Kristallnacht 2025: The flames of hatred have not died out
Eighty-seven years have passed since Kristallnacht – the night when 91 Jews were murdered in Germany and Austria, tens of thousands were arrested and sent to concentration camps, Jewish shop windows were smashed, synagogues were set on fire, and entire Jewish communities stood defenseless before the state-organized violence and the indifference of the world. It was an indifference that ultimately cost the lives of six million Jews.
Eighty-seven years later, it seems that those flames were never truly extinguished. They have merely changed form. Then, they burned in the streets of Germany and Austria; today, they burn across the world – on phone screens, on university campuses, in sports stadiums, in concert halls, and throughout the public sphere – cloaked in the modern disguise of “freedom of speech,” “anti-Zionism,” or “support for the Palestinians.”
In the past two years, antisemitism has gone mainstream. It happens everywhere, all the time. Just in the past week, a performance by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Paris was violently disrupted; in Birmingham, police barred Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending a match against Aston Villa, falsely claiming they were “hooligans,” while fans of the British team hurled online abuse at the club’s Jewish player; and in Toronto, Jewish students and a university lecturer who serves as an IDF reservist were violently attacked when assailants shattered windows in an attempt to lynch Jews.
According to a new report by the Israeli Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, published ahead of the Kristallnacht anniversary, since October 7, 2023, there have been more than 1,000 violent antisemitic incidents worldwide: 7 Jews have been murdered in antisemitic attacks; 99 synagogues have been attacked; 98 Jewish-owned businesses have been damaged; and roughly 200 Jewish schools, community centers, and cemeteries have been vandalized.
The antisemitism of our time is no longer the domain of extremists on the fringes. It has become normalized, embedded, and unashamedly visible. It has penetrated the worlds of culture, sport, academia, and politics. Every additional day of silence allows it to grow stronger.
Holocaust survivors, including those who experienced Kristallnacht as children, know all too well the price of hatred and silence. Walter Bingham, George Shefi, and Paul Alexander, all children in Germany during the pogrom, issued a public statement this week, warning:
In today’s climate, another Kristallnacht could happen again. The world today is no safer for Jews than it was 87 years ago.
They fear that the security of Jews in the Diaspora will deteriorate further. The State of Israel will ensure that another Holocaust will never happen, but the next pogrom feels closer than ever.
And so, the warning bells are ringing, just as they did 87 years ago, yet no one seems to listen.
