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Facebook’s official policy is not to remove Holocaust denial in all but four countries

Facebook is actively permitting Holocaust denial to appear on its website, having an active policy of removing it in only four countries, a policy which is taught to content moderators.

The social media giant has had an extremely mixed record in dealing with antisemitism, frequently refusing to remove antisemitic conspiracy theories, blood libels and Nazi propaganda, and even incitement to “kill all Jews“. However, documents leaked by the Guardian show the extent of the company’s failure to deal with antisemitism. The documents are from a training manual which is used to instruct Facebook’s content moderators.

In the documents, Facebook allegedly cites the risk of being blocked by particular countries as their main reason for blocking the content. Despite Holocaust denial being illegal in 14 countries, Facebook only removes it in the four countries (France, Germany, Austria and Israel) they worry will actively pursue them for not doing so.

Facebook’s policy is that they “will only block” Holocaust denial if it is reported from one the four aforementioned countries.

Whilst a general concern for free speech is of course important, Facebook risks legitimising Holocaust denial by only removing it in 4 countries. There is already a huge antisemitism problem on social media generally, both from the far right, the far left, and from Islamists, and they seem to increasingly have complete liberty to spread their views to impressionable people, often without sanction from Facebook. However, the fact that what was previously apparently just a general failure to deal with antisemitism seems to have developed into an active policy, an extremely worrying precedent, which we hope Facebook will address.

 

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Google suggests a Holocaust denier as the first search result for “Holocaust historian”

Jewish journalist Josh Nathan-Kazis, who writes for the Forward, has tweeted that Google’s top search result when searching for “Holocaust historian” comes up as notorious Holocaust denier David Irving. 

We corroborated the report, and found that Irving appears first, ahead of figures such as Raul Hilberg and Deborah Lipstadt.

David Irving, as well as being a Holocaust denier, reportedly claimed that British Jews were “not British”. He is an active speaker in neo-Nazi circles and has previously been jailed for Holocaust denial in Austria.

Last year we reported on the extreme prominence of Holocaust denial material on Amazon, which despite pressure from the public still seems to persist.

 

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UK: “Appalling” antisemitic graffiti found in alleyway in Cheltenham

Antisemitic graffiti has been discovered in an alleyway in Cheltenham.

The graffiti was reported two days ago, and includes two swastikas as well as an offensive phrase which appears to be something like “F*ck the Jews”, but the first word has been censored. It thus could conceivably be considerably worse (i.e. an instance of incitement).

Gloucestershire Live commented that the fact that sexual innuendo was found near to the antisemitic graffiti perhaps indicated that the graffiti was the “work of young people, who may not fully understand their extreme offence”. However, the fact that they are clearly aware enough to associate the Swastika with the hatred of Jews perhaps indicates otherwise.

The Community Security Trust also commented:

“In context, this may well be something between youths, but it is still troubling as to why someone should want to use a swastika, which is a notorious racist hate symbol.”

“Those using the swastika must at least know the basics of what it means, otherwise why else would they use it?”

The chairman of Cheltenham Hebrew Congregation, Jenny Silverstone, also commented on the incident, saying:

“The police in Gloucestershire are very supportive and we have every confidence in them to deal with this and every confidence that the people of Cheltenham will reject such messages of hate.”

“It is dispiriting that this continues. It never quite goes away and it’s hard to tell you how it makes me feel when you see or hear about this. But there are so many good people around that it’s them I have to turn to raise my spirits”

Last year, we reported that a 59-year-old resident of Cheltenham was flying the Nazi and confederate flags in his garden, despite insisting that he is not racist.

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Ukrainian General calls to “destroy” Jews, saying “go to hell K*kes”

Vasily Vovk, a retired general in Ukraine who still holds a senior rank in the security services, has posted a particular virulent antisemitic rant on his Facebook, which has since been deleted.

He wrote that Ukrainian Jews “aren’t Ukrainians and I will destroy you”. He also threatened to “destroy” a senior Jewish lawmaker.

“I’m telling you one more time – go to hell, zhidi [kikes], the Ukrainian people have had it to here with you” he continued.

He also said that “Ukraine must be governed by Ukrainian”.

These represent some of the most ugly antisemitic attitudes imaginable. Not only is him singling out a Ukrainian lawmaker alongside Jews an indication that he believes that Jews have been wielding influence over politics, as well as his statement that Ukrainians “have had it to here with you”, but also his statement that Jews aren’t Ukrainians is reminiscent of both the worst of medieval persecutions, and of Nazism.

We have been at the forefront of documenting the rising antisemitism in Ukraine, which has involved a revival of ultra-Nationalism which reveres many figures who collaborated with the Nazis, attacks upon Jews, Jewish religious sites, and those who defend the rights of Jews, and pressure from nationalists resulting in criminal proceedings being brought against a Jewish war hero who killed Nazis.

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Danish Imam: “fight the Jews and kill them” to bring on “Judgement day”

Jewish communal leaders have filed a complaint after a Copenhagen Imam allegedly suggested that Muslims should “kill” Jews in a video.

Imam Mundhir Abdallah, who preaches in Norrebro, Copenhagen, allegedly claimed that “Judgement Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them”, quoting a Hadith. The statement was made in Arabic and was translated by MEMRI. He went on to quote the infamous statement about Jews hiding behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees calling out to Muslims that there is a Jew behind them so that they can be slaughtered.

He also spoke of “liberating” Al-Aqsa Mosque from the “filth of the Zionists” and spoke of a Caliphate waging war against the “Jewish”, not “Zionist”, “entity”.

Dan Rosenberg Asmussen, a communal head of the Jewish communities in Denmark, has called on police to open a criminal investigation for incitement, saying “we fear that weak and easily-influenced persons could interpret this kind of preaching as an appeal to visit acts of violence or terror on Jews”. However, reaching such a meaning seems not to require a strained interpretation at all. Instead, this comes across as the Imam calling the murder of Jews a religious duty, and indeed glorifying it.

 

 

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Holocaust memorial desecrated with Nazi imagery in Ukraine amidst rising antisemitism

A Holocaust memorial in Chernivtsi, in the South-West of Ukraine, was desecrated last night.

A post on Facebook shows an image of the memorial with the numbers 14/88. These are a code for the 14 words, a neo-Nazi mantra about preserving the Aryan race, and “Heil Hitler”.

There is also a Swastika and the SS logo.

Everyday Antisemitism has been documenting a resurgence of antisemitism in Ukraine, driven by Nationalist groups which have glorified Nazi collaborators, attempted to prosecute elderly Jewish war heroes and physically attacking Jews and those who defend them in the streets. Last month, far-right extremists chanted “Jews out” as they celebrated the birthday of a Nazi collaborator.

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Berlin’s March For Science sees Holocaust deniers and antisemitic conspiracy theorists march unchallenged

RIAS (Department for Research and Information on Antisemitism) Incident Report Central Berlin, 22nd April 2017.

Blatant Antisemitism, Holocaust deniers and conspiracy theorists on Berlin’s March for Science

On Saturday, April 22, several thousand people participated in the “March for Science Berlin”. A group of four people displayed placards and distributed antisemitic leaflets concerning Holocaust denial and conspiracy theories. For example, on one flier, the German World War II debts and the Holocaust are questioned along with conspiracy theories about climate change and the September 11 suicide attacks. Jews were also targeted as having a financial influence over Hollywood, the press, pornography and the internet. There were depictions of the alleged power of “Bilderberg” and other groups are referred to within the fliers as “evidence-based facts – free from any ideology!”. One of the group of four was known to have already carried a quotation on a placard from the right-wing extremist Horst Mahler, at a peace demonstration in October last year: “The history of the Holocaust is a story full of lies”. Further, a known regular antisemite, Usama Z., attended the demonstration and regularly displays conspiracy-theory placards with antisemitic content.

Image may contain: 3 people

The above placard reads: We want evidence-based science-based opinion-forming!
This applies in particular to the following subjects: Earth and human history; War crimes of World Wars 1 and 2; The Legal status of the FRG; (Federal Republic of Germany), Holocaust;
Climate change; 9/11; Terrorism; Power structures; The Press. There are no alternatives to facts!

Image may contain: 6 people

The above placard reads: We want a factual analysis of the contents of so-called conspiracy theories, instead of a general defamation of so-called conspiracy theorists!
There are no alternatives to the facts!

A non-profit Berlin-based organisation, “The Golden Tin-Foil Hat”, (GTFH), was also present at the march. This organisation regularly attends such gatherings, distributing leaflets and offering help and advice in countering Holocaust denial, extremism, conspiracy theories and sects. They challenged the March for Science organisers on the GTFH facebook page. The March for Science organisers stated that antisemitism was a matter for the police not them, to which the GTFH asked why then were only GTFH members challenged by March for Science (MfS) stewards and not the blatant peddlers of antisemitism and conspiracy theories? The conversation continued such that MfS agreed to be more vigilant and the GTFH team offered to act in an advisory capacity at future marches.

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Greek Orthodox Bishop spreads myth of Jewish world domination after being withdrawn from Jerusalem visit

Bishop Seraphim, a Greek Orthodox Bishop, has used his position to spout antisemitic conspiracy theories and declare his religion’s opposition to “Zionist” world domination.

Angered by a decision to replace him with another bishop on a trip to Israel for the Easter Festival of the Holy Fire.

Seraphim proceeded to blame Israel for blocking his visit and then pontificated about the evils of Zionism.

He said that Orthodox Christianity stood against Zionism, “especially against the wing of Zionism that seeks world domination”.

He accused other Christian denominations of being pro-Jewish, and accused Jews of using freemasonry to infiltrate governments.

He also quoted from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, from which many antisemitic myths around alleged Jewish attempts at world domination originate. According to the Definition of Antisemitism, “Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g. claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterise Israel or Israelis” is Antisemitic, although it seems like he also spoke directly and unequivocally about Jews, too.

He is facing a lawsuit for his statements from the Greek Helsinki Monitor.

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece released the following statement:

“Once again, we are not surprised with the new delirium of the Orthodox Metropolitan of Piraeus, Seraphim, published on the official webpage of the Archdiocese of Piraeus,” the community said in a statement. “Despite his earnest efforts to dismantle the accusations of antisemitism, in his lengthy writings he refers to antisemitism as anti-Zionism, using well known antisemitic stereotypes, conspiracy theories and traditional Jew-hating attitudes, in order to be characterised not as antisemite but as anti-Zionist.”

“We believe that his statements are not compatible with the status of an official of the Greek Orthodox Church, a Church that evokes love and solidarity, neither with the status of a state official who is obliged to remain loyal to the Constitution and the laws of the Greek State”

“We are certain that His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos (patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church) will agree that the hate campaign against the Jewish people is incompatible with the principles and the history of the Greek Orthodox Church.”

“The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece kindly asks His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos and the Hierarchs of the Church of Greece to isolate the extreme racist and antisemitic views circulating within the Church, which poison Greek society and undermine the harmonious co-existence of all Greek citizens, regardless of gender, skin colour or religion”

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“There is a Jew here” – threatening note, Swastika left at home of Israeli dignitary in Italy

Major correction: the graffiti pictured was of a more serious nature than we had originally appreciated. It translates to – “be a patriot, kill a Jew”. This is thus not just an instance of intimidation, but of incitement to violence. The oversight was due to a lack of a translator and having to rely on an intermediate source.

Luigi De Santis, an honourary Israeli consul in the Italian City of Bari, has reported threatening antisemitic vandalism at his house in the city.

The words “There is a Jew here, too” were scrawled on his property, on what appears to be a front door. A Swastika is worked into the message.

Another note said “Jewish also here” with a crucifix.

He apparently found a similar note in his post a few days ago.

These persistent incidents amount to antisemitic harassment, and the use of a cross and a Swastika to target a Jew is an example of the most stark and obvious Christian-European Antisemitism which is often incorrectly written off as no longer existing.

The language used appears quite threatening, as if to remind De Santis that the vandal knows where he lives and knows that he is Jewish.

The police are investigating.

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Australian Imam blames Jews for “LGBT agenda”, “the abortion industry” and “American foreign policy”

An antisemitic Muslim religious leader, Imam Feizel Chothia, who has accused Israel of entering refugee camps so that Israeli soldiers can shoot children, and supports the death penalty for “homosexuals” under Islamic law, has created a partnership with Anglican Reverend Peter Humphries of St. Paul’s Church in Perth, Australia.

According to Chothia, Israel, not only stands for terrorism, but is also the only terrorist in the Middle East; Hamas, ISIS, the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, suicide bombers, rockets, and knife stabbings that harm Israeli Jews simply do not exist for Chothia.

In addition, according to the Imam’s Facebook page, besides “terrorizing Palestine for about 70 years”, Israeli Jews and American Jews are responsible for:

a) the promotion of “Jewish racial supremacist ideology”, which supports Israel’s “land thievery, terrorism and genocide in Palestine”

b)”the advancement of the LGBT agenda, the abortion industry, [and] the pornography industry” which spreads “Cultural Marxism” throughout the United States and Europe

c) owning and controlling “the major media consortium operating the in the West”

d) “routinely buying American Presidential elections and congressional seats and committee assignments on Capitol Hill”

e) controlling “central banking and globalist TRADE treaties”

f)”Israel’s usurpation of American foreign policy”

It must be emphasized that neither the Anglican Church nor Reverend Humphries supports the imam’s views. However,  due to Chothia’s highly toxic rhetoric and antisemitic Facebook posts, it is deeply troubling that St. Paul’s is not only donating church space for Friday prayer meetings, but is also offering to sell land adjacent to the church, so that Chothia can build a mosque, which will give Chothia a platform to spread his toxic antisemitism.

It is unknown as to why the Anglican church is turning a blind eye to Chothia’s antisemitic commentary. What is particularly worrisome about Chothia is that, while he doesn’t call for violence, he champions Al-Qaeda’s ideology, and has championed the charge that Islamic terrorism is largely innocent and purely a result of American intervention.

It is, therefore, no surprise that Chothia’s absurd comments evoke classic antisemitic tropes. For in Chothia’s eyes, the evil money-mad and power-mad Jews, who delight in creating world-wide suffering, have only one goal: to control the world by owning and controlling the banks, the media, American government, global trade policies and global foreign policies.

In another antisemitic trope, Chothia implies that Jews are evil and are are out to destroy the moral order of the world because they support equal rights for gay people. In fact, in blaming Jews for everything from war and central banking to abortion, Chothia is using Jews as a scapegoat for all the things he sees as problems in the world.

