Reported anti-Semitic incidents in Austria in 2020 rose by 6.4% to 585 incidents nationwide, according to an annual report by the Anti-Semitism Reporting Office of the Jewish Community of Vienna. The incidents ranged from online abuse to physical attacks.
Physical attacks on Jews comprised 2% or 11 incidents, up from six in 2019.
The biggest number of anti-Semitic incidents took place in November and December of 2020, according to the report, which states that protests against the government’s handling of the coronavirus resulted in an increase in anti-Semitic incidents. The report describes anti-Semitic lies that were spread at those demonstrations, as well as online. Those incidents involved Holocaust diminution and conspiracy theories.
Right-wing activists were behind about 40% of the incidents, according to the report, and 15% came from leftist activists. An Islamist extremist motif was found in 13% of cases.
Abusive behavior, including online abuse, was involved in 62% of the reported incidents.
Property damage remained steady with 53 cases, the same as in 2019.
According to the report, last November, the Jewish Community of Vienna started a public awareness campaign which may have raised the number of reported incidents.