Britain's Chief Rabbi Warns of Wave of Anti-Semitism Sweeping the World

London, Jan. 1 - Britain's chief rabbi said Sunday that a "tsunami of anti-Semitism" was spreading around the world, and said too little was being done to combat it.

Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks told British Broadcasting Corp. radio that Holocaust denial and hatred of Jews were increasingly evident on prime time television and in best-selling books, and that Jewish communities throughout Europe had begun to experience uncomfortable repercussions.

"This is all a kind of tsunami of anti-Semitism which is taking place a long way from this country but (of) which Europe seems unaware," he said.

While hostility toward Jews stemmed from a view that Israel was the cause of global conflicts, Sacks said wars in Chechnya, the Philippines and Indonesia would be happening whether the Jewish state existed or not.

Though he said Britain was not an anti-Semitic country, Sacks said he was concerned more was not being done to combat anti-Jewish attitudes.

He claimed anti-Jewish feeling was on the rise in other European countries, citing instances of attacks on rabbinical colleagues on the streets and growing tensions in France.

"We have had synagogues desecrated, we have had Jewish schools burned to the ground, not here but in France," Sacks said.

"There is the kind of feeling we do not know what's going to happen next," he added. "That is making at least some European Jewish communities uncomfortable."