In an article in the Sydney Herald Sun, Chothia states that that he believes in executing homosexuals in order to maintain the “purity of society” and eliminate “elements of perversity”.

 

Reverend Humphries and the Anglican Church appear to have approached the partnership in good faith, and interfaith dialogue is extremely important to promote tolerance and inclusion. However, there is also a need to prevent such dialogue being dominated by voices of intolerance, particularly those who masquerade as legitimate religious leaders.

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Police hunt for arsonist who torched Jewish school bus, religious books in New York

Police in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York are searching for a suspect who set fire to a Jewish

school bus.

The incident occurred last month.

The perpetrator broke into the bus through its emergency door and set fire to the interior of the bus before fleeing. He torched several religious books.

The bus has Hebrew writing on it, so whilst the police have been cautious to describe it as an antisemitic incident, there would seem to be good reason to believe so.

Book burning was one of the most infamous aspects of the Nazi regime. The Nazis burnt books written by Jews, as well as others they considered to be “degenerate”.

A news report covering the incident can be viewed here.

 

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Anti-Zionist attempts to set pro-Israel campaigner on fire in Berlin

The Berlin Police are conducting a manhunt after a pro-Israel marcher faced an attempt to set her on fire early this week at a march to commemorate Israeli soldiers who have been killed in combat, and terror victims.

The attack happened when the woman, a German-Israeli citizen, was wearing an Israel flag over her shoulders. The assailant allegedly attempted to set the flag ablaze, but given that the victim was wearing the flag, this is more than just a case of property damage or arson, themselves criminal acts, and is instead a clear attempted act of violence.

Despite the attack, the woman wishes to continue pro-Israel activism.

A physical attack on a person for merely displaying the Israeli flag, the flag of the country where half of the world’s Jews live, is clearly antisemitic, as it is a case of “applying double standards” to the State of Israel that are not applied to any other nation.

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Hundreds of neo-Nazis march in Sweden on May Day to “regain power from the… Zionist elite”

Several hundred members of the neo-Nazi group “Nordic Resistance Movement” were allowed to march through the Swedish town of Falun on May Day.

May Day is an ancient European festival which was selected as the “International Workers Day” in the Second International, and has ever since been associated with Left-Wing Politics. However, the neo-Nazi group were allowed to march in a formal manner through the streets, with police looking on. They were opposed by anti-Fascist protesters.

Karl-Erik Pettersson, a local social Democrat, said it “is horrendous and a threat to our democracy that a party that does not stand for the equal rights of all people is given an opportunity to be seen on this day meant for the labour movement. But our parade will be bigger than ever”.

The group is explicitly antisemitic and neo-Nazi. One of its leaders ended a speech calling on “nordic” people to rise up, and proceeded to shout “Hail Victory”.

The group has as its stated aims regaining “power from the global Zionist elite”, the forced deportation of all non-Europeans and to “racially assess” all those who came to Sweden after 1975. They claim that the “Jewish owned media” is responsible for immigration and that “Jewish racism” has been a constant since the Biblical era. A whole section of their manifesto is devoted to “Zionists”, and describes Jews as controlling world finance, describes Jews as “parasites” – borrowing, unsurprisingly, directly from Nazi propaganda, and vows to “topple” this “world order” which is portrayed as almost exclusively Jewish. They also identify “Zionism” with a “decadent” system, which is a variant on a common antisemitic canard that Jews attempt to turn cultures towards decadence and away from traditional values. Throughout the manifesto, Jews are portrayed as the roots of all the “problems” identified by the group, such as the dominance of finance, immigration, a decadent culture, and the mass media.

Ironically, this blatant neo-Nazi propaganda is interrupted at one point to proclaim that “not all Jews are Zionists and…there are Jews who stand against the Zionist endeavour for power”, which shows that even neo-Nazis who advocating racial screening in order to deport those who are not racially “pure” enough for them think they can cover their antisemitism if they purport to merely be attacking “Zionists”. Despite this, throughout their manifesto, the group employs some of the most recognisable antisemitic stereotypes from Nazi propaganda.

They also support a pan-Nordic nation, in which the Scandinavia countries form a single entity. This is of course disturbingly similar to Hitler’s aim of all Germanic people’s being united under his rule. They also wish to limit citizenship to people for whom either “both parents are Nordic citizens or if one parent is a Nordic citizen…the other is of a closely related race”.

The fact that hundreds of these people were able to march, opposed only by a few anti-Fascist protesters, through a Swedish town on May Day is extremely disturbing. Throughout their material, they present themselves as anti-establishment, purporting to oppose the dominance of financial services, supporting environmental regulations, opposing inherited power and wealth, including Monarchy, and other policies which, whilst they may not have necessarily been opposed to Nazis or other Fascists, appear to have been emphasised by the NRM to attempt to appeal to left-leaning youths who are disaffected with aspects of contemporary political life. An appearance on May Day is not merely an attempt to intimidate Jews and non-Whites, but also an attempt to legitimise their views to a left-wing audience, which is increasingly happy to engage in antisemitic discourse itself.

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Ukraine moves to prosecute 94-year-old Jewish war hero for allegedly killing Nazi collaborator in 1952

Colonel Boris Steckler, a 94-year-old Jewish man who served in the Soviet Army, has been told by Ukrainian authorities that he should expect to face trial for a murder he is accused of committing in 1952.

Steckler was assigned the task of tracking down Nazis and Nazi collaborators in the post-War period. In 1952 he was involved in a confrontation with Ukrainian Nationalists groups who had cooperated with the Nazis, including having helped to round up Jews to be sent to the concentration camps. During the fighting, Neil Hasiewicz, a judge and propagandist, was killed.

Steckler had previous fought against the Nazis in the Second World War, when he was injured in action. He has appeared in public ceremonies celebrating the defeat of Nazism, but Ukrainian ultra-Nationalists, who have frequently glorified Nazi collaborators and increasingly so in recent years, filed a complaint against Steckler for the assassination, which he does not deny. Unusually, this complaint appears to have been pursued.

Alex Tantzer, a Ukrainian Jew whose family was murdered by the Nazis, commented:“I do not know whether this is anti-Semitism or not. In Ukraine, there are occasional complaints from nationalist organizations, and it’s a shame that the authorities take it seriously … It’s a shame that the government in Ukraine does not stop these horrific things. Now when we celebrate victory over Nazi Germany, we are persecuting this Jew who fought against Nazis”.

The prosecution of a Jewish War Hero who killed an acknowledged Nazi collaborator does appear to indicate a resurgence of antisemitism, particularly when it has been initiated by Nationalist groups who have no problem glorifying figures who murdered, or helped the Nazi to murder, Jews. In January, Ukrainian Nationalists chanted “Jews out” at a rally which memorialised a Nazi collaborator, and last August a street in Kiev was renamed to honour a Nazi collaborator who told his followers to “destroy” Jews.

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Principal forced to apologise after Jewish students targeted with antisemitic social media posts at Missouri High School

The Principal of Parkway Central High School in Missouri has written a letter to parents after students of the school were found to have been hosting antisemitic content on their Facebook pages.

Jewish students told the press that they felt hurt, angry, and personally attacked, with some of the posts being targeted against individual Jewish students. However, the exact nature of the antisemitic posts has been kept from the media, so we are unable to report on exactly what is said or just how serious the incident is.

The Principal Tim McCarthy said that the posts were “unacceptable and antithetical to the values we share as a school community”. He contacted the Anti-Defamation League who have been communicating with the school since the incident, which occurred last week.

Both of the two Parkway Central students who were involved have written apologies, but there has been no mention of formal punishment. There were also posts from people outside the School, and it is unknown what action will be taken against them.

The Principal’s full letter to parents can be read below:

PCH Community,

 
Regretfully, I am sending this email to share with you information regarding an incident that transpired within the Central High community via social media last week.  As some may already know, two Central High students posted anti-Semitic images and messages on social media.  The posts were viewed by a significant number of Central High students, causing many students to feel offended, outraged, hurt, and, for some, targeted.  The posts are unacceptable and antithetical to the values we share as a school community.  Thankfully, several students brought the posts to the attention of school administrators, which allowed us to address the offensive posts directly with the students responsible and their parents.
 
Please know that your student’s safety, both physical and emotional, is always our priority.  As a school, we have addressed the incident with both students and their parents; each student, I believe, has accepted responsibility for the harm they have caused.  In an effort to repair that harm, each student sent to me a letter of apology and asked that I communicate to you their sincere remorse.  As you deem appropriate as a parent, please consider talking with your student about the incident, as well as the apology offered by both students.  We will continue to talk with students in the building to monitor the situation as we move forward.  If you have questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.
 
From my perspective, an incident such as this is upsetting on multiple levels.  Yet, as is so often the case in difficult situations, I was reassured by the positive actions of so many of our students.  A countless number of Central High students recognized the posts were wrong and many followed up with an adult in the school to let us know what was happening and to share their feelings of concern and hurt.  The commitment our students demonstrated to treating people with respect and dignity, as well as their expectation to be treated with that same respect and dignity by others, starts at home and we deeply appreciate your work as parents.  As a school community, we will continue our work of creating a culture and climate that reflects these values.
 
Sincerely,
 
Tim McCarthy
 
Principal, PCH”
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Canada: 12-year-old pupil at elite school victim of a “serious” antisemitic incident

Upper Canada College, a Canadian private school which has educated several prominent Canadian politicians and has been described as having an “illustrious history”, has had to reassure parents after a “serious” antisemitic incident took place, which has led to the police being involved.

Whilst the information available is quite sparse, a 12-year-old Jewish student apparently had antisemitic slurs and symbols. Whilst the school has emphasised that the incident was a “serious” one, it is not known if this represents one incident in a pattern of antisemitic bullying or is a one off, or whether there were other elements to the incident.

The school called a meeting with all the students in the lower years and communicated to them just how serious an antisemitic incident of any nature is.

The school issued a letter to parents saying:

“I write to inform you of a serious incident that occurred yesterday at the Prep…a student in Grade 7 returned to his locker at the end of the day to find it vandalized with antisemitic symbols and messaging. As soon as we became aware of the situation the College began an investigation.”

“We have attempted to progress the investigation swiftly, involving all the appropriate parties, including the police”

Whilst the police were involved, they have since said that despite the incident being serious, it should not be a criminal matter. Several Jewish groups have offered their support to the school in providing education relating to Jewish issues. The school’s response appears to have been an excellent one, in swiftly involving the police, communicating with parents, and having a frank, serious, but open discussion with pupils in an attempt to reassert their shared values.

 

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10 Jewish gravestones smashed in Bucharest in “premeditated act” coinciding with Holocaust remembrance

The Center for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism in Romania have reported that ten Jewish tombstones have been smashed at a Jewish cemetery in Bucharest.

The group are describing the incident as a “premeditated act”, which appears to have been timed to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to commemorating the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. It was discovered yesterday and apparently occurred on Monday.

Despite between 150,000 and 250,000 Romanian Jews being deported to concentration camps within a two year period between 1942 and 1944, many Romanians continued to deny or downplay the country’s role in the extermination of European Jews. Today, only 6,000 Jews remain in the country.

The police are investigating several teenagers in connection with the incident.

 

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Neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division attempting to recruit students on American campuses

Pictures have emerged on social media of recruitment posters for a neo-Nazi group, which were found on the University of Pennsylvania’s campus.

The group, Atomwaffen Division, has been a rising force in extremist politics and has been targeting US University campuses. In February they plastered posters over the University of Washington’s campus, which we only became aware of when we researched the group having seen these latest pictures.

The stunt at Washington was videoed, showing several people with covered faces plastering the neo-Nazi posters over the campus at night. The group has been glorified by the Daily Stormer, the neo-Nazi news publication, for following the example of National Action, which was proscribed as a terrorist organisation following action by Campaign Against Antisemitism, in publicising their recruitment stunts on YouTube.

The recruitment posters say “how is a diploma going to help you in the race war? Join your local Nazis! The Atomwaffen Division” and features a Swastika and a pointing hand.

The group claims that it has started its recruitment in response to the growth of “communists”, Black Lives Matter, and “Jewish interests” and calls for a “National Socialist revolution”.

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Democrat Candidate for NY City Council can’t stop talking about “greedy Jewish landlords”

Thomas Lopes-Pierre, a fringe candidate for New York City Council, has posted a plethora of antisemitic statements about “greedy Jewish landlords” on social media.

Lopez-Pierre’s Twitter bio reads “Jewish landlords OWN 80% of private rental buildings in Upper Manhattan; GUILTY of GREED for pushing Black/Hispanic tenants out. Democrat: 7th Council District.”

He appears to have written many tweets centred around “greedy Jewish landlords”, which is inherently antisemitic as it draws on the antisemitic canard of Jews being obsessed with money. Moreover, he published a “List of Greedy Jewish Landlords that gave $1,000+ political contributions to NYC Council Mark Levine”, which seems to hint at an antisemitic conspiracy in which Jews are alleged to have used their money to subvert the political process.

Similarly, he has accused Jewish landlords of conspiring against Hispanic and Black residents, which appears to be an accusation of Jewish supremacism and an allegation that Jews are attempting to oppress other minority groups and create division, an idea that is a mainstay of contemporary antisemitism.

He has also shared various negative news articles about Jews, which whilst not being antisemitic on their own, when coupled with his deeply antisemitic language elsewhere clearly demonstrate an underlying antisemitism, despite his insistence that he has no problems with most Jews.

He describes himself as a “Christian manof Dominican, Puerto Rican and Haitian descent” who supports “economic and social justice”. Despite his claim to care about social justice, his social media clearly shows that he has a borderline obsession with Jewish people.

 

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Berlin: Antisemitic attack in railway station

Berlin Morgenpost have reported an antisemitic incident at a railway station.

A 38-year old woman threw a glass bottle at a group in the Berlin Ostbahnhof train station.  One of the group approached her and she called him a ‘dirty Jew’.

The woman was swiftly apprehended by police and is facing criminal charges for incitement to hatred and causing bodily harm.

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Ukrainian national hero says she doesn’t “like ‘k*kes'”, suggests that a Jewish elite runs the country

Nadiya Savchenko was Ukraine’s first female combat pilot, a 2009 graduate of the Air Force University in Kharkiv. In 2014 she was captured by pro-Russian separatists whilst serving in eastern Ukraine, after having volunteered to fight in the conflict in the Donbas region that followed Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, and sentenced to 22 years in prison.

