text: Anti-Semitic attacks surged worldwide by 38 per cent last year, with the highest number of incidents occurring in France, an annual study has revealed. The report, by Tel Aviv University's Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, said 766 violent anti-Semitic acts were carried out around the world last year - marking a huge increase from the previous year. Arson, vandalism and direct threats against Jews, synagogues and other Jewish institutions were included in the figure, making 2014 the worst year for such attacks since 2009. The study said: '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. In particular, it cited 'alarming reports especially from Western Europe and North America'. Anger in Western Europe over Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip last July and August, as well as anti-Jewish caricatures in the media and social networks had helped to turn anti-Semitism into an 'almost daily phenomena seen and felt in every sphere of life', the report said. In France, the number of anti-Semitic attacks rose to 164 in 2014 compared with 141 in 2013. In January this year, four hostages were killed in a Paris kosher supermarket in violence that began when Islamist militants carried out a massacre in the office of the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly. Britain registered 141 violent incidents against Jews in 2014, after 95 a year earlier. In one of the most serious attacks a victim was called a 'Jewish c***' and then hit with a glass and a baseball bat in London. In Manchester, a man was knocked off his bike and kicked while on the ground by a group of youths who called him a 'Jew'. In January this year, four hostages were killed in a Paris kosher supermarket in an anti-Semitic attack . The violence began when Islamist militants carried out a massacre in the office of Charlie Hebdo magazine . And a Jewish girl had deodorant sprayed in her face by a 12-year-old fellow pupil who said to her 'gas the Jews' at a school in Edinburgh. The number of anti-Semitic acts in Germany and Italy more than doubled, to 76 and 23 respectively. In Western Europe in particular, the study said, 'the issue is not only a matter of having more security means provided by the respective states, but rather the ability to lead a full Jewish life... especially under heavy police and even army protection'. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stoked controversy in February when he called for 'mass immigration' of European Jews to Israel following a deadly shooting at a synagogue in Denmark. Under Israel's Law of Return, anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent has a right of immigration to Israel and, once there, can receive Israeli citizenship automatically.
target: Anti-Semitic attacks worldwide have surged by 38 per cent, study reveals .
  France remains the country with the highest number of incidents .
  Last year it registered 164 anti-Semitic attacks, compared to 141 in 2013 .
  Earlier this year, four hostages were killed at a Paris kosher supermarket .
  Britain was home to 141 violent incidents, after registering 95 a year earlier .