Reply #22: Yes. No denying that it's a significant problem...

[LeftishBrit]

and is probably worse in most countries than a few years ago. I think that this war, and the resulting tensions and instabilities, have led to a worrying rise in xenophobia including antisemitism.

However, I don't think that in Britain and Western Europe it even begins to approach the horrors of the pre-war past. Even in Britain, which was not linked to Nazism, there were horrific instances: Oswald Moseley and his Brownshirts; the Daily Mail's open support for the Nazis as I mentioned in a previous post; virulent antisemitism in the works of well-known and influential writers such as G.K. Chesterton.

George Orwell wrote a fascinating article on British antisemitism during and before the last war:

http://www.george-orwell.org/AntiSemitism_In_Britian/0.html

As regards other Europaean countries: neo-Nazis and other anti-semites and xenophobes are a big problem almost everywhere; but not really on the level of the 1930s. As I said earlier, the worst countries in Europe from this point of view are mostly some of those in Eastern Europe; but I doubt that even they are on anything like the level of the pogroms and blatant racism in the early 20th century (when some of my own ancestors became refugees along with so many others). It is also difficult to say how they compare with 20 or more years ago, as until the fall of the Soviet Union, such countries were less willing to admit their antisemitic incidents. There is certainly lots of evidence that life for Jews in the Soviet bloc was frequently far from a bed of roses!!!!

In other words: antisemitism in Europe is a serious problem as everywhere but I don't think we're in much danger of a reversion to the 1930s.