In protest, Savchenko went on hunger strike for 83 days and, in May 2016, was released in a prisoner exchange. She was awarded the Hero of the Ukraine medal and has been feted as Ukraine’s Joan of Arc , yet vilified by others, “a killing machine in a skirt”.

Nadiya Savchenko, although a controversial figure, is clearly brave and stoic in the face of aggression and her experiences; she is a formidable opponent. She has impressed in interviews, displaying a steely determination, as she does in this interview with Kirsty Wark for Newsnight. Further, her family were labelled Kulaks and her mother’s family had suffered under Stalin’s Holodomor, the enforced famine of 1932-33, which resulted in death by starvation for c.3million Ukrainians.

Against this full and chequered past, it is all the more disappointing that Savchenko embroiled herself in accusations of antisemitism. As a Ukrainian Parliamentarian, in an interview on the Ukrainian 112 station radio, she seemed to agree with a caller’s remarks who had spoken of a “Jewish takeover of the Ukraine”, but has denied being antisemitic. She said “I have nothing against Jews. I do not like ‘kikes’.” and further said Jews possess “80 percent of the power when they only account for 2 percent of the population.”

She first used the term  “evreiv,” which for speakers of both Ukrainian and Russian is a neutral designation for Jew. However, later she used the term “zhidiv,” which in Russian is a pejorative for Jews, akin to “kike” in English.

It also seemed important to her to mention the supposed Jewish roots of Volodymyr Groysman, (Ukraine’s Prime Minister); Petro Poroshenko, (Ukraine’s President) and Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister and a leader of the nation’s Orange Revolution.

In her radio interview, she replied to the caller, “Indeed, part of the ruling establishment in Ukraine does not possess distinctly Ukrainian blood and we need to talk about it and act.” What does “act” mean? With the often tragic history and current day trials of Ukraine’s Jewry, talking is one matter, what she means by “act” is another. From someone with a reputation for forthrightness, it’s not unreasonable for Jewry to interpret this as veiled and threatening.

Despite Savchenko’s denials, it appears that pejoratives and insinuation are so entrenched within her use of language that the tone of antisemitism is not even recognised by her as such. The comments about various politicians, and the fact that this is even a source of speculation to begin with, reeks of antisemitic conspiracy theories and demonstrates an underlying antisemitic sentiment.

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Antisemitic alt-right banner at Trump rally in California peddles Jewish conspiracy

Pro-Trump supporters at a rally in California displayed an antisemitic banner over the weekend.

The rally, which eventually descended into a violent clash between Trump supporters and protesters, was initially peaceful. Footage shows several Donald Trump supporters being aggressive before violence breaks out.

One of the signs at the protest says “da goyim know”. This is an antisemitic meme popular with the alt-right, which is often followed by the phrase “shut it down” and coupled with pictures of people who are visibly Jewish. “Goy” (plural “goyim”) is a Hebrew word that simply means “nation”, but has often been used to mean non-Jew, often with negative undertones. The meme is used to imply that Jews are in control of various events in world politics and culture and will “shut down” any dissent. It is thus intrinsically linked to antisemitic conspiracy theories. However, here it has been repackaged, almost as a badge of honour, whereby those brandishing the sign seem to be parading their belief that they are somehow knowledgeable about this alleged Jewish conspiracy. In far right circles, antisemites often approving refer to themselves as “goys”.

This is, of course, merely the latest in a long line of antisemitic incidents from Trump supporters, of which the President has offered only a very weak condemnation.

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Antisemitic thugs attempt to carve swastika into Ukrainian activist’s chest

Last month three attackers set upon Ludmila Daschizkia in a street in Uman, Ukraine, removed a piece of her clothing, and attempted to carve a Swastika into her chest in a shocking antisemitic attack.

Dashizkia is an activist who is well known in Ukraine for her support of Breslov Hasidim who come to visit Rabbi Nachman’s grave in the city, which last year we reported had been desecrated with a pig’s head and blood by antisemites.

Dashizkia managed to escape with only minor injuries, but the attackers, if caught, may only have to pay a fine.

She commented: “I do not know who it was, but it’s an act of intimidation. It could be that the attackers were local neo-Nazis, but I’m not sure about it … Someone might have wanted to provoke an anti-Semitic scandal. I told the police, but I’m afraid they will not find the attackers”.

The wounds she received before her escape are picture below. It seems quite clear that it was an attempt to carve a swastika into her chest.

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Tunisian arrested in Italy after waving knife at police and screaming “you are Jews. I will kill you all”.

A Tunisian man has been arrested in Bologna, Italy, after it was alleged that he shouted antisemitic threats at police and injured two of them.

Passers by had called the police after the man shouted curses in Arabic. The police arrived and found him sat on the steps of a Church. The 30-year-old Tunisian man, when apprehended by police, brandished a knife and screamed “you are Jews. I will kill you all”.

He was handcuffed, but allegedly still managed to injure two of the police officers, causing injuries that will keep them away from their duties for several days. He was allegedly arrested with an illegal substance on his person.

Bologna is home to a small, historic Jewish community. It is fortunate that this man was apprehended by police officers who were capable of detaining him before he was able to carry out any direct attacks on Jewish residents of the city.

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Swedish Jewish Community Centre closes after threats from neo-Nazis

A Jewish community centre in Umea, Sweden, has closed following a campaign of intimidation by neo-Nazis, including swastika graffiti on its walls including the wording  “we know where you live”.

The Judisk Föreningen, or Jewish Association, in Umea has been the victim of persistent threatening emails, calls and graffiti from a local neo-Nazi group called Nordfront. The graffiti that finally triggered the closure is clearly a veiled threat, particularly in a City with as few as 50 Jewish residents.

In September 2015, the Swedish anti-Fascist organisation named Expo claimed that there was a rise in Neo-Nazism in Sweden. RT adds that there is a “similar trend” occurring in other countries and cites incidents since then which had occurred  in Paris, France, also London and Birmingham, in the UK. We have frequently commented on the rising Antisemitism in Sweden, and whilst this is often attributed to radical Islam, it is always worth noting that the threat to Jews comes not just from one sector of society, but from many, with observable problems from certain radical strains of Islam, the far left, and the far right.

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Paris Jewish woman found dead after allegedly being thrown from her own balcony by Arab neighbour

Paris police have opened a murder investigation after a 66-year-old Charedi woman in Paris was found dead on the street on Monday night in the 11th arrondissement of Paris.

Lucy Halimi was allegedly thrown from the balcony of her third-story apartment following an argument with her neighbour, a 27-year-old Arab, who has since been arrested by police. He has apparently been transferred to psychiatric services. Witnesses apparently heard the suspect screaming that he was going to kill her shortly before her death.

Some news sources have claimed that the man was heard shouting “Allahu Ackbar”, but it is not known if these reports are reliable. If so, this incident looks like far more than an argument between neighbours that went wrong. However, the true motive is not currently known. However, given the increasingly troubling situation for Jews in France, it would be foolish not to consider antisemitism to be a genuine possibility.

Two French Jewish organisations released a joint statement saying that they “will do their best to shed light on this very sad event and to support the family. We will keep you informed”.

We wish Halimi’s family a long life and offer our most sincere condolences.

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Man posing with antisemitic posters around Berlin

On their website, the Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism (CFCA) state they have received 31 messages about a man displaying antisemitic posters in public places including mostly the Neukolln and Mitte districts of Berlin, Germany.

One of the banners says “The Zionists rule the world, not Trump, not Merkel”.

Their article dated 29 March 2017 includes a photo of the man who advertises his Facebook page on one of the posters as “USAMA Z”, and whereupon he allegedly denies the Holocaust and references antisemitic hoax, the Protocols of  The Elders of Zion. According to the International Definition of Antisemitism the man’s behaviour is antisemitic in that his posters use “the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism  to characterise Israel or Israelis”.

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NY Students asked to argue in favour of the Holocaust for assignment

Students in a school in Oswego participating in a course called “Principles of Literary Representation”, which apparently allows them to study College-level classes, were left shocked when asked to argue in favour of the Nazi’s extermination of the Jews.

The assignment was framed as a representation of the Wannsee Conference, in which the idea of the “final solution”, the total extermination of all Europe’s Jews at the hands of the Nazis, was first fully conceived.

The assignment was presented as a “top secret” memorandum, asking students to write an internal note either in favour or against the extermination of the European Jewry in its totality, with students being assigned to argue either for or against. They were directed to use “at least 3…critical sources” to support their argument. Two students were left feeling “disturbed” and “weird” by the request and apparently contacted the ADL.

Whilst the assignment does say that it is not aimed at making them sympathetic to the Nazis, it demonstrates such a remarkable lack of judgement on the part of teaching staff that it is hard to imagine how the decision to set this assignment was made. This sort of material risks leading students to the darkest depths of the internet, where neo-Nazi websites prey on impressionable minds by twisting sparse, out-of-context prima facie facts into the most disgraceful antisemitic narratives, many of which are indeed the narratives that Hitler relied upon to make the extermination of two thirds of Europe’s Jews possible.

The assignment says that its aim was merely to expand “your point of view by going outside your comfort zone and training your brain to logistically find the evidence necessary to prove a point, even if it is existentially and philosophically against what you believe”. However, the effect of this is to present the extermination of Jews as if it is an open question, as opposed to the ultimate evil in human history, for which no conceivable justification could ever be presented.

The school district is currently investigating.

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Church leader screams “let them Nazis get on you again” at Jewish shopkeeper in Seattle street

Footage has emerged of a Church leader in Seattle, Washington, berating a Jewish shopkeeper.

Omari Tahir-Garrett, who has served 21 months in prison for knocking out the Mayor in  a fight, repeatedly tells a Jewish store owner called Ian Eisenberg. to “go back to Germany” and tells him that he should “let them Nazis get on you again”.

Shockingly, this antisemite is apparently running for a position on the City council. On his website, he rather ironically speaks of fostering peace in the community.

The horrible rant can be viewed here.

Apparently the row started because Garrett is unhappy that Eisenberg’s shop opened next to his Church. However, there is an alcohol store that is also in the immediate vicinity.

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Jewish gym owner called a “f*cking c*cksucking f*cking Jew” for having served in the IDF

Avi Yemini, a former IDF soldier, (Israeli Defense Force), who owns the popular gym, IDF Training, in Melbourne, Australia, received a phone call, on March 14, from an anonymous caller, who threatened to “shoot him in the f**kin’ head'”, and demanded that Yemini get out of Australia, calling him a “f*cking c*cksucking f*cking Jew”.

The phone call was actually answered by a receptionist at the gym’s off-site reception. The Caulfield Police Station, Melbourne, who are currently investigating the incident, declined to speak to the press.

According to the Daily Mail Australia, Yemini said that the operator who spoke to the abusive caller was “very good under the circumstances. It was pretty vile and full on.”

The caller, who, at first, was polite, asked the operator if Yemini was “the ex-IDF bloke”. The operator replied:

“Yeah, 100 per cent.”

“So he knows how to shoot Palestinians,” the caller replied.

Maintaining his calm, the operator remarked: “I’m not too sure to be honest with you.”

The caller responded by delivering an anti-Semitic rant: “He’s a f**kin’ c**ksucker Zionist. Why are you even working there, mate?”

The called went on to say “You tell Avi to get the f**k out of the country, the f**kin’ c**ksucking f**kin’ Jew”

Yemini, who is publicly pro-Israel, told the press that when it comes to the identity of the caller, he has no clue.

Yemini reported the abuse to the police, but he did he not reveal how he traced the call.

Yemeni, who runs his gym with his wife’s assistance, told the press that “we’ve had threats and antisemitic things said to us in the past, but this is [the] worst ever.”

He told Daily Mail Australia that his employees were “on high alert for any potential threats”. Yemini also said that he was being unusually cautious, not only about his own safety, but about the safety of his family: “We are taking it seriously as a real threat, and trying to shut it down before it escalates,” he said.

Being an experienced IDF veteran, has helped Yemini draw patrons to his gym, which has been in operation since 2009. He teaches both Krav Maga, an IDF martial art, along with fitness classes.

Yemini is known for being both a successful businessman, and an outspoken critic of Islamism. He told the Daily Mail Australia: “I am outspoken and criticize aspects of Islam…which is often met with threats, but it won’t stop me”.

Born in Australia to a Chabad family, Yemini is no stranger to bigotry. In a Times of Israel blog post that was posted last June, he wrote: “It was almost normal to hear racial abuse thrown at me when I walked down the street, usually by a passing car, often referencing Hitler, or in some cases, even copping an egg being thrown at me. It was accepted. It was part of being Jewish.”

And it was his devotion to his religious heritage that motivated Yemini to volunteer for the IDF.  Australia, like many countries, allows their citizens to fight in foreign wars, as long as the country is an actual ally.

Although today Yemini is no longer a practicing Orthodox Jew, he is still Jewish: “I am a proud Jew.”  However, Yemini now only wears a yarmulke in synagogue or when he is talking to the media: “I’m making a statement”.

And Yemini is dedicated to sharing his personal statement with other Australian Jews. He told The Times of Israel:”My pride in my heritage and my people does not stop there [identifying as Jewish]. I have made it my business to promote it.

According to The Times of Israel, Yemini not only opened his gym for financial reasons, but also because he wanted “to show Australian Jews that being a proud Jew, being a proud Zionist can work for you. It can and should be a part of your business plan. It was and is [a part of] ours.”

Understanding all too well the many challenges that come with being openly Jewish, Yemini says that he is willing to debate issues with everyone, including Muslims. However, Yemini says that attacking people over race and religion is “unacceptable”: “When you’re talking about shooting someone in the face, you’re crossing a line whether you meant it or not”.

Since Yemini’s case is an on-going investigation, the outcome is unknown. But it is important to acknowledge countries, like Australia, who actively investigate threats against Jews.  Unfortunately, what Avi Yemini experienced has become an all too familiar story.

The global rise of anti-Semitism has turned too many Jews into victims, and, even more tragically, into murder victims. Therefore, it is imperative that Jewish leaders continue to press for a vigorous response from both the police and the courts, in order to successfully attack “the longest hatred”.

 

 

 

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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.

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Germany: Jewish boy forced out of school after 4 months of antisemitic bullying, violent attacks

A British-Jewish family in Berlin has been forced to pull their 14-year-old son out of his school after he was subjected to months of antisemitic bullying.

