Categories
Desecration Everyday Antisemitism Location Medium North America Philadelphia United States of America Vandalism Ξ CAA Ξ Channels Ξ Social Media

Philadelphia Synagogue being vandalized on an almost monthly basis, with members increasingly anxious

On Sunday 23rd March 2017 vandalism had visited the Temple Menorah Keneseth Chai in Tacony, Philadelphia, USA for the third time since December 2016. A report dated 28th March 2017 on the The Coordination Forum for Counting Antisemitism website includes video footage of a rock thrown through the synagogue window.

On 9th January 2017 we reported that a rock had smashed the synagogue widows on 2nd December 2016 and 26th March 2017 during Shabbat when worshippers were likely to be in attendance and thereby at risk of being injured.

With yet another incident, this now amounts to a campaign of intimidation. After the last incident, we described how elderly attendees at the Shul were feeling anxious about leaving the building alone. Sadly, it seems that there still exists good reason for them to be worried, with the police being yet to apprehend a suspect.

Categories
Desecration Everyday Antisemitism Featured Location Medium North America Philadelphia United States of America Vandalism Ξ Channels Ξ E-mail Ξ Social Media

Dozens of graves vandalized at Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia

Dozens of graves have been vandalized at a Jewish cemetery at Wissinoming, Philadelphia.

The Mizel Family Foundation is offering a $10,000 reward for those who provide information leading to the conviction of those responsible.

Police say that over 100 headstones were damages, with some of those helping with the clean up saying that up to 500 were.

A local Rabbi told the news:

“There are people from Quaker, Muslim, Jewish communities. Some rabbis, my colleagues, we just heard about this, thanks to your reporting, and came out here out of the desire to be in solidarity to show that we’re not interested in any narrative about victimization and – as heartbreaking as this is – we are strong together”

“I just met two congregants of mine who were here, one whom has relatives. His way of responding was to go row by row and count, and he’s counted over 500 tombstones”

Last week a similar mass grave desecration occured at St Louis, in a strike which police say was coordinated by several people. The scale of this vandalism may point towards a similar conclusion.

Categories
Desecration Everyday Antisemitism Featured Location Medium North America Philadelphia United States of America Vandalism Ξ Channels Ξ E-mail Ξ Social Media

Philadelphia Synagogue has windows smashed twice in two months

A Synagogue in Tacony, which is nearly 100 years old, is facing what could begin to look like a campaign of intimidation after its windows were smashed for the second time in just over a month.

A rock was thrown through a window, smashing it, at the Temple Menorah Keneseth Chai in the evening of December 2nd. The incident nearly left Synagogue President, Malcolm Adler, injured as falling shards of glass hit him. The window took a week to replace, costing the community $350.

Then last Friday at around 19:30, another rock was thrown through the same window, with two others broken.

One of the rocks thrown was the size of a baseball, and thus could easily have caused serious injury had it hit someone.

Both of the incidents appear to have been timed to coincide with Shabbat, so it cannot be discounted that the vandal responsible also aimed to hurt worshippers inside the building.

Within the last 10 years the Synagogue was also targeted with Swastika graffiti.

Mr Adler has said that some of the elderly members of the community are now nervous about leaving services, fearing that they could be victims of a physical attack. This sadly illustrates how incidents which some may write off as “just vandalism” can easily leave a community feeling victimised, with vulnerable members of community feeling at risk of physical harm.

The police are investigating the incidents as hate crimes.

 

Categories
Education Everyday Antisemitism Featured Location Medium North America Online Other Social Media Philadelphia United States of America Ξ Channels Ξ E-mail Ξ Social Media

Female student subjected to antisemitic abuse after turning down advances of non-Jewish man

A female student, who is in the process of converting to Judaism, at the Community College of Philadelphia has submitted a complaint to Drexel University after being subjected to antisemitic abuse by someone thought to be one of their students.

The student’s online dating profile stated that she ideally “would prefer a Jewish partner”.

After she rejected his advances, he expressed his displeasure that she would prefer to have a Jewish partner, saying “not my fault I’m not Jewish”.

Naturally, the exchange should have ended there, but she was shortly after contacted by another profile, which was fake.

She strongly suspects that the same person was behind this new profile, which was made under the username “ImWantJewNeed”.

The profile’s summary included “I’m a nice Jew guy looking for ladies that want to see my draddle” (s.i.c), “living my life as if I was the only Jew alive”, and listed its favourite media as “how to be a Jew 101 and ijewradio” and under the “you should message me if” section wrote “your (s.i.c) looking for a practicing Jew”, a clear reference to the earlier exchange.

She was contacted by the profile, when he made references to money and generally entirely focused on her Jewish identity.

Though she took the unwelcome conversation with good humour, even asking him “how was your Shabbos?”,  harassing a Jewish (or a soon-to-be Jewish) woman online because she doesn’t want to go out with you, and fixating on her Jewish identity, is clearly antisemitic. It is also worrying that this individual is apparently unwilling to accept a woman’s right to say no to his advances.

The student has reported the incident to the boy’s university, who appear to be taking the incident seriously. We will be advising her as the complaint is taken forward.

 

Categories
Featured Location Medium North America Philadelphia Police Abuse United States of America

Philadelphia Cop exposed as Neo-Nazi

Photos have recently emerged of Philadelphia police officer Ian Hans Lichtermann with visible Nazi tattoos on show.

The tattoos were photographed as he worked at a ‘Black Resistance March’ during the Democratic National Convention in July.

Lichtermann’s tattoos include a Nazi eagle and a tattoo of the German word for ‘Fatherland’, as well as “For God and Country”, the motto of the American Legion, a Fascist organisation. It was also reported that he had a tattoo of an Iron Cross.

The Police Department will investigate the tattoos, saying that it “does not condone anything that can be interpreted as offensive, hateful or discriminatory in any form”, yet the head of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 has said the tattoos are “not a big deal”, claiming “I see people with panthers on their arm. Doesn’t mean they are Black Panthers. People with crosses on arms doesn’t mean they dislike any other religion”.

A local antifascist organisation also revealed that he had been exposed as being a member of “Blood & Honour”, a fascist online network started by English neo-Nazi Ian Stewart.

More information can be found here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Everyday Antisemitism Philadelphia Verbal Abuse Ξ E-mail

Philadelphia residents shout “Go back to Israel” at Jewish property developers

During a community meeting in a gentrifying neighbourhood in Point Breeze, Philadelphia, local activists shouted antisemitic comments to Jewish real estate developers, forcing the meeting to end.

Activists with Concerned Citizens of Point Breeze reportedly shouted “Go back to Israel”, “Go back to Lakewood [a Jewish neighbourhood]” and other such comments whilst developers were making presentations.

“This was not one person with a screw loose. This was a mob mentality,” Ori Feibush, a local developer who is Jewish but was not presenting at the meeting, told Philly.com.