Ireland turns a blind eye to antisemitism as Jews grapple with rising hostility

Oftentimes, it is difficult to grasp the scope of a situation, with media reports raising exceptional incidents so that they are perceived as the norm. This, too, is the case with antisemitism in Ireland, according to a few community and civil leaders.

Jewish Representative Council of Ireland chairman Maurice Cohen said that the number of antisemitic incidents had grown as of late. In a few weeks, the council is set to issue a report on almost 150 incidents that had been reported over the last five months. These incidents range from antisemitic graffiti to Jews being refused service in a shop and even refused treatment in hospitals. These were not anti-Israel incidents, said Cohen, with Israel-related events recorded only if they were used as a pretext for a personal attack on a person.

Irish Chief Rabbi Yoni Wieder said that some of the increasingly common antisemitic graffiti in Ireland had explicit calls to kill Jews. He also knew of one man who had been verbally abused on a bus, being called a “genocidal Jew,” and another assaulted in a Dublin pub because he was wearing something that identified him as Jewish. Jewish parents and their children had confided in the rabbi about bullying at school, including one child who had reportedly been chased around the playground while classmates shouted “from the river to the sea.”

Wieder said it is important to maintain balance when discussing antisemitism in Ireland. While there has been an alarming rise in incidents of hostility toward Jews, this does not mean that antisemitism has become a day-to-day issue for all Jews in Ireland. However, it does point to “persistent and serious concerns that have yet to be properly addressed.”

“There is little reason to think that the average Irish person gives much thought to Judaism or to Jewish people. For most people, it’s not an issue on their radar,” said Wieder. “But there is certainly a minority who do hold anti-Jewish views, and who actively seek to intimidate or target Jewish people. In the current climate, those individuals feel more emboldened to express their hostility openly than they would have done even a couple of years ago.”

In this environment, some Irish Jews told Wieder that they would conceal their Jewish identity from their peers out of a sense of fear. It was true that many Jews avoided showing signs of their Jewish identity, such as wearing a kippah or Star of David jewelry, or speaking Hebrew, said Wieder, but it was less about caution in the face of physical danger than it was about feeling uncomfortable.

Cohen, too, said that many were wary of indicating they were Jewish publicly, but there were many who still did that and weren’t harassed by the general public. At the same time, he noted that there were few Jewish community members wearing kippot and other signs of Jewishness even before the October 7 massacre.

A Jew wearing a kippah while walking in Dublin is unlikely to be physically attacked, said the rabbi, but what Jews are afraid of is identification and judgment, according to Wieder.

Part of the reason Jews feel uncomfortable being open about their Jewishness is an atmosphere that has been created in which Jews are unable to express their connection to Israel, which Wieder said is a significant component of their identity. If they lost loved ones or family in the 2023 Hamas-led terrorist attack or in the ensuing war, there was no room even for public grief. There have been vigils held for such victims, and these solemn occasions have reportedly been met with anti-Israel protests. The rabbi had community members who were in mourning, but when they went about their day and went to work, they felt they had to conceal their grief.

Israeli media and politicians are sometimes quick to assume that hostility toward Israel necessarily reflects hostility toward Jews, but such assumptions are overly simplistic, Wieder said.

“In Ireland in particular, views on Israel are often shaped most powerfully by national narratives of oppression and struggles for independence,” said the rabbi. “Most politicians and commentators would say that their opposition is only against Israel, or against the policies of the Israeli government, and in most I don’t doubt their sincerity.

“The issue – aside from them having an extremely one-sided understanding of Israel-Palestine – is that regardless of intent, the constant inflammatory rhetoric emboldens people who do seek to intimidate and marginalize Jewish people in Ireland.”

The rabbi also contends that it has to be understood that delegitimizing Israel strikes at a core part of Jewish identity.

“The Jewish people have a deep and historic connection to the Land of Israel. It’s woven into the fabric of our religion, of our culture, of our identity. It’s as old as the Jewish people itself.”

Ireland Israel Alliance founder and director Jackie Goodall said that it is not antisemitic to criticize Israel, as Israelis themselves spend a great deal of time criticizing their government’s policies, but it is antisemitic to attempt to deny Jews the ability to live securely. While there are some Jews who align with the anti-Israel movement, they are a fringe minority, and the vast majority of the Irish Jewish community stands behind the Jewish state. There are “very concerning levels of antisemitism here in Ireland, much of it masquerading as anti-Zionism.”