The boy was sent to Friedenauer Gemeinschaftsschule, a school they were attracted to initially because of its diverse pupils, many of whom are from an Arab or Turkish background. However, when the son mentioned he was Jewish, one pupil said to him “Listen, you are a cool dude but I can’t be friends with you, Jews are all murderers”.

The mother said that verbal abuse quickly escalated into physical violence, and this month “he was attacked and almost strangled, and the guy pulled a toy gun on him that looked like a real gun. And the whole crowd of kids laughed. He was completely shaken”.

The mother had approached the Headteacher of the school, asking whether he could bring in an organisation to educate the children about antisemitism, as well as other forms of xenophobia and racism, but despite him appearing open to the idea, no action was taken. The mother’s parents are Holocaust survivors who have spoken at the school.

There have been indications for over a decade that antisemitism was driving Jewish students out of state schools and to Jewish schools, with Deidre Berger suggesting in 2015 that more and more Jewish students were attending Jewish schools for fear of antisemitism and in 2006, Der Spiegel running a report on Jewish schoolchildren who had been pushed out of secular schools by antisemitism.

According to the JC, the Moses Mendelssohn Jewish High School in Berlin receives 6 to 10 applications each year from Jewish students who have similarly been forced out of other schools by antisemitism, indicating a huge problem in the city’s schools. Aaron Eckstaedt, the school’s headteacher, says that parents are often concerned with the lack of formal response from those schools, and that the complaints are often centred around students of an Arab or Turkish background.

It is not known whether these incidents are being investigated by the police.

 

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Westboro Baptist Church’s sickening antisemitic protest outside Yeshiva University

The extremist Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church, which is widely known for its extreme homophobia, and in particular for staging “God Hates Fags” protests at the funerals of US soldiers, has staged an antisemitic protest outside Yeshiva University in New York. Yeshiva University is a Private University that is aligned with Modern Orthodox Judaism.

Half a dozen protesters held signs that had messages including “The Jews Killed Jesus”, “God hates Christ-Rejecting Apostate Jews”, “144k Jews Will Repent” and “Believe On Lord Jesus”.

The claim that Jews killed Jesus is one of the oldest antisemitic quips, and it is one that has been used to incite violence against Jews throughout the history of Christian Europe. Describing religious Jews as inherently sinners because they are not Christians is extremely belittling, denies Jews their distinctness, traditional religious practices and beliefs, and can only be regarded as antisemitic. This is further illustrated by the protesters singing “he will call his people home, the rest of you Jews will die with hearts of stone” – saying that “you Jews” will die if they do not become Christians is so blatantly antisemitic a statement that it scarcely needs elaborating upon.

The protesters also sang “wrath will soon pour on you, for your harmful sins, your great affliction, it will soon begin” to the tune of Hatikva, the Israeli national anthem. They also sang that Jews should repent for “killing Jesus” to the tune of hava nagila.

25 Yeshiva University students, alumni and friends held a counter-protests, holding signs with positive messages, including those embracing Israel’s inclusivity towards the LGBT community.

The “Church” is considered a hate group by the ADL and the SPLC. They have made several antisemitic comments in the past. Their founder has belittled the Holocaust and accused contemporary Jews of orchestrating a “Holocaust” against their Church, saying “The First Holocaust was a Jewish Holocaust against Christians. The latest Holocaust is by Topeka Jews against Westboro Baptist Church”, and “they whine about the Nazi Holocaust, while they perpetrate the Topeka Holocaust”.

They also believe that the Holocaust is a punishment for Jews not “accepting” Jesus.

https://twitter.com/simonsays101/status/846425441032454145

 

At a time in which relations between Christians and Jews are generally quite positive, it is extremely disheartening to be reminded that such blatant Christian antisemitism still exists. It also serves to remind us that a hatred that most prominently directs itself at one minority group will always end up spilling over onto others. In this sense, it is heart warming to see Modern Orthodox Yeshiva University students defiantly holding signs supportive of LGBT people in the face of such hatred.

 

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Warsaw residents mark beginning of Spring by burning effigy of Jewish woman

Footage has emerged of a group of Warsaw residents apparently celebrating the beginning of Spring by burning an effigy of a Jewish woman.

The burning was held by a group called Conscience of the Nation TV. Though burning an effigy representing the Winter is a tradition in the country, this one was particularly made to look like a Jew, with one of the participants saying that the “mug” (face) and “nose” were “so well known in Polish history”, apparently referring to the presence of so many Jews in Poland throughout its history up to the Holocaust, which almost completely destroyed the Polish Jewry.

The group holding the event apparently held an “antisemeeting” last month, which further indicates that this is a sinister, antisemitic incident. The group appears to be a Nationalist group, and this could point to them appropriating a local custom for their antisemitic ideology.

The Center for Monitoring Racial and Xenophobic Behavior reported the event to local prosecutors, commenting that “during the Second World War, one of four Warsaw residents died because they were Jewish. By imitating the Nazis today you have to be either a complete idiot or the last pig. But certainly not a patriot”

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“A Monument of Shame”? German far-right leader belittles Holocaust memorial

Alternativ für Deutschland’s alternative take on Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial.

Björn Höcke, the leader of anti-immigration AfD in the eastern German state of Thuringia, said that German history was being made “appalling and laughable.” Höcke added: “These stupid politics of coming to grips with the past cripple us – we need nothing other than a 180-degree reversal on the politics of remembrance.”

 

Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial.

The Holocaust(hólos, “whole” and kaustós, “burnt”), meaning to completely consume by fire, is the most profound genocidal event etched in modern European history. So profound in the European experience, The Holocaust has become the conduit by which we remember and try to understand genocides and mass murders across the globe; encapsulated in World Holocaust Memorial Day.  Understanding goes far beyond trying to shame various groups. It is about what can happen to humanity at its worse, even somewhere like Germany which was considered one of the most civilised nations on earth.

Björn Höcke, may well be reflecting the anger and helplessness felt by individuals who are overwhelmed when confronted by the enormity of genocide and their reaction to some people’s attempts to blame and shame others, who were not present in 1938-45 and can do nothing to change or rectify what has happened.

It is incumbent on us all to commemorate, but not wallow; to act and prevent, not shame and blame; to listen more and speak less; to not make a new generation bear the unbearable. However, Björn Höcke is neither right to start with, and diminish, the Berlin Holocaust Memorial, nor to reinforce a message which is not the true intent of memorialisation. Indeed, for Jews in particular, commemorating those who were murdered in the Holocaust and understanding the Holocaust as an event in our national memory is a moral imperative. Speaking of attempts to memorialise the Holocaust as a campaign of shame belittles the experiences and memories of the Jewish people, and makes this moral imperative out to be a cynical tool of manipulation, an insinuation which is inherently antisemitic.

Josef Schuster,, President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany commented: “It is deeply outrageous and completely unacceptable to describe the Berlin Holocaust Memorial as Björn Höcke did as a ‘monument of shame. With these antisemitic and extremely misanthropic remarks, the AfD is showing its true face. I would not have believed that it was possible for a politician in Germany to say such things 70 years after the Shoah“.

 

Please note that this speech was made in January 2017.

 

 

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French freemason beaten by hammer-wielding attacker shouting “Jew! Jew! Jew!”

Christophe Habas, a senior Freemason in France, was beaten by a woman in Paris as he walked to a metro station.

The woman allegedly shouted “Jew!” repeatedly as she beat him with a hammer, before fleeing.

Habas was fortunately not badly injured, but clearly an attack with a hammer could have led to serious injury, meaning that he had a lucky escape.

It isn’t known if Habas is Jewish, but Freemasons often feature in antisemitic conspiracy theories, and were also killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Antisemitic conspiracies from the far left, the far right and from Islamists often mention freemasons and Jews in the same breath.

Habas has apparently recently returned from a trip to Israel, which received media attention in France where there are over 50,000 freemasons.

Francis Kalifat, the president of the French Jewish group the CRIF remarked: “this assault reminds us that we need to fight with uncompromising firmness against antisemitic discourse, and all other forms of hate and exclusion”.

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“Israel Genocide State” graffiti on Jewish school in Brazil

CFCA has reported that antisemitic graffiti was found on a Jewish school in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

The words “Israel Genocide State” and “Free Palestine” were spraypainted on school property.

According to the Definition of Antisemitism, “holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel” is antisemitic. The fact that somebody would take out their political frustrations on a Jewish school of all places is extremely worrying. Whatever one thinks about the Israel-Palestine conflict, it should not be taken out on an institution which has as its sole aim educating Jewish children.

Porto Alegre has had a Jewish community since the early Nineteenth Century, and is currently home to over 15,000 Jews.

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“Here’s a Jew, let’s burn her” shouted at schoolgirl as antisemitism erupts in California school

Carlmont High School in Belmont, California, finds itself in the midst of an antisemitism epidemic, following several reports of antisemitic incidents.

There were reports of students openly chanting “kill the Jews” in the school’s stadium, which apparently happened earlier in March, but which has only just come to our attention. This in itself is obviously extremely shocking, being a brazen display of incitement to violence which goes beyond mere playground bullying in its scale and severity.

There were also reports of antisemitic graffiti, including the words “toasted Jew” being written on school property.

As a result of the escalating incidents, the school’s Principal Ralph Crame met with around 20 parents and students to discuss the situation. When one mother was walking to the meeting with her daughter, it is alleged that a group of students shouted “here’s a jew, let’s burn her” at the girl. This seems to point to the possibility that these students heard about the meeting and decided to turn up to further abuse Jewish students. This betrays a deep, underlying antisemitic attitude in parts of the student body.

The school has said that further incidents would be considered under the “harassment, bullying, or hate crimes and will be dealt with accordingly under District policies and the Education Code”, but initial reports suggest that the police have been unwilling to see the events as hate incidents.

Below: antisemitic graffiti found at the school

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Sweden: antisemitic abuse shouted at Jews from car in Malmo

A group of Jews were harassed in Malmo last Thursday.

A car drove slowly past them while the passengers shouted antisemitic abuse at the group of Jews and their Haredi attire.

Malmo police say they’re investigating the incident as a hate crime.

They are also investigating a Swastika which was carved on the door of a Jewish man in the city.

The situation in Malmo is increasingly bad for Jews, with the authorities seemingly unwilling to take serious action to prevent further attacks against Jews in the City.

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Over 100 Swastika leaflets left at Chabad student center in Virginia Tech

Over a hundred leaflets with hand drawn Swastikas were left at the Chabad Jewish student centre at Virginia tech.

The leaflets were left on Saturday afternoon and were discovered by Rabbi Zvi Yaakov Zwiebel, one of the directors of the centre, the day after the centre announced that it would be hosting Holocaust survivor Rabbi Nissen Mangel in April. Rabbi Mangel will be giving a memorial lecture to Professor Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust survivor who was shot on the campus with 31 others at a mass shooting on the campus.

Rabbi Zwiebel described the leaflets as a “disgusting act of hate”, saying that the incident is “surprising seeing as it is the first such act since Chabad on Campus at Virginia Tech was opened more than eight years ago”, continuing to say “we appreciate Virginia Tech President Timothy Sands, who quickly tweeted his support for the Jewish community, and we are in touch with the administration as they proactively respond to this incident”.

A rally in support of Jewish students and the centre is due to take place tonight (Monday 20th), which is extremely encouraging, as Jewish students are often left feeling isolated and without support when there is an antisemitic incident. We also welcome the apparent swift response of the police.

 

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Graffiti equating Judaism with Satanism in Calgary, Canada

Police are investigating antisemitic graffiti in an off-leash dog park in Calgary, Alberta.

The graffiti has a Star of David followed by “=666”, frequently described as the “number of the beast”, which is popularly associated with Satanism. Equating Judaism with Satanism is a common antisemitic canard, which first found prominence in Christianity, but is now frequently cited by non-Christians.

There was also graffiti that said “f*ck Islam”.

The graffiti has apparently been up for “several days”.  Glen Tinckler, the resident who discovered and reported the graffiti, said “it’s a very friendly community and to see images like this is very disturbing”.

 

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4 Arrested for twisting Menorah into Swastika shape over Hanukkah

At the beginning of the year, we reported that an Arizona family had had a large Menorah they had erected in their garden twisted into a Swastika shape by antisemitic vandals.

The mother described being left in tears, saying:

We were just VICTIMIZED by a HATE CRIME
Last night my home was victimized by HATE. Instead of waking up to see our lighted Hanukkah menorah display on our front lawn, there was a swastika. My husband built the menorah to celebrate the Hanukkah holiday after our kids (3 boys 9, 7,5) asked for their own holiday lights for the season. We live in a great neighborhood with kind and welcoming neighbors. We never would have imagined that someone would spread so much hate here. However, this morning we were greeted with this horrible act of aggression. Our menorah was destroyed and altered to resemble a swastika. This clear act of hate and racism is disturbing and sad. I broke down in tears waiting for the police to come and hoping that my kids would not be awake to see it. The officer helped me take it down, before they woke-up. I’m still not sure how I will explain this to them. I’m not sure I quite understand it myself, nor have I ever understood racism or prejudice in any form. How can people can be filled with so much hate and violence? To think that someone would make such an effort to hurt and vandalize a family, is downright sickening. If you or anyone you know has any information that may help the police, please share and contact Chandler Police in response to 16-148624″

Thankfully, the police have now arrested 19-year-old Clive Jamar Wilson and three minors, who are now facing felony charges of first-degree criminal trespass and one count of aggravated criminal damage after the FBI joined the investigation.

 

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VICE ex-founder in vile antisemitic rants says Israelis have a “whiny paranoid fear of Nazis”, calls Holocaust education “brainwashing”

Gavin McInnes, a former founder of the popular online media company VICE and current YouTube personality, has made a series of grossly antisemitic comments during and following a trip to Israel.

Following a visit to Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial and museum, McInnes said that he thinks that the Israeli Government and Jewish organisations funded his trip and they “assume we’re going to listen to all this shit we get fed”, having previously said he was “at the Holocaust museum, or the ‘Holocaust’ museum — no, I’m just kidding”. Read together, these statements clearly indicate that McInnes may believe in some form of Holocaust denial.  He then continues “I felt myself defending the super far-right Nazis just because I was sick of so much brainwashing and I felt like going, ‘Well, they never said it didn’t happen. What they’re saying is it was much less than six million and that they starved to death and weren’t gassed, that they didn’t have supplies'”.

