In late November, Hannah Rosenthal visited the Estonian capital of Tallinn to urge the government to prosecute alleged Nazi war criminal Mikhail Gorshkov.

Rosenthal, the State Department's special envoy for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism, also spoke with Estonia's Jewish communal leaders about marches honoring former members of the local branch of the Waffen S.S., the Nazi party's armed wing. The Jewish officials downplayed the issue and remarked that they'd been invited to attend the marches.

Younger Jews took Rosenthal aside, however, and told her that they are "very concerned" about the rallies and by the growing presence at them of younger Estonians, which they said indicates that glorification of Nazis wouldn't soon be ending.

Rosenthal related those conversations during testimony last Friday at a Capitol Hill hearing on anti-Semitism in Europe.

The hearing was hosted by the United States Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which was founded to monitor the state of human rights in Europe.

Officials representing five American Jewish organizations testified at Friday's hearing, which was chaired by Rep. Christopher Smith (R-N.J.).

While the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Europe has been decreasing of late, it "still remains at higher levels than in 2000. This is simply unacceptable, and it's why we're here today," Smith said.

Testimony covered recent manifestations of anti-Semitism in Europe, including the voicing of conspiracy theories; committing acts of violence against Jews; vandalizing synagogues and Jewish cemeteries; denying the Holocaust; and implicating local Jews in Israeli policies toward the Palestinians.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to raise the United States' concern over the situation when she attends this week's ministerial meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, of the 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Several speakers on Friday mentioned last month's beating in Belgium of a 13-year-old Jewish girl, whose attackers reportedly called her a "dirty Jew" and told her to "go back" to her own country.

They also pointed to the increased Muslim immigration to Europe, which they said has imported Middle East-based hatred of Jews.

Rabbi Andrew Baker, the American Jewish Committee's director of international Jewish affairs, who also serves as an OSCE representative, explained before presenting his testimony that he does not believe that "a sense of crisis exists" for Jews in Europe.

He added, however, that "a virulent collection of anti-Semitic publications and sermons that comes out of the Arab world poses a very real concern" for European Jewish communities.

"There is a special problem with the demonization of the state of Israel," he said. "Some observers have defined this as a new form of anti-Semitism."

During his testimony, Baker said "the overall picture" regarding European anti-Semitism, "still remains a distressing one."

European Jewry assumes an "outsized burden" financially in protecting synagogues, schools and community centers against attack, and that expense "restricts the Jewish community's ability to exercise religious practices," Baker also testified.

Figures that quantify anti-Semitic incidents in Europe are hard to come by, speakers said. According to Great Britain's Community Security Trust, which represents British Jewry's security interests on governmental and police bodies, 283 anti-Semitic incidents occurred across the country during the first six months of 2011.

That figure represents a drop from 325 incidents during the same period last year and 628 incidents (a record high) from January to June 2009, during and immediately following the Israel Defense Forces' military campaign to halt Gaza's launching of missiles against the Jewish state.

Last year's State Department report on anti-Semitism worldwide noted that France's Interior Ministry recorded 466 incidents in the country in 2010, a 46 percent drop from 2009.

- WJW's Suzanne Pollak contributed to this article.

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