Anti-Semitic violence increased by 40 percent last year

A report from researchers at Israel's Tel Aviv University found that the number of violent anti-Semitic attacks worldwide saw a sharp increase in 2014.

Last year saw 766 recorded attacks against Jewish people, versus 554 recorded incidents in 2013. The increase made 2014 the worst year for anti-Semitic attacks since 2009.

"The overall feeling among many Jewish people is one of living in an intensifying anti-Jewish environment that has become not only insulting and threatening, but outright dangerous, and that they are facing an explosion of hatred towards them as individuals, their communities, and Israel, as a Jewish state," the researchers wrote in the report.

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The U.K. and Australia saw significant increases in anti-Semitic attacks, as did Germany, Austria, Italy, and Sweden. France saw the highest number of violent attacks, 164. USA Today notes that France has the world's largest Jewish population outside of the U.S. and Israel.

The report was released to coincide with Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, which started on Wednesday evening.