Though he did clarify that “I’m not saying it wasn’t gassing. Please don’t take that clip out of context, but that’s what the far-right nuts are saying”, it is quite clear from his previous statement that he has sympathy for those who deny the Holocaust and is all-too-happy to malign those who teach others about the Holocaust as engaging in “brainwashing”, which as a standalone statement is often a favourite term of Holocaust deniers.

He then attempts to minimise the Holocaust by pointing out that “Mao killed 70 million… Stalin, with the Bolsheviks, killed 30 million. But the Russians don’t talk about that. They don’t even necessarily see it as a horrible thing”. Nobody is denying these events, but in bringing them up in this matter, McInnes is committing a false equivalence. Far worse, he then went on to lay the blame for the starvation of Ukrainians under Stalin on Jews, laughing as he says “I think it was ten million Ukrainians who were killed. That was by Jews. That was by Marxist, Stalinist, left-wing, commie, socialist Jews”.

He also asked “Wasn’t the Treaty of Versailles, wasn’t that disproportionately influenced by Jewish intellectuals?”, in a statement which seemingly blames Jews for the rise of the Nazis.

The idea that Jews somehow provoked Germany at Versailles is a common thread in the thinking of far right antisemites, as is the idea that the atrocities of the Soviet Union can be attributed to Jewish influence, but one need not be familiar with the common context in which these views are expressed to recognise that blaming Jews for some of the worst events in history is grossly antisemitic. According to the Definition of Antisemitism, “Antisemitism frequently charges Jews with conspiring to harm humanity, and it is often used to blame Jews for “why things go wrong””.

On Tuesday he uploaded a video called “10 things I hate about Jews”, which he later renamed to “10 things I hate about Israel”, in a blatant display of trying to dress up his antisemitism as criticism of Israel. In the video he seems to imply that Jews should be more grateful to America for its role in defeating the Nazis, describes Hebrew as a “spit language” and says that Jews have a  “whiny paranoid fear of Nazis that’s making them scared of Christians and Trumps who are their greatest allies”. The idea that being worried about Nazism makes Jews “whiny” or “paranoid” is both laughable and extremely belittling, particularly against the backdrop of rising antisemitism in Trump’s America that Trump does not seem committed to tackling in any meaningful way, having axed a special State Envoy dedicated to combating Antisemitism in America as a part of his budget cuts.

He later claimed that he made the comments in the hope that Jews would refute his statements, saying “I landed, and I’ve got tons of Nazi friends. David Duke and all the Nazis totally think I rock…no offense, Nazis, I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but I don’t like you. I like Jews”. The sincerity of such a statement is obviously quite dubious, particularly because it was followed with the comment that Israelis should “embrace Christianity”.

McInnes drew praise from antisemite and former head of the KKK David Duke, who shared a photograph of McInnes holding one of his books, called “Jewish Supremacism”, a vile antisemite work which essentially attempts to reassert the lies of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, passing itself off as academic research. However, we cannot be sure if the image is doctored or not. Nonetheless, even if it is, drawing praise from Duke should be a firm reminder that one has strayed down a very dangerous path.

McInnes left VICE in 2008 and has since been involved with Rebel Media, a right wing Canadian publication whose writers have been extremely supportive of Trump, one of whom described Hasidic Jews as “cult-like” people who they wouldn’t want in their neighbourhood, and also include Tommy Robinson, the founder of the Far Right “English Defence League” who is associated with the anti-Islam “Pegida” group whose founder had to resign after posing as Adolf Hitler and describing immigrants as filth”, “trash” and “brutes”. One of their former writers authored a book called “Barbarians: How Baby Boomers, Immigrants, and Islam Screwed My Generation”.

 

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Antisemitic posters at University of Illinois call to end “Jewish privilege”

The World Union of Jewish Students have expressed their disgust over antisemitic posters found at the University of Illinois.

The posters claim that “ending white privilege…starts with ending Jewish privilege”, and details various ways in which Jews allegedly dominate social and economic elites, citing Pew Research.

The poster depicts a social pyramid, where the “one percent” at the top are depicted with Stars of David on their chests.

Regardless of the veracity of any of the research cited, which has clearly been twisted to suggest that dues have an undue position in society, the posters clearly and unabashedly play on antisemitic conspiracy theories of Jews dominating the business world and politics, a harmful canard which is perhaps most famously illustrated by the hoax “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, which became a common feature in Nazi propaganda as well as in much antisemitic rhetoric since.

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“Anti-Zionist” students call Israelis “rodents”, tell a Jewish student to “go back to Palestine”

Members of Students for Justice in Palestine attending a multicultural event at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology intentionally covered up the sole Israeli flag with an Algerian one.

When they went to their Facebook page to brag about the incident, they allegedly referred to Israeli Jews as “rodents”. Describing Jews as vermin was a mainstay of Nazi propaganda, which frequently depicted Jews as rodents. According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g. claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterise Israel or Israelis” is antisemitic.

A Jewish student was then told to “go back to Palestine”. Given that these people are actively campaigning against Israel, telling a Jew to “go back to Palestine” seems bizarre, but it is antisemitic nonetheless.

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Further bomb threats at JCCs over Purim, now totalling 140 in 2016

Five further Jewish Community Centers received bomb threats over the weekend, when Jewish communities were celebrating Purim, following a spate of hoax threats that have been used to terrorise Jewish institutions.

The new threats bring the tally of bomb threats to 140 this year.

The threats were called in on Sunday and targeted the Jewish Community Center of Rochester, the Indianapolis Jewish Community Center, the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston, the Samson JCC of Milwaukee, and the JCC of Greater Vancouver in Canada.

Following the arrest of Juan Thomas as a suspect in connection to the bomb threats, it was hoped that they would cease, but their continuation clearly demonstrates that this is part of a campaign across North America, by a group of organised individuals and not merely a lone wolf, to intimidate North American Jews. The fact that further suspects have thus far evaded capture by Federal Investigators suggests that they are organised and not merely a group of extremists with telephones.

 

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Fascist graffiti found at University of Birmingham bar

Fascist graffiti has been found outside the toilets of Beorma Bar, a student bar in Birmingham.

The graffiti has been attributed to the neo-Nazi group National Action, which was proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the Government following action by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

The graffiti targeted various ethnic and sexual minorities, as well as the disabled.

The graffiti said “PURE WHITES ONLY” and “NO BLACKS, NO CRIPS, NO FAGS” under the National Action logo and flanked by a Swastika.

Graffiti saying “‘Lock up all CRAZY PSYCHOS + subhumans” was also found during Holocaust Memorial Week in January and another was found referring to “dirty faggots”.

President of the Guild of Students, Ellie Keiller, said that they were “horrified” and that they “stand, with students, fundamentally in opposition to the rhetoric of the graffiti and against all forms of hate and discrimination”.

The guild later released a further statement, saying “We would like to reassure students that we are doing all we can in response to these incidents, including immediately reporting all cases to both police and campus security and working with them to identify those involved. Further to this, we urge anyone with any information regarding these incidents to come forward”

Apparently in previous incidents, the police have simply recorded the graffiti which has then been painted over. No arrests appear to have been reported.

The University of Birmingham has the largest Jewish Society in the United Kingdom

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Dutch Muslims call Jews “cancer” at protest

Dutch Muslims called Jews “cancer” in a chant at a protest in Rotterdam.

They congregated at the Turkish embassy to protest against the decision to refuse to admit a Turkish Minister to the country. Having heard a rumour that  Family Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya had been arrested, they began to chant “cancer Jews” and “cancer Wilders”. The rumours themselves were false.

Geert Wilders is a hard right figure in Dutch politics with a hardline anti-Islam stance. Blaming Jews for a political figure being arrested is itself antisemitic, but describing Jews as a “cancer” is explicitly so, and is reminiscent of Nazi propaganda which often compared Jews to a disease.

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13-year-old Trump supporter says Jews should “go back to her country” at pro-Trump rally

Footage has emerged of a 13-year-old Trump supporter saying that a Jewish girl should “go back to her country”.

The footage was taken at a pro-Trump march in Phoenix, Arizona on March 4th, and shared on Facebook.

The boy, referring to a girl in the crowd, says “if she really is that Jewish, she should go back to her country”.

Another attendee at the rally called for a “genocide” of liberals, whereas one of the speakers said “we need to wipe them out”, about the Democratic Party.

 

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Graffiti calling the Holocaust “fake history” at Seattle Synagogue

Temple De Hirsch Sinai, a Synagogue in Seattle, Washington, has been vandalized with Holocaust denying graffiti, with a suspicious package being found.

The graffiti read “Holocau$t i$ fake hi$story”.

Whilst Holocaust denial itself is unequivocally and universally antisemitic, the dollar signs carry a further antisemitic implication: that Jews have somehow exploited the Holocaust for financial game, perhaps an inevitable “twist” to the antisemitism of Holocaust denial, given that Jews being obsessed with money is a common antisemitic canard.

A suspicious package was also found, which police investigated, but it turned out to just be a book donation. The police are currently investigation the graffiti.

 

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Holocaust memorial destroyed overnight in Odessa, police attribute it to “old age”

A Holocaust memorial in Savra in Odessa, Ukraine, has been totally destroyed overnight.

Paul Kozlenko, director of the Holocaust museum in Odessa, said “villains and moral monsters continue to mock the memory of Holocaust victims”, saying that the memorial, which is in a Jewish cemetery, was “completely destroyed”.

The police are saying that this was not a deliberate act of vandalism, but are instead attributing it to “old age and natural causes”. However, it seems far from plausible that the memorial, which is pictured before its destruction below, could be destroyed so totally in such a brief period of time without it being an intentional act. Unfortunately, it appears that the police have decided that this is simply not something they wish to investigate. Given that we report on dozens of desecrations of Holocaust memorials and Jewish cemeteries, which are among the most common instances of antisemitism, it is profoundly irresponsible not to treat this as suspicious from the outset.

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“We’re gonna spray your sh*tty Synagogue with pig’s blood. Watch the f*ck out”, Iowa Synagogue is told in voicemail

Alan Steckman, the President of the Adas Israel Synagogue in Mason City, Iowa, was shocked to discover that an ominous antisemitic voicemail message was sent to the Synagogue over the weekend.

Steckman played the message back on Sunday, in which a caller says “We gonna spray your sh—y synagogue in pigs blood. Watch the f—— out.”

As nobody answered the phone, the call was automatically forwarded to his home phone’s voicemail.

Steckman said that the message was “unnerving”, saying that whilst it would not normally bother him much, against the context of persistent and rising antisemitism in the country, it is more worrying.

The call carries the clear threat of desecration of the Synagogue, and is obviously calculated to suggest that, but telling them to “watch the f*ck out” could easily constitute a physical threat too.

It is a small community, with a weekly attendance of around 10-12 Jews from the City, as well as 3 Christians who also attend.

Michael Libbie, who leads services at the congregation, commented that “in light of so many hate crimes going on in the U.S., we do take things like this seriously.”

“I have been coming to Mason City to conduct services for the past 29 years. We usually have services once a month on Friday night and then have Bible study on Saturday. I also do weddings and funerals for them. “

“The really interesting thing about this is that I am coming to Mason City this Friday. We are studying the Book of Esther and the Festival of Purim. It is the study of Jews being targeted for destruction and the rising up against evil for all time.”

The police have been contacted about the message and are investigating.

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French “coexistence” champion tweeted “bring on Hitler to kill the Jews”

Mehdi Meklat, a young French Arab who has become a darling of the left for his championing of coexistence between different ethnic groups, has been exposed as having authored several antisemitic, homophobic and extremist tweets.

Meklat allegedly tweeted “Bring on Hitler to kill the Jews” during a French awards ceremony.

He also wrote of the “troubling” “beauty” of Mohammed Merah, the killer of several Jewish schoolchildren in Toulouse and said “I miss Bin Laden”. There were a myriad of tweets which could be considered offensive, with some sources suggesting he made “thousands”.

He has also made homophobic tweets, tweeting ““Long live the fags, long live AIDS under President Francois Hollande”.

Meklat said that he was merely trying to “an experiment to test the borders of provocation”, pointing to the fact that some, but not all, of the tweets were made under a pseudonym. However, calling for “Hitler to kill the Jews” goes beyond the provocation; indeed, it is a man calling for the genocide of Jews in a country in which Jews are already increasingly plagued with antisemitism.

Despite these worrying comments, he had also spoken about how antisemitism is often disguised as anti-Zionism. These contradictory statements demonstrate a reality which France must deal with of established immigrant Communities which have had difficult integrating into mainstream French society, often carrying with them antisemitic attitudes, as evidenced by the shocking amounts of antisemitism in France. Sadly, one of the great success stories of these communities, who had been hailed as a champion of coexistence, is clearly not immune to such attitudes despite the prominent role he has taken in trying to improve race relations in France.

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Holocaust survivor’s visit to NY school followed by appearance of Swastika graffiti

A week after Holocaust survivor Judy Altmann’s appearance at a New York school, the occasion was marred by the appearance of Swastika graffiti in the school’s bathroom.

Mrs Altmann visited  John Jay High School in Cross River two weeks ago. On Monday, a week after her visit, a Swastika was found scrawled in the bathroom.

One student, Sophe Eberhardt, found the appearance of the graffiti particularly disheartening, saying “It’s a subject that’s really, really dark…after everything they showed us, prejudice and racism still exist at our school”.

Despite the fact that a teenage student can tell that the graffiti represents the presence of antisemitism in the school, the Superintendent has written off the incident as simply being the result of “disruptive” pupils. This is perhaps not surprising, as it is unlikely that an official responsible for the school system would want to concede that there is a possibility that there are antisemitic beliefs being harboured by students. However, the fact that the students could hear Mrs Altmann’s story – which would have included her  recounting going through the infamous gates at Auschwitz, seeing people she knew being selected for extermination in the gas chambers, and being liberated whilst infected with Typhus and close to death – and yet still go on to etch the symbol of Nazism in the school bathroom.

In any case, it is wrong to assume that Swastika graffiti is merely the result of “disruptive” pupils, but when set against the context of rising antisemitism and the visit of a Holocaust survivor, it is far too permissive to assume that this is merely a case of misbehaviour. This is even more so the case as similar graffiti was found on the school’s property last year.

The Superintendent nonetheless said that the school was redoubling its efforts to find the perpetrators.

