on a Jewish target this year, with a terrorist murdering four people during a gun attack at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in May.

Second on the list was the Jordanian Parliament, which held a moment of silence for the Palestinian who butchered four rabbis during Shachariet prayers in a shul in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood and also killed the Druze policeman who tried to protect them. 

“I ask G-d to envelop them with mercy and to grant you with patience, comfort and recovery from your grief,” wrote Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour to the families of the terrorists.

Third was one of the many anti-Semitic incidents in France. In December, criminals forced their way into an apartment in the Paris suburb of Creteil, tied up a young Jewish man and woman. “Tell us where you hide the money,” one of the assailants demanded, “You Jews always have money,” they demanded as they ransacked the house and raped the 19-year-old woman.”