The Jerusalem Post reported that a 39-year-old Jewish woman was almost lynched in an antisemitic attack in Copenhagen, Denmark.
By Rachel Avraham
The Jerusalem Post reported that a 39-year-old Jewish woman was almost lynched in an antisemitic attack in Copenhagen, Denmark. According to the report, the Jewish woman was driving and wearing an Israeli flag, when she was confronted by a masked man and asked if she was Jewish. When she replied in the affirmative, he asked her, “Are you proud of that?” When she said yes, he spat on her and then called her a “child murderer.”
The Jerusalem Post reported that at that point, she was attacked by a mob of Middle Eastern men: “There were at least 50 people watching, and when I screamed for help, one of the men smiled mockingly and said, ‘Nobody will help you here.’ Then he grabbed me by the throat and started choking me with his hands.”
The woman recounted, “One of them pulled the flag over my head so I couldn’t see what was happening. I kept shouting for help, but no one intervened. Then they started dragging me off the asphalt.” It was at this point that one of the men cut off her jacket with a knife and called her “a Jewish whore.” The Jewish woman cried; the Jerusalem Post reported.
“When I finally got through to the police, the policeman didn’t ask if I was okay. Instead, he asked me why I was carrying an Israeli flag in an area like Christiania. I felt completely abandoned. I had to beg and convince him that I was in extreme danger. Finally, he agreed to send two female officers,” she added.
Following the anti-Semitic attack, the European Jewish Association wrote on Facebook: “Another horrific antisemitic attack—this time in Copenhagen, Denmark. No Jewish man or woman should have to fear being openly Jewish on the streets of Europe! We call on the Danish authorities to ensure the attackers face justice.”
Between October 7, 2023 and February 2024, “we have seen the biggest antisemitic wave in Denmark since 1943,” when Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany, Henri Goldstein, head of the 1,800-strong Jewish Community, told the Associated Press last year. Goldstein said that “after Oct. 7, we have seen antisemitism on steroids.”
“We have seen a violent escalation, not least fueled by the uncontrolled spread of hatred on social media,” he said, adding that in 2023, “all 121 incidents were Jew-hatred – and not ‘just criticism of Israel.’”
Of the 121 incidents, 20 were death threats “which we have not since the 1980s,” Goldstein said, referring to threats made then against two leading figures in the Jewish community – an editor-in-chief and the chief rabbi, the Associated Press reported. Since then, Jews in Denmark were advised not to wear Jewish symbols openly, Goldstein said.
The European Union’s Agency for Fundamental Rights in a recent report interviewed a middle age Danish Jewish woman, who proclaimed: “For many years, being Jewish in Denmark was not a problem. In this millennium, we have started to see threats, offending statements and terrorist attack against persons characterized as Jews. The majority of these have been initiated by people of a Muslim background.” A 20-year-old Jewish woman also told the European Union’s Agency for Fundamental Rights, “The way things are now, I experience, for example, that “Jew” is a widespread cuss word in Copenhagen. As a Jew who has grown up in Denmark, I have always avoided showing/telling people I am a Jew.”
A 35-year-old Jewish Danish man confirmed these sentiments: “One of the fundamentally biggest problems for Jews in Denmark is that we do not dare visibly show our Jewish identity in public, at school, at the gym, etc. for fear of antisemitic statements, unfortunately, in particular from our Muslim neighbors.”
According to the European Union’s Agency For Fundamental Right’s Survey, 56 % of the respondents in Denmark consider antisemitism to be a very big or a fairly big problem in their country. 85 % of the respondents in Denmark consider antisemitism has increased over the past 5 years. A majority of respondents (55 %) believe that the Danish government’s efforts to combat antisemitism are not effective. 70 % of the respondents said that the Arab-Israeli conflict impacts their feeling of safety in Denmark.