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Neo-Nazis litter Milan with antisemitic posters claiming a Jewish conspiracy “enslaves the population”

A small Italian neo-Nazi group called NSAB-MLNS has littered the streets of Milan with antisemitic posters, the CFCA reports.

The posters appeared in Garbagnate Milanese earlier this week.

One of the posters shows an antisemitic caricature of a Jewish man in a kippah counting a large amount of cash, and is captioned “blood against gold” and beseeches the reader to “wake up”, accusing Jews of “printing cash from nothing and lending it to the state”, which they call a “crime” that “enslaves the population”.

The accusation that Jews control the monetary system is a common antisemitic conspiracy theory, which predates but was perhaps most widely promoted in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It is a particularly virulent accusation, which is often used to use Jews as a scapegoat for all kinds of social ills.

Another showed two images of Rubik’s cubes, one solved and the other solved. Next to the unsolved one is said “multinational ideal” and next to the unsolved one it said “socio-nationalist ideal”, adding that “the savage invasion that Europe is suffering is not the result of spontaneous migration…but is part of a designed plan many years ago by those who wanted to destroy every race and every culture”. A common contemporary variant of antisemitic conspiracy theories involve the idea that Jews are somehow behind mass migration, with conspiracy theories often referencing “globalists”, as well as mentioning Jews or “Zionists” explicitly.

Another poster has two quotations, one from Voltaire saying “”to learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticise”, and another from Ezra Pound saying “to learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticise”. Again, the idea that Jews control the media is a common antisemitic conspiracy theory.

Whilst the last two posters are far from explicitly antisemitic, the fact that one of them has a clearly antisemitic depiction of a Jew and all of them references conspiracy theories which are frequently used to defame Jews, as well as the fact that NSAB-MLNS is an explicitly neo-Nazi group, should leave no doubts as to the true intent behind them. Unfortunately, these are symptomatic of a growing far-right in Europe, which is contributing to Jews feeling less and less welcome.

The contents of the posters were translated for us by Hannah Monk.

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Neo-Nazi finally faces trial, after 2 year delay, for threatening to massacre Jewish schoolchildren

David Lenio is finally being charged with allegedly threatening to massacre Jewish schoolchildren, after a delay of almost two years.

Lenio, a White Nationalist from Montana, is alleged to have said that he wishes to “execute 30 or more grade school students”, put “two in the head of a Rabbi or Jewish leader”, and said that the “USA needs a Hitler to rise to power”.

He is also alleged to have tweeted:

“I think every jew on the planet deserves to be killed for what kikes have done to our #dollar and cost of living Killing jews > wage #slave”

“I’m not even opposed to shooting up a random school like that sandy hoax stunt only realer, to voice my displeasure with being a wage slave”

“Let’s make national news, I david lenio know israel did 9/11 and I am so poor that I want to shoot up a kalispell Montana public school …”

Lenio appears to have been arrested in 2015, and subsequently released on a plea bargain which saw felony charges for intimidation reduced to a misdemeanour, in a manner which has been called into question.  Despite repeatedly referring to himself as a “wage slave”, Lenio appears to have been released into the custody of his wealthy investment banker father.

As a condition of this release, he was ordered not to use social media, a restriction which he has allegedly consistently breached. Despite him initially being apprehended with several weapons, there does not appear to be any evidence that he was disarmed as a condition of his release.

Fortunately, it appears that Lenio will finally come before a Judge this month to answer felony charges. The fact that it has taken this long, despite him apparently having consistently fetishised violence, particularly against Jews, is a rather worrying failure of the Justice and Security systems in the United States. This is a man who repeatedly threatened to kill Jews, against whom a case was dropped in an apparently clandestine manner, and who appeared to be heavily armed. Indeed, it seems quite miraculous that he did not carry out any of the attacks that he threatened, given that the only engagement he was forced to have with the authorities was to report where he was living if he moved. We can only hope that he finally meets with the full force of the law and that prosecutors are more proactive against bringing similar threats to justice in the future.

 

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Neo-Nazi group litters Jewish neighbourhood in Melbourne with Swastika stickers

The self-described “National Socialist” group Antipodean Resistance has stuck swastika stickers on poles and lampposts throughout Balaclava Road, a Jewish area of Melbourne.

CFCA reports that the group purposely targeted the area which has a higher-than-average Jewish population.

Antipodean Resistance is a Neo-Nazi group which is based largely in the Melbourne area in Australia. The group describes itself as “the Hitlers you’ve been waiting for” and seems to be militant in its approach, claiming that they want “no weaklings, degenerates, and no keyboard warriors” and calling for “action”.

The say that they “oppose substance abuse, homosexuality, and all other rotten, irresponsible distractions laid before us by Jews and globalist elites”.

The group is clearly both militant and unashamedly neo-Nazi. They appear to be quite organised, and have previously orchestrated similar “raids” at Melbourne University.

Though the appearance of Swastika stickers may appear harmless, it is clearly an attempt by this group to intimidate the local Jewish community with the knowledge that a group of militant neo-Nazis are on their doorstep.

On their website, the group brags about several other similar incidents, and speaks about how the Jewish area was “ethnically homogeneous”, using this as an excuse to peddle a conspiracy theory about Jews promoting mass immigration.

They have also produced extremely worrying rhetoric about other ethnic minorities and homosexuals, including mocking high suicide rates among LGBT individuals and calling for it to increase.

We hope that Melbourne police will take decisive action, and will update our readers when we have more information.

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Facebook says page accusing “occult Jews” of “sacrificing Christian children” doesn’t violate its community standards

Facebook has refused to remove a page which propagates the most incendiary and unabashed blood libel, claiming that the content does not violate its community standards.

The page is called “Jewish ritual murder” and has as its secondary title “truthaboutjews”

Blood libel is the scurrilous accusation that Jews murder Christian children to bake matzo. It originated in Christian Europe and was historically used to incite violence against Jewish communities, frequently leading to large scale pogroms, individual murders, expulsions, rapes and torture. It is closely linked to similar accusation that Jews poisoned wells. Today there are many equivalents of blood libel, such as the accusation that Israel Jews engage in organ harvesting. As well as this, blood libel has taken a hold in the Muslim world, and similar accusations are made by both the far left and the far right.

Among the accusations on the page is that Andrei Kievski and various other Christian figures were “killed by occult Jews”. It also says that Jews are to be collectively held responsible for various biblical events.

They also reproduced a 1932 article from Der Stürmer, the Nazi tabloid newspaper produced by Julius Streicher, who became a central figure in the Nazi party. The article purports to be a history of “Jewish ritual murders”, and it includes accusations that children were “tortured to death” by Jews. The fact that Facebook found that a page that is quite literally sharing Nazi propaganda, which was instrumental in creating the atmosphere of rampant antisemitism that eventually led to the Holocaust, is deeply concerning.

One of the comments reads “shame on Jews”. The page has clearly been proactive in deleting many comments from its followers, and appears to run a policy of doing so, as having the page deleted for bigoted comments is “what they want to accomplish”.

The page, of course, also attacked Israel, writing that their page is under threat as attacking antisemitic pages “is source of great money as so called jewish state finance whole machinery of internet trolls recruited among jewish students”. This is perhaps the clearest demonstration yet of how traditional antisemitism blends seamlessly into antisemitism disguised as criticism of Israel. The fact that Jewish students are singled out is particularly worrying, as Jewish students at various Universities, including at SOAS in London, have been accused of being agents of the Israeli state, a vicious accusation which is used to bait and harass Jewish students under the guise of attacking what is perceived to be an Israeli policy. 

There are quite literally of dozens of posts containing blood libel, none of which Facebook upon inspection thought violated its community standards. This is not the first time Facebook has failed to enforce its own rules; last year it decided that calling to “gas this shrivelled up Jewish piece of shit” did not violate its rules. Facebook must start enforcing its rules to prevent Nazi propaganda and incitement to violence from being allowed to flourish on its platform.

In the meantime, please take the time to report the page, which can be found here.

 

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Trump reportedly planning to axe counter-Antisemitism post in what has been described as a “disaster” for American Jews

Ira Forman, the former Special Envoy to Counter Antisemitism, has described President Trump’s reported plans to abolish the post as a “disaster” for Jewish communities in the US.

It was reported yesterday that the position, which was created in 2004, is at risk of being abolished in a series of budget cuts being undertaken by the new President.

Forman commented:

“I can’t believe someone at the White House won’t have better sense… This is a disaster. I just can’t believe that they would even think of this given the relatively small budget needed to run this office.”

“This is as bipartisan as an issue as you can get, and I just hope folks at the White House come to their sense”

Whilst difficult calls must be made when it comes to cutting Government budgets, the envoy has a “relatively small” budget according to Forman. Beyond this, America stands in the midst of a rising antisemitism problem. With dozens of hoax bomb threats being made to Jewish institutions, a resurgent far right, and a huge problem with antisemitism coming from the far left and from Islamists on American University campuses, now is the worst time imaginable to be cutting the funding to this office.

Sadly, Trump has form in this area; despite some signs that he wishes to work closely with the Jewish community, including his stated intention to investigate campus antisemitism, President Trump has often been slow to condemn antisemitism, and appeared to berate a Jewish reporter who asked him about antisemitism, describing the question as “insulting”, going on to say “so, here’s the story folks. Number one, I am the least anti-Semitic person that you’re ever seen in your entire life…Number two, racism. The least racist person”.

America is at a point at which it needs leadership on the question of antisemitism, which must necessarily involve its President answering questions about the increased threats to Jewish communities with more satisfactorily than simply getting offended and saying that he isn’t personally antisemitic.

With antisemitism becoming a greater concern across America, and becoming more visible, President Trump must commit himself to ensuring the security of American Jews, and to fund bodies which can help to tackle antisemitism. Abolishing the special envoy is a very worrying step in the opposite direction, and will only add to the concerns of American Jews.

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FBI investigate gunshot fired into Indiana Synagogue

The FBI are preparing to launch an investigation after a bullet was fired through the window of a Synagogue in Indiana.

Police were called to the Adath B’Nai Israel Temple in Evansville on Sunday morning after a shot was heard and a bullet was found by the Rabbi.

Rabbi Gary Mazo commented that “someone had to walk into a children’s playground, then look into a classroom and then fire some sort of weapon. It was to inflict damage, but I think more importantly, (the person) tried to inflict fear,…we’re in this climate now where acts of hate are happening everywhere.”

As early police reports suggest that a low-powered weapon fired the shot, Rabbi Mazo says that he believes the incident was no more than a “cowardly act by a bigot”, and not something of a larger or more sinister scale. However, this is still clearly an attempt to intimidate the Jewish community, which has around 120 families.

Rabbi Mazo noted that this was an attempt to frighten the community, saying “we’ll stand up to fear, we’ll stand up to hatred and we’ll stand together. We know this is not representative of our community. We know that we live in a community that supports each other”. Unfortunately, campaigns of intimidation, from bomb threats to graffiti and vandalism, and sadly the ever-present threat of serious violence, are now a part of daily life for Jewish communities across the world.

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Jewish man harassed while driving in Melbourne

A Jewish man has reportedly been harassed while driving in a suburb of Melbourne.

The CFCA reported that the man was pursued by a very aggressive driver.

They then stopped alongside each other at some traffic lights. The man in the other car unleashed a torrent of antisemitic abuse, shouting about the “fucking Jews” and bringing up the “occupied territories”.

According to the definition of antisemitism, “holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel” is antisemitic. Beyond this, whilst some people may feel a bubble of security when in their own cars, harassing someone who is driving is still extremely dangerous.

Further details are not yet known.

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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.

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Pre-school teacher in Texas suspended for saying “not enough” Jews were killed in the Holocaust

A Muslim pre-school teacher in Texas has been suspended from teaching in light of an investigation into her twitter activities, in which she encouraged her friend and social media followers to “kill some Jews! <3” and to “Kiss the Palestine ground”, promulgating both her anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist stances online.

We previously covered Nancy Salem’s antisemitic comments when we documented several instances of antisemitism among students and alumni of University of Texas, Arlington. However, it has since emerged that Salem has since found employment as a teacher.

Nancy Salem, a teacher at The Children’s Courtyard in South Arlington, was one of 24 anti-Israel activists exposed by the university of Texas watchdog group Canary Mission for broadcasting such racist and violent thought. Among other sentiments, she posted a series of despicably antisemitic statements, including: “How many Jews died in the Holocaust? Not enough… HAHAHAHA.”

Children look to their teachers as sources of inspiration and knowledge, and it is clear from her radical stances this individual is not fit for that purpose, and as such should be permanently discharged as soon as possible. Unfortunately, this is a case where an individual has been allowed to have their deeply antisemitic views flourish, apparently unchallenged, throughout their University career, and is not unsurprisingly importing these views into the wider world, which sadly in this case has involved contact with children.

Parents at the school are outrage, and some are calling for her immediate dismissal.

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Police investigate as Muslim and Anti-Zionist students in Texas call for another Holocaust, spout blood libel

The district attorney’s office in Houston, Texas, in cooperation with the Houston police, is currently trying to determine if antisemitic comments that were posted to Twitter, by thirteen past and current students at the University of Houston (UH), constitutes a hate crime.

The Canary Mission, an anonymous online antisemitic watchdog, collected all of the tweets in their report, Kill All The Jews. Members of the UH chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the Muslim Student Association (MSA), and students associated with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS), along with unaffiliated individuals, were responsible for the posts, which go back as far as 2012.

Of paramount concern are tweets by UH students that both incite violence and promote violence against Jews:

“I am gonna throw rocks at yahood [Jews] this summer and no one is stopping me.” – Tarek Abdoh, April, 2015

“Yall don’t understand I want to beat a zionist bitch up so bad.” – Noor Radwan, July, 2016

“Hitler should have killed them [the Jews] all” – Amal Tabal, November, 2012

“If you could press one button to kill all zionists, but it would also kill every Jew out there, would you press it? – Noor Radwam, October, 2015

“Palestine will be the 2nd Holocaust for the Yahood [Jews].” – Rawen Saleh, March, 2013

“I mean it when I say I wish Hitler finished them off in the holocaust. I know there’s a difference between Jews and Zionists.” – Mahmoud Eissa, July, 2014

“@HitlerDictator  Versace. Versace. [Italian fashion designer]    F**k bitches bake Jews that’s the life of a Nazi” – Zain Dharani, August, 2013

As was to be expected, the report included a tweet that put forth a classic blood libel. In November, Noor Radwan tweeted: “A Jewish rabbi has admitted to using human child meat as a filler in McDonalds meat. They allegedly drug teens, and kill them for their meat, THE TRUTH ABOUT MCDONALD’S & MISSING CHILDREN.”