Goodall is disheartened to see Ireland’s reputation damaged internationally, as most in the country are not antisemitic.

“It pains me to see Ireland represented this way as an antisemitic nation. But when you look at the evidence, it’s perfectly understandable,” said Goodall. “But there are many people here in Ireland who are not [antisemitic]. We have much support from within the Christian community, and also secular supporters who are absolutely horrified at what they’re seeing.”

Goodall believes that supporters of Israel are in the minority, but there are still some in the government who offer support, even if there is a hostile environment.

“There is a lot of support for the Jewish community. There is even support for Israel, though that is quieter,” said Goodall. “But, generally speaking, the attitude in Ireland is we support our Jewish community, and you’re Irish, and you’re one of us.”

Cohen explained that historically Ireland had positive relations with its Jewish community, and initially a good perception of Israel.

“Ireland’s relationship with the Jewish people and later with the State of Israel developed through recognition, divergence, and increasing strain rather than through any single rupture,” said Cohen. “In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Irish nationalism and Jewish Zionism often recognized one another as parallel movements shaped by diaspora, historical trauma, cultural revival, and resistance to British rule. This sense of affinity carried into the early decades of the Irish state.”

Rabbi Yitzhak Halevi Herzog, father of president Chaim Herzog and grandfather of President Isaac Herzog, was known as the “Sinn Féin Rabbi” for his sympathy for Irish independence, according to Cohen.

Ireland’s record during the Holocaust period was mixed, with former president of Ireland Éamon de Valera being close enough with Herzog and other Zionists that a forest was planted in his name in Israel, but he also offered condolences to the German ambassador in Dublin on the death of Adolf Hitler in 1945. Ireland was neutral during the war, and accepted few Jewish refugees. Yet Cohen noted that Ireland’s 1937 Constitution had explicitly recognized the Jewish community as having a special place.

Cohen said that Ireland’s perception of Israel began to shift from 1967, with the Jewish state no longer being seen as vulnerable, and the Irish began to increasingly identify with the Palestinian cause.

According to Wieder, “Many Irish people see their own history in the story of Palestinians,” drawing corollaries between the British and Israelis.

“You will often hear it said that Ireland sides with the underdog, that the Irish know what it is to be oppressed. A sense of victimhood and resistance to imperial power forms part of the national story, and that narrative is projected onto this conflict rather than engaging with it on its own terms.”

Cohen said that there were also economic and strategic considerations, with Ireland being more conscious of Arab powers after the 1973 oil crisis, which were also prime customers for agricultural produce. There was also collaboration between elements of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and Palestinian terrorist organizations.

“In more recent years, this long-established framing from the late ’60s onwards has coincided with a rise in contemporary antisemitism in Ireland, especially during conflicts between Israel and its neighbors, much of it currently emerging from far-left anti-Zionist activism rather than traditional far-right sources,” said Cohen.

Historical attitudes toward Israel have also been reinforced by strands of progressive ideology, which, Wieder said, often encourage people to take sides based solely on perceptions of who is suffering more.

“There are intelligent and difficult discussions to be had about how to conduct a necessary war while protecting innocent life, but those conversations rarely take place in Ireland,” said Wieder. “Instead, discourse focuses exclusively on the scale of suffering in Gaza.”

Progressive ideology and the Palestinian cause have filled a void in some who are left with waning faith, according to Goodall. While Ireland has historically been a Catholic nation, religiosity has collapsed in recent years.

There were Christian institutions that cast Israel as demonic, said Goodall. At a 2024 Remembrance Sunday ceremony attended by then Irish president Michael D. Higgins and then Dublin mayor James Geoghegan, Anglican Church of Ireland Canon David Oxley claimed that Israelis see Jews as a “master race” – a term usually associated with Nazi ideology.

Irish universities were in part responsible for the proliferation of the progressive ideology. Cohen said there were worrying cases at the institutions, with a strong cohort of anti-Israel pupils and teachers who furthered activism under the guise of human rights.

Yet the role of governmental bodies was raised time and again by community leaders as a source of rhetoric that attacked and demonized Israel and the connection of Irish Jews to the Holy Land.

