Mohammed Merah, the man who confessed to police that he killed 7 people in France before being shot dead in an armed standoff. Photo: screenshot via France 2.

On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, a new study revealed that global anti-Semitism was up by 30% in 2012, Israel Hayomreported.

The study, conducted by Tel Aviv University’s Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, said that in the past year there was “an alarming rise in the number of terrorist attacks and attempted attacks against Jewish targets, and an escalation in violent incidents against Jews worldwide.”

The study reported 686 anti-Semitic incidents in 2012, compared to 526 incidents in 2011. Of the attacks in 2012, 273 were physical assaults against Jews, including 50 involving firearms.

The largest rise in attacks occurred in economically troubled Europe, specifically in France, Greece, Hungary and Ukraine. However, the U.S., Canada and Australia also saw a rise in attacks.

Many groups involved in attacks against Jews were associated with far-right parties or radical Islamist groups, both of which are growing in Europe.

“This situation in some countries in Europe—mostly Greece and Hungary—has gotten so perilous that Jews are afraid to walk down the street,” Aryeh Zuckerman, a consultant with the Kantor Center, told Israel Hayom.