When a UH student can actually present such an outrageous blood libel as a fact, then, Houston, you’ve got a problem.

No one would agree more than Kenneth L. Marcus, president and general counsel for the Washington D.C. based Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, According to Marcus: “Whether the university can punish the speech or not, they have an obligation to address the underlying problem”. Marcus told the Jewish-Herald: “The legal restrictions might tell them [the University of Houston] how they can deal with it, but the fact is they need to deal with it and they need [to] deal with it firmly.”

Although the tweets are currently under review by the Dean of  the Student’s Office, it is troubling that tweets that promote violence and bigotry are not automatically in violation of the UH Code of Conduct.

A tweet by Mamoon Hindi in August, 2015 is a typical example:”It’s not music you f****ing fag. Candyass Brit, fish n’ chips motherf****ker. Zionist f***k face douchebag.”

Obviously, it is no surprise that Hitler is the star of so many of the tweets: “Hitler mah n***ga”;”Hitler said he left some Jews alive so the world would know why he killed em”; “Hitler died too soon, really”.

Lee Wunsch, of the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston (JFGH), told The Algemeiner that celebrating the mass murder of Jews with “violent tweets”, the calls for a Third Intifada–murdering Jews as “resistance” against Israel–praise for both Hitler and Hamas terrorists, whose goal is the wholesale slaughter of Israeli Jews–had the organization’s “full attention”.

When the Canary Mission report was released to the public, Rabbi Kenny Weiss, executive director of Houston Hillel, told the Jewish-Herald: “Houston Hillel takes very seriously any inflammatory comments directed at Jews”. As a result, Rabbi Weiss contacted both the UH  campus police, the greater Houston police department, the UH Office of Legal Affairs, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and the Houston office of the Jewish Federation.

Dayan Gross, the ADL Southwest Regional Director told The Algemeiner: “While ADL respects freedom of speech, we reserve the right to make sure people see hateful speech for what it is and counter it”. Gross, who filed a complaint with the Houston police, is closely monitoring the situation.

The UH Legal Affairs office told the Jewish-Herald that “we take any matter involving the safety and welfare of our university community very seriously”. The vice-chancellor of Legal Affairs, Dona Hamilton Cornell, stated: “UH is safe for all students, Jews included.”

However, UH Jewish students have criticized the administration for failing to condemn the students who threatened the personal safety of Jews.

It is a given that if hateful tweets had targeted UH African-American students and the posts had: a) promoted lynchings and physical assaults against blacks  b) celebrated the KKK and slavery, instead of Hitler and the Holocaust, and c) used vile language like, “F***ing N***er”, rather than “Zionist c**t”, then, without question, a national media firestorm would have been ignited. And the University of Houston would have told the press that such toxic behavior will be met with swift punishment.

But when the tweets, in question, called for the beating and stoning of Jews, the University of Houston would only call the tweets, “repugnant” speech.

“I want my university to show that it legitimately cares about its diverse population and not just certain student groups,” Tatiana Uklist, the founder of the UH chapter of Students Supporting Israel, told the Jewish-Herald.

However, vice-chancellor Cornell feels that the university has created a level playing field because it fosters an environment where diverse beliefs are “welcomed”.

And that means welcoming the beliefs of a Palestinian woman named Rasmea Yousef Odeh, who just happens to be a terrorist who was convicted of murdering Jews.

Despite vigorous protest from Jewish students, administrators allowed the UH chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, which, according to Kenneth L. Marcus, is “a hate organization and must be addressed as such”, to hold a spring fundraiser in Odeh’s honor.

UH dismissed complaints from Jewish students that the fundraiser was a safety threat. Instead the administration called it a “speech-related political disagreement”. Odeh was imprisoned in Israel for murdering two Jewish college students, from Hebrew University, in a 1969 supermarket bomb attack in Jerusalem.

Odeh, who came to America, after being released by Israel in a prisoner exchange, is facing deportation due to immigration fraud.

It would, of course, be unthinkable for any college campus in the United States of America to hold a fundraiser for Dylann Roof, who murdered nine African-Americans, while they prayed in a South Carolina church on June 17, 2015.

And it is precisely because the University of Houston has whitewashed the issues surrounding violence and Jews, that many Jewish students now feel that they are subject to a dangerous double standard, which puts them at risk.

But whether or not the Houston District Attorney’s office ultimately labels the tweets an actual hate crime or a non-criminal hate incident is really a moot point. Because labelling the tweets doesn’t alter the original intent of the UH tweets: the demonization and outright hatred of Jews.

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Jewish man has his finger sawn off by antisemitic attackers in brutal attack on two brothers in Paris

The National Bureau for Vigilance Against Antisemitism in France has released a report which claims that two Jewish men were briefly abducted, beaten and one had his finger sawn off in Paris. The Bureau’s report is based on several police reports.

The alleged attack occurred in Bondy, a suburb in Paris.  The two men, who are brothers, and who are the sons of a local Jewish leader were forced off the road by the assailant whilst driving. They are both visibly Jewish as they wear kippot.

The assailants shouted various antisemitic slurs at them, which included “Dirty Jews, you’re going to die!”

The two brothers were forced out of their car and several men of “Middle Eastern appearance” emerged from a “hookah café”.

The men proceeded to severely beat the two brothers. One attacker then allegedly sawed off one of the Jewish men’s fingers.

Both brothers were hospitalised and were reportedly in a state of shock after the attack.

This story comes against a backdrop of increasing antisemitism in France. Last year we reported that a 13-year-old Jewish boy has his kippah turn off and was beaten by attackers shouting “dirty Jew” in Paris. In December, another Jew was beaten by attackers also shouting “dirty Jew”, also in Paris. In Strasbourg last year, an Orthodox Jew was beaten by attackers shouting “dirty Jew, we will kill you”, and in a separate incident a Chabad Rabbi in the city was stabbed by an assailant shouting “Allahu Ackbar”, with the attacker having previously committed a similar crime. There have also been high profile terrorist attacks against Jews in France, including the 2012 massacre at a Jewish school and a shooter killing 4 shoppers and injuring nine at a Kosher supermarket. Though Jewish communities are heavily guarded in France, and indeed elsewhere, nobody can have their safety guaranteed at all times, and several incidents have called into question the provision of security, not least the assignment of a police officer who has links to multiple antisemites to the protection of a Jewish communal leader.

The situation in France is fast becoming intolerable. It is impossible for a minority community to flourish under constant threat of serious physical harm, which is evidenced by the sheer number of French Jews fleeing the country, with many making Aliyah whilst others find refuge in London.  Over half of French Jews have expressed a desire to move to Israel and the country has been described as one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a Jew.

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Iran’s Supreme leader calls to destroy “cancerous tumour” Israel, seemingly blames Israel for ISIS

Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, has called for a “holy intifada” to destroy the “cancerous tumour” of Israel.

In his opening address to Iran’s sixth international conference in support of the Palestinians, Khamenei described the whole world as being on a collision course with the “Zionist regime”. He said “From the beginning, this cancerous tumor has been developing in several phases until it turned into the current disaster…the cure for this tumor should be developed in phases as well.”

Describing Israel as a “cancerous tumour” is reminiscent of antisemitic language used against Jews, particularly in Nazi Germany, which referred to Jews as vermin or diseases which needed to be eradicated. The idea of Jews as a disease is still very common in far right antisemitism. According to the definition of antisemitism, it is antisemitic to use the “symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism to characterise Israel or Israelis”.

He reportedly blamed Israel for the current upheaval in the wider Middle East. Accusing Israel of founding, organising or funding ISIS is currently a very common antisemitic conspiracy theory which we are increasingly encountering online, and which we have covered instances of several times, including from a prominent anti-Zionist Facebook group and from a London-based Labour party fundraiser.

The Ayatollah said “the people of Palestine have no option other than keeping the flames of fighting alight by relying on Allah the Exalted and by relying on their innate capabilities, as they have genuinely done so until today” and also described the “brutal occupation” of Palestine as the worst case of oppression of a group of people in recorded history.

As an organisation, we have no position with the conflict between Israel, the Palestinians and other Middle Eastern states. However, describing the situation of Palestinians as the worst case of oppression in recorded history is ahistorical to the point of amounting to denial of the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, the Rwandan Genocide and a plethora of other atrocities in human history. It is a statement that is calculated to demonise Jews as the perpetrators of the worst atrocity in human history, which is in turn being used to incite terrorism.

 

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‘Star of David=Swastika’ graffiti at Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Security are investigating after a door in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was found vandalized with graffiti which equated the Star of David with Nazism.

The graffiti was on a toilet door in the Mount Scotus campus.

According to the definition of antisemitism, “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic.

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Over 100 headstones vandalized in Jewish Cemetery in Missouri

Police in University City, near St. Louis, Missouri, are investigating after dozens of headstones at a Jewish cemetery were vandalized.

The Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery is over 125 years old, with its website saying it emphasises “traditional Jewish integrity, reverence and respect”.

The police are refusing to say whether they believe this is a hate crime or not, but the vandalism is thought to be the result of a coordinated operation from a group of people, not a lone vandal. This seems to indicate that it is far more than mere random vandalism and suggests that antisemitism is a very likely motivation. If this is the case, it is a worrying attempt to intimidate and upset the local Jewish population.

The police are examining CCTV footage from the area, but as of now, no arrests have been made.

Aerial footage showing the extent of the damage can be viewed here.

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BREAKING: more bomb threats at Jewish Community Centers in at least 3 US States

Reports are emerging that Jewish Community Centers have been targeted with bomb threats in the U.S. States of Wisconsin, Illinois and Texas.

These reports follow after dozens of similar threats, all hoaxes, were made across the first few weeks of 2017.

The Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center in Whitefish Bay, Milwaukee; The St. Paul Jewish Community Center in Minnesota; and the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center in Houston, Texas, were all evacuated this morning.

Further updates will be provided when more information emerges.

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“No Jews”, Swastika notes left on Ontario doors, Jewish residents have Mezuzot vandalized

Police in Ontario are investigating a series of notes left on the doors of Jewish residents.

Several Jewish residents also had mezuzot vandalized. A mezuzah is a box containing parchment from the Torah, which religious Jews nail to the doorposts of their houses. Damaging one constitutes an act of desecration and is an inherently hateful act.

Post-it notes with the words “no Jews”, Swastikas and antisemitic slurs were left on the doors.

They were all posted within the same building, causing them to believe that one of the neighbours is to blame.

 

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German Parliamentary candidate appears to call for Hitler’s return, apparently faces no discipline from her Party

Elena Roon, a Parliamentary candidate for the far right “Alternative for Germany” party, has posted an image of Hitler with the caption “Missed since 1945”.

She is a party Chairwoman in Nuremberg, and will be running for Parliament in the area.

She allegedly shared the image in a private Whatsapp group.

The full caption stated “Missed since 1945 … Adolf, please get in touch! Germany needs you! The German people!”

Roon did not deny sending the images, but publicly stated that she  repudiates “right-wing extremism and anti-Semitism”.

She also denied wishing for Hitler to return, saying “whoever wishes to draw the conclusion that I condone what it says in the images is twisting the truth round completely”.

Such denial will be of little comfort to Jews and other minority groups within Germany, who see a far right party whose members will put on a respectable face when facing the public, but who are clearly happy to glorify Nazism and to hold antisemitic and racist attitudes privately.

The Party’s regional head said that the allegations were “most probably unfounded”, having said that there would be consequences if she had harmed the party. The fact that consequences were only cited in relation to the Party’s reputation, as opposed to the fact that she has called for Hitler’s return, shows how little a problem the party’s establishment has with antisemitism.

 

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Neo-Nazi arrested by FBI, allegedly planned Synagogue terror attack in South Carolina

Benjamin Thomas Samuel McDowell, 29, has been arrested by the FBI after he allegedly attempted to purchase a gun from an FBI agent, allegedly planning to commit a terrorist attack “in the spirit of Dylan Roofe”, the White Supremacist terrorist who murdered nine African American worshippers at a Church in cold blood in 2015.

McDowell met with the FBI agent in South Carolina, who was undercover, believing that he “handled problems for the Aryan Nations”. He said “I got the heart to do that s***, but I don’t have to the good training…if I could do something on a f***** big scale and write on the f***** building or whatever, ‘In the spirit of Dylann Roof.’”

He contacted the agent the next day to obtain a weapon, which he allegedly stated was to use for an attack in the county in which he lives.

The FBI monitored his social media accounts, which they believe indicated that he wished to attack a Conservative Synagogue in his area. The Rabbi of the Synagogue has been advised not to comment on this situation by the FBI.

McDowell has already been brought to trial

The events are a disturbing reminder of the very real threat which is faced by Jewish communities across the world. The security services are to commended by the handling of the situation, identifying a credible threat and apprehending him swiftly. At a time in which a far right terrorist attack is always a possibility, the ability of security services to monitor extremist activity, to understand the nature of threats, and to act swiftly is paramont

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Muslim and “anti-Zionist” students in Texas glorify the Holocaust, call to “kill some Jews”

The Canary Mission, an group which monitors extremist activity on US campuses, has released a dossier on antisemitic social media comment being circulated by students at the University of Texas, Arlington.

The messages include calls to “kill some Jews”, calls to “stuff Jews in the oven”, and included many references to the Holocaust and antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Among the authors of the tweets is Ismail Said Aboukar, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Students’ Association, who wrote that “Jesus is going to slay the Jews” and made multiple references to Jews controlling world business, as well as writing “the world would be soooo much better without the Jews man”.

Nancy Salem, another SJP member and BDS supporter, asked a friend to “kiss the Palestine ground” for her and to “kill some Jews”.

She also asked “How many Jews died in the Holocaust?”, answering for herself – “not enough”.

The Canary Mission identified 24 students making blatantly antisemitic comments at the University, with 19 being affiliated with Students for Justice in Palestine and 12 being affiliated with the Muslim Students’ Association.

This serves to highlight the growth of Islamic antisemitism, and its connection to anti-Zionist politics, on University campuses, in a situation which is quickly making Jewish students feel unwelcome at Universities across North America and Europe.

 

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Japanese Hotelier writes article claiming “Jewish people control American…finance and laws”

Toshio Motoya, the founder of the Apa Group, a Japanese hotel company, has penned an antisemitic article claiming to be about the “American counteroffensive against Jewish globalism”.

Extraordinarily, the Apa Group’s monthly newsletter, which is distributed to guests, featured the antisemitic article.

In the article he wrote that “Jewish people control American information, finance, and laws, and they benefit greatly from globalization because they move their massive profits to tax havens so they don’t have to pay any taxes. Many Jewish people support the Democratic Party”.

When Jewish groups in Canada objected to the material, Motoya defended himself, saying “it is very unfortunate that my writings gave you an erroneous impression that I hold antisemitic beliefs”. Such a defence is bizarre, given that conspiracy theories accusing Jews of controlling finance or politics have been a feature of antisemitic discourse for well over a century, and the idea that Jews dodge taxes belongs to a much older antisemitic canard.

Debby Shoctor, of The Jewish Federation of Edmonton, believes that the apology is insincere, suggesting that Motoya is speaking from a belief in Japanese supremacy, saying “he seems to be a Japanese apologist and to think that Japan is superior to other countries in the world, and that the Japanese are superior”.

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University of Bristol lecturer pens article accusing “government elites” of “manipulating” the Holocaust

An anonymous letter from a University of Bristol student has been published on Epigram, addressed to one of the student’s lecturers, which criticises an antisemitic article penned by the academic.

The student says that the academic’s article was published in a magazine which “regularly (and proudly) publishes pieces by Holocaust deniers, ‘Jewish lobby’ conspiracy theorists, and 9/11 truthers”.

The article accused “government elites” of “manipulating” the Holocaust, and claiming that we are discouraged from “critical […] thinking” about the Holocaust.

This is umabiguously the language of Holocaust denial. Searching for these words together on Google will yield a plethora of Holocaust denial sites claiming that either Israel or the Western Powers fabricated or exaggerated the Holocaust, or that the Holocaust is “manipulated” to generate sympathy of Jews or for Israel. Both of these positions are antisemitic according to the International Definition of Antisemitism, and it is very hard to see anything else to which such comments could refer.

Given that he apparently begins the article by writing about how, in the student’s words, “criticism of Israel is unfairly stifled by charges of antisemitism”, it seems clear that he means to associate these “government elites” with the state of Israel.

He also claimed that we should stop “privileging” the Holocaust.

The anonymous student laments the fact that her lecturer cannot understand that “‘privilege’ and ‘Holocaust’ don’t belong in the same sentence”.

The lecturer is likely referring to the perception that the Holocaust is commemorated more than other genocides. This is a belief espoused by Labour antisemite Jacqui Walker, who said during Labour Party Conference: “wouldn’t it be wonderful if Holocaust day was open to all peoples who’ve experienced Holocaust“. However, as was pointed out then, and must be pointed out now, charities such as the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust do indeed educate about all genocides. Sadly, such comments are rarely bona fide attempts to further understanding of other genocides, and are often used to devalue and belittle the Jewish experience of the Holocaust. Additionally, the comments must be read alongside his other statements which hint at Holocaust denial, and in light of this can only be seen as antisemitic.

He also allegedly compares Israel to Nazi Germany, a comparison which is antisemitic according to the International Definition of Antisemitism.

In the University’s response to the letter, they concede that Epigram verified all quotes from the anonymous piece

The University writes that it “believes that freedom of expression and academic freedom are at the heart of its mission. Our approach is to enable and promote free speech and encourage debate of all kinds. This means that there must be an atmosphere of free and open discussion. It also means that occasionally academics will put forward a view that is contrary to the views of others.”

“However, where there are serious concerns about public disorder or the direct incitement of violence or hatred, or where a student feels that they are subject to unacceptable behaviour they should raise this with their personal tutor, warden or Just Ask”

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Politician from Putin’s Party: Jews “boiled us in cauldrons”

Vitaly Milonov, a Russian lawmaker in Vladamir Putin’s party has drawn criticism for claiming that the ancestor’s of two Jewish opponents “boiled” Christians “in cauldrons”.

Milonov said that “Christians survived despite the fact that the ancestors of Boris Vishnevsky and Maksim Reznik boiled us in cauldrons and fed us to animals”.

The statements, which invoke images of Jews being involved in witchcraft, are a classic form of blood libel.

Rabbi Boruch Gorin, a spokesman for the Jewish community in Russia, said that “for a State Duma deputy, it is unacceptable to make such irresponsible statements”.

In 2014, Milonov also claimed that the Jews killed Jesus. Claims such as this one and the one made in 2014 have frequently been used to incite violence against Jews.

Milonov has also described criticism levelled at commemoration of  John of Kronstadt, who was the member of an explicitly antisemitic group which supported pogroms against Jews, “complete lies, a modern neo-liberal fable with a sulfuric, deep history of Satanism”.

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Jewish teenager’s car spraypainted with Swastika in Florida

A Jewish teenager, who is currently away in Israel with his father, has had his car vandalised with Swastika in Boca Raton, Florida.

The graffiti was discovered when local residents in the Jewish community woke up this week.

Yona Lunger, a representative of South Florida’s Jewish Community said that the incident was “a direct hate message”, describing the community as “shocked, devastated”.

The community gathered around the car yesterday to vent their frustration, and the incident attracted some attention in regional news.

The teenager’s mother said that her grandparents were Holocaust survivors, saying that the incident “might not mean something to a lot of people, but to me, it means a lot”. She says that she will be worried about children playing outside in the community in the future, which demonstrates the very real effect that incidents like this can have on a community.

Rabbi Yaakov Gibbar, who teaches in the community said “that symbol is a symbol of hatred…that symbol is a sign of anti-Semitism, which is virulent and awful, despicable and deplorable”.

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Italian court rules that antisemitic slurs in football match are “merely sports ridicule”

Two fans of the Italian football team Lazio have been acquitted after having been accused of antisemitic abuse during a game in 2013.

During a game against Calcio Catania, Lazio fans were caught on CCTV making antisemitic chants about their rivals, Roma.

They screamed the words “yellow-red Jew”, referring to the Roma strips, among other antisemitic language. The use of the word Jew as a pejorative is clearly antisemitic, regardless of the context.

However, the Judge has acquitted the fans on the basis that the antisemitic language is acceptable based on the “historic sports antagonism between the two urban teams” and the fact that they were not playing against Roma, writing off the abuse as “merely sports ridicule”

The head of Rome’s Jewish community said “This is, without doubt, an extremely dangerous precedent for justice in this country”. Unfortunately, this may make the word “Jew” acceptable to use as an insult.

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Minnesota Jewish student has “Nazis rule”, image of concentration camp drawn inside his dorm

Avi Shaver, a Jewish student attending the University of Minnesota, returned to his dorm room on Wednesday to find a Swastika and a picture of a concentration camp drawn on his bedroom door, as well as the words “Nazis rule”.

It appears that the vandal somehow got into his shared dorm and drew it on his bedroom door.

The incident is not only clearly antisemitic, but extremely unsettling given that the culprit has demonstrated he is able to reach Shaver where he sleeps. The incident could thus also constitute intimidation.

Both the University and the Police are investigating.

There have apparently been several similar, but less serious incidents at the University in the last year.

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German Muslim students refuse to commemorate Holocaust, with one writing “Free Palestine” in response

Pupils at a school in Gelsenkirchen in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany refused to participate in an International Holocaust Remembrance Day event, it has been reported.

The event was part of a global commemoration in which people took photographs of themselves with a sign saying “I Remember” or “We Remember”.

Some students allowed themselves to be photographed with the remembrance signs but declined to permit the photographs to be displayed on the internet. According to the newspaper Der Westen, several asked: “Why always the Jews?”, stating that there are other problems in the world.

“Some Muslim students said they would not participate in the event,” said Florian Beer, a teacher at the school, who added that it often hosts events that leave an “aftertaste of antisemitism”.

An unidentified student also wrote on a blackboard: “F*** Israel, free Palestine”. If there could be any doubt that this refusal to participate in a Holocaust commemoration event was motivated by antisemitism, instead being an ill-conceived attempt at having a universalistic approach to education about genocide, then this action must surely cast that aside.

School director Günter Jahn said he was pleased by the opposition to the remembrance event, stating: “It is important that there is criticism. That is the basis for a discussion.”

The Weiterbildungskolleg Emscher-Lippe school has 500 students, 40 per cent of whom are from a migrant background, and is in Gelsenkirchen, in the northern part of the Ruhr region.

Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Jerusalem office, told the Jerusalem Post: “Muslim students are greatest in need of Holocaust education, so it would be unfortunate if they were excused from those activities.

“Given that Holocaust consciousness is a central idea of civic identity in the Federal Republic, it is doubly important for families that come from countries with deep antisemitic traditions and no knowledge of the Holocaust and the destruction of European Jewry.”

The number of antisemitic attacks reported in Germany doubled from 2015 to 2016, according to a Diaspora Affairs Ministry report. The actual number of attacks may be higher because of disagreement over how to identify contemporary antisemitism in the Federal Republic.

Last year we reported that Muslim students in Canada had blocked a Holocaust Education Week motion.

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Woman attacked on train and called “dirty Jew” by attacker shouting “Hail the Hitler Youth” in NY

The NYPD Hate Crime Task Force is investigating an alleged antisemitic attack that occurred on the New York Subway on Monday.

A Jewish woman was forcibly pushed off a train by an attacker who called her a “dirty Jew” and read from a neo-Nazi leaflet the words “Hail the Hitler Youth”.

The victim managed to grab onto a pole, and fell into the seat apparently without any major injury.

It is currently not known if any onlookers intervened.

The alleged attacker had a strong German accent, had cropped blonde hair, wore a blue jacket and was carrying a black bag or briefcase.

The victim is yet to be apprehended.

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White Nationalist Richard Spencer hails White House’s “de-Judaification” of the Holocaust

Richard Spencer, the prominent White Nationalist and “alt right” figurehead who has been the centre of several antisemitic controversies, particularly following the election of Donald Trump, has hailed the White House’s decision not to explicitly mention Jews in its Holocaust Memorial Day statement.

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has also left Jews out of his Holocaust address in the past.

Spencer wrote that Jewish activists had made the Holocaust “all about their meta-narrative of suffering” in order to “undergird their peculiar position in American society”.

He asserts that Jews have essentially used the Holocaust for political ends, not just in generating sympathy for themselves, but also to influence other policy, writing:

“We can’t limit immigration, because Hitler. We can’t can’t be proud of ourselves as a Europeans, because Holocaust. White people can be Christian, but not too Christian, because Auschwitz,

Effectively, any policy, idea, or belief that is markedly right-wing and traditional — that evokes identity, power, hierarchy, and dominance — must be regulated by the possibility that it could potentially lead back to the German Führer”

This is a typical antisemitic conspiracy theory dressed up as political discourse about how we are to remember the Holocaust. In fact, the Holocaust is the ultimate expression of the potential dangers of excessively valuing such things as mentioned by spencer, and is something from which it is imperative to learn.

According to the definition of antisemitism, “accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust” is antisemitic, and his statements could easily be seen as falling into line with this definition.

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75% of US Jewish students have experienced antisemitism, with many now hiding their Jewish identity

Fear of antisemitism is causing European and American Jewish students to hide their religious identities, with many afraid to openly support Israel, students have told the Knesset’s Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs.

In January, students from around the globe, came to Jerusalem to speak to the Israeli legislature about the frequent hostilities and the social isolation that they experience because university administrators refuse to confront antisemitism.

The Committee found that Jewish students at Universities across North America and Europe are hiding their Jewish identity following increasing hostility linked to anti-Israel activism, with many refraining from wearing kippot or anything else that would identify them as Jewish.

Students told the committee that BDS has contributed to a worsening campus experience for Jewish students, with Boycotts being incorporated into policy by various Universities and Student Unions. Olga Deutsch, Head of Europe Desk, NGO Monitor, is hopeful that, as a result of new European laws, BDS will lose its influence.

If these new laws do prove to be effective, it will certainly bring relief to the countless European Jewish students and professors, who are worried that BDS, often with antisemitic undertones and often tied up with Islamism, is becoming the norm on campus.

Baroness Ruth Deech, the first ever appointed UK higher education adjudicator, told The Telegraph that “many universities are in receipt or are chasing large donations of money from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states and so on, and maybe they are frightened of offending them. I don’t know why they [the universities] aren’t doing anything about it [antisemitism], it really is a bad situation.”

Enter  the “Jewni”, universities like Birmingham and Leeds, where Jews feel that it is safe to enroll because of the presence of so many Jewish students. But, with the rise of European antisemitism–a Knesset report revealed that 40% of European citizens are antisemitic–it is now an acceptable tactic to harass Jews. Consequently, Jewish UK students now use one critical measurement to classify universities–how safe is the environment for Jews.

Baroness Deech would, undoubtedly, understand the anxieties of Jewish students. Deech believes that pervasive antisemitism has turned far too many UK universities into no-go zones for Jewish students.

The Knesset committee, which is headed by MK (Member of Knesset), Likud, Avraham Neguise, wanted to know how antisemitism plays out in the daily life of students. The committee learned that some students are too frightened to wear yamulkes in public. Students also admitted that, out of fear, they refrain from expressing pro-Israel opinions, especially in classrooms that are ruled by anti-Israel professors.

Neguise believes that since it is “no longer polite and fashionable to hate Jews as they are, the hatred is disguised as criticism of the Jewish state”.

According to the The Diaspora Affairs report, 75% of Jewish American students have been exposed to antisemitism. In an extreme example, The Washington Post said that in Ohio, at Oberlin College, a female Jewish student, who had hung an Israeli flag in her dorm window, discovered shattered glass all over her bed and floor. A brick had been thrown through the window.

Isabel Storch Sherrell, who is also an Oberlin College student, told the Washington Post that, on multiple occasions, she heard students, “POC [people of color] peers and Jewish white hipsters”, refer to the Holocaust as “white on white crime”.

It is particularly contentious that the extreme Left classifies all Jews as white. Therefore, because of the theory of “white privilege”, the suffering of Jewish students is not considered to be relevant. This leftist mindset, which completely discounts Jewish people of color, plays to racism, and shows the inherent flaws in analyses of prejudices based on preconceived notions of “privilege”.

In an article for The Atlantic, reporter Emma Green said that as far as the extreme Left is concerned, Jews are “part of a white-majority establishment that seeks