Since 2018, Goodall, Cohen, and Wieder have been fighting against the various incarnations of the Occupied Territories Bill, which prohibits the import and sale of goods from the disputed territories. Proponents of the legislation argue that the item is consistent with Ireland’s foreign policy and values, and trade with Israeli settlements contributes to an unlawful situation. Opponents see the bill as singling out Israel and exposing Ireland to legal and diplomatic issues within the European Union. In theory, the bill could see a tourist fined for purchasing a kippah in Jerusalem’s Old City, said Cohen.

“The bill has therefore become as much a symbol of Ireland’s moral positioning as a practical trade measure, with debate often focusing less on economic impact and more on precedent, selectivity, and international alignment,” said Cohen.

The Irish national broadcaster RTÉ led the campaign to remove the country from the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, in protest against Israel’s inclusion, said Goodall. Ireland is one of several countries boycotting the contest over Israeli participation.

Goodall said that activists hadn’t decided on a new name and just wanted Herzog’s name gone. Wieder said that public discussions of Herzog and his military record were red herrings, the issue at heart being his connection to Israel. Those seeking to rename the park wouldn’t accept the name of any Jewish person with any meaningful connection to Israel, said the rabbi. No consideration was given to the families that have lived in the vicinity for generations and see places like the park as a marker of their identity and connection to Ireland.

“Many in the Jewish community felt that they were attempting to limit which Jews can receive public recognition,” said Wieder. “You cannot limit which Jews are deemed worthy based on whether they are connected to Israel. To suggest that the only Jewish person acceptable for public recognition is one who is detached from this core part of our story is nothing short of bigoted.”

In the end, the renaming attempt went a step too far for some politicians, according to Wieder, including among those that had taken harsh rhetorical stances on Israel in other regards.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin argued in December that the erasure of Jewish contributions and denial of history would “be seen as antisemitic” and is “overly divisive.”

Goodall expects the issue to be revisited in the future, but for now that front is quiet.

In general, Goodall found the rhetoric of the government to have “crossed the line” often. Yet the issue is not just what was said, but what was acknowledged. Many politicians, according to Wieder, have denied that there are any issues with antisemitism in Ireland. The rabbi said he could not imagine denial of discrimination when committed against other minorities. In May 2024, then President Higgins dismissed the Israeli government’s claims of antisemitism in the country as a “PR [public relations] exercise.”

“It’s hard to overstate how difficult it is to try and address issues of antisemitism on university campuses or elsewhere, when the president of the country says the claims of antisemitism are just a PR exercise,” said Wieder.

“Clearly, the Irish government is turning a blind eye, which is totally unacceptable,” said Nuseibeh.

Nuseibeh also warned about the use of social media by groups operating in Ireland, like the council, to spread antisemitic rhetoric. Wieder noted that there were cases of Irish social media users engaging in mass harassment against Jews online.

One of the improvements that Wieder hopes to see from authorities is more work to prosecute those issuing violent threats against Jewish community members online, as well as prosecuting those engaging in antisemitic vandalism. However, he doesn’t want such problems to be solved by policing alone.

“We cannot get into the cycle of building our fences higher and higher and deploying more and more guards,” said Wieder. “There is a hatred against Jewish people festering in parts of the Western world.”

Cohen said that there is increased security for Jewish institutions, but he does not believe that it is sufficient, and hopes that the tragedy of the Bondi Beach massacre in Australia will be a wake-up call. Ireland is one of the only countries in Europe without a plan for countering antisemitism, and while it officially adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism, according to Cohen it hasn’t been applied in a meaningful manner. He hopes that discussions on a plan to foster Jewish life in Ireland will prove useful.

“Despite good intentions, the government has been very slow to implement anything,” said Cohen.

Goodall wishes that the Israeli Embassy would return to the country, a missed source of comfort and support not only to the Jewish community but also non-Jewish supporters of Israel like herself. She is worried that voices like hers are being drowned out, but hopes that the current events in Iran would wake the public to the realities of the Middle East.

“We’re still standing, and we’re standing strong, and there’s a lot of support for the Jewish community here,” said Goodall.

Wieder said that for all the negative media coverage of Ireland, there have been many positive developments in the Irish Jewish community. While some are afraid of ostracization for wearing Jewish paraphernalia, the rabbi has had many warm remarks while walking about with his kippah. Over the last two years, more people have embraced their Jewish identity, and attendance and engagement are rising in synagogues, schools, and cultural events.

“We really have a thriving community here,” said Wieder. “I’m so proud of the way our community has responded to the challenging times of the last two years.”