UN rights office condemns rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Europe and US

The statement from OHCHR follows “a significant increase” of anti-Semitism in Germany, where Jews in some areas have been advised not to wear traditional dress, to avoid drawing attention to their race and religion.

The UN human rights office has condemned the rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Europe and the United States and called on governments to "redouble their efforts" to protect people from incitement to hatred and violence.

The statement from OHCHR follows "a significant increase" of anti-Semitism in Germany, where Jews in some areas have been advised not to wear traditional dress, to avoid drawing attention to their race and religion.

In Austria, pictures of Holocaust survivors displayed in a street exhibition have also been vandalised "not once, but three times", the human rights office said.

Initially, swastikas were daubed on the survivors' faces, before large sections of the prints were then cut out at the weekend.

Most disturbing of all are acts of physical violence against Jews which have also increased in a number of countries in recent years, OHCHR said, noting a "particularly sharp" rise in Germany and France.

But it warns that the worst incidents have been in the United States, where 11 people were killed during an attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh last October and were in April, a woman was killed and three others injured in another attack on a synagogue in California.