Incidents of anti-Semitic nature worldwide fell sharply in 2010 compared to the previous year, but the numbers rose overall over the past decade, Tel Aviv University said in a report on Sunday.
The study, presented to the Israeli government as the country prepared to mark its Holocaust memorial day, logged acts of physical assault, vandalism and threats aimed at those identified as Jewish.
The report by the university's Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism listed 614 incidents in 2010, down 46 percent from 1,129 in 2009.
It said about 60 percent of all physical assaults occurred in Britain, France or Canada. Britain's toll was higher than that of France, at 144 incidents compared to 133, while Canada reported 99.
But while the annualized data reflected a decline, the report said 2009 had been an exceptionally bad year, in part because of antagonism toward Israel fuelled by the December 2008-January 2009 military operation against Hamas in Gaza.
Averaged over the years since 2000, it said, the figures showed a steady rise in anti-Semitic acts.
"At the bottom line, the statistics indicate that the total number of anti-Semitic incidents per year since 2000 was considerably higher than numbers recorded in the 1990s," it said.
While seeing a link between actions by Israel and surges in anti-Semitism abroad, the report said that was not the whole story.
"Anti-Semitism also appears to escalate with no relation to specific events," it said. "The underlying causes of anti-Semitic activity in general, and its growth in particular, seem to lie elsewhere."