ENI—The global economic crisis has led to a rise in reported incidents of anti-Semitism in Canada, says a prominent Jewish human rights and humanitarian organization.
In its annual audit of anti-Semitic incidents, the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada recorded 1,135 anti-Semitic incidents in 2008—an increase of 8.9 per cent compared with 2007 and the highest figure recorded in the 27-year history of the audit.
The report noted that since more than half of the incidents occurred in the last four months of 2008, the rise could be attributed to “fall out” from the developing economic recession.
Anita Bromberg, director of legal affairs for B’nai Brith Canada, said she had heard many conspiracy theories about Jews and their “control” of the world’s money.
B’nai Brith (Hebrew for children of the covenant) compared reported incidents in Canada with Australia, which recorded a 2 per cent increase, and the United Kingdom, which had 4 per cent fewer incidents.
