A report on anti-Semitism in Ireland, released last week by the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, had some deeply distressing findings: 143 incidents were recorded over a six-month period ending in January 2026.
If this were the UK, with 120 times more Jews, that would represent 17,000 incidents.
The actual figure from the UK for the whole of 2025, according to the Community Security Trust, which uses professional monitoring, was 3,700 incidents.
However, in Ireland, there is no Government mechanism or NGO to monitor anti-Semitism. The community had to compile the report itself, despite raising the issue of a parabolic rise in anti-Semitism, privately and publicly, with the Government for more than two years. In my view, the report only captures a fraction of the truth.
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Most Jews are afraid to bring attention to themselves (only 24 per cent of incidents were reported to An An Garda Síochána). Since the current atmosphere dismisses or minimises the experiences of Jews, confidence to report anti-Semitic abuse has inevitably sagged, a particular tragedy for Irish Jews, many of whom had no real experience of anti-Semitism in Ireland until October 7th.
The Hamas attacks and the subsequent military response by Israel tore the mask off many in the political, media, cultural and academic class who have zealously demonised Israelis, Zionism, Jews and Judaism, pronouncing on subjects they know little about, and who care even less about the wellbeing of Jews.
The incidents reported cross the spectrum of ordinary societal interactions: intimidation and bullying in schools and universities; in hospital settings where one woman in need of urgent care was verbally attacked because she was Jewish; verbal abuse in the street when a kippur or star of David is visible or an Israeli accent is identified; in contexts where civil conversations regress into abuse when a Jewish identity is revealed, almost half of which spiral into threats of physical intimidation.
Graffiti and vandalism are a common theme in the report, as are numerous vile, abusive and threatening emails sent directly to Irish Jews. The report does not include abuse on social media, which is so prolific there were no resources to document this properly. The online abuse in response to the report has already been staggering.
[ Ireland’s Jewish Council reports 143 anti-Semitic incidents in six-month periodOpens in new window ]
Running an organisation, which promotes awareness of the Holocaust, the worst expression of anti-Semitism in history and still in living memory, the widespread use of Holocaust inversion and distortion is especially concerning to me. It makes up about 17.5 per cent of the report.
Accusing Israelis and Jews of behaving like Nazis whenever Israel is involved in violence is unreconstructed anti-Semitism.
But the largest demographic of anti-Semitic incidents receives no mention; the anti-Semitism where no Jews are present. Social media broadcasts the whole gamut of anti-Semitic sentiment – the cultural, religious, intellectual, political – all underpinned by conspiracy theory, new and old. We know what anti-Semites say to each other about us because they say it, publicly.
It was only after the name-changing debacle of Herzog Park and the attack on Bondi beach in December when the Government began to realise the concerns of the Jewish community were not paranoid. In his speech at the Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration in January, Taoiseach Micheál Martin promised to renew efforts to combat anti-Semitism.
The Government needs to implement the EU Strategy on Combating anti-Semitism and Fostering Jewish Life 2021-2030, as 17 other EU states have. The National Action Plan Against Racism 2023 to 2027 references anti-Semitism but does not offer anything by way of practical implementation. No training frameworks, no institutional guidance or cross-departmental co-ordination.
Why is anti-Semitism overlooked?
The British Jewish comedian, David Baddiel’s 2021 book, Jews Don’t Count argues that Jews are seen as white, rich and entitled especially by the progressive left. Anti-Semitism is not considered as serious as other forms of racism because Jews are seen as powerful and can defend themselves. Apparently those making this argument have not heard of the Holocaust.
[ Almost one in 10 young Irish adults believe Holocaust is a ‘myth’Opens in new window ]
That Israel, too, is seen as rich, powerful and universally evil by those minimising anti-Semitism is, for them, just more fodder for the argument that, well, Jews don’t count and that Jews somehow deserve their fate.
Baddiel explained to me recently that being asked to comment on Israel is, itself, an act of anti-Semitism. What other ethnic minority is expected to have a view (and therefore be judged by that opinion) on another country?
It is this fundamental ignorance of anti-Semitism that propels its explosive growth in Ireland, where most Irish people have not met a Jew; unsurprisingly given an official population of only 2,300.
I met a sympathetic Fianna Fáil TD last month and talked about this cultural gap in knowledge. I asked him to imagine a realistic scenario, one I have witnessed too many times, where the topic of Jews and money arose in a social group. Someone rubbed their hands together gleefully, to signify greed, specifically Jewish greed. I then asked him to imagine a different scenario where the conversation was about black people and asked him to imagine someone in the group making a similarly racist gesture. It would be condemned out of hand, and the guilty individual would risk serious censure if denounced. Not so the anti-Semitic gesture.
My wife, who is not Jewish asks me periodically when we’ll know if it’s time to leave Ireland. I tell her that it’s when Jews are physically attacked and have no legal protection.
[ Why do one in 10 Irish youths believe the Holocaust is a myth?Opens in new window ]
But I believe in fighting for the society I’ve called home for 40 years. It was still illegal in Ireland to be homosexual in 1993. Now my gay friends tell me that Ireland is one of the best places for them to live freely.
I felt that way about my Jewish identity until October 7th.
Ireland must urgently change course, but it will require a whole-of-society approach where Government creates a structure dedicated to combating this complex form of racism we call anti-Semitism.
Jews are the first victims of anti-Semitism, but the second victims are everyone else – non-Jews who allow anti-Semitism to grow through ignorance, indifference and apathy. However, I refuse to be a victim and I’m not prepared to hide my identity. That was my mother’s life; it won’t be mine.
Oliver Sears is founder Holocaust Awareness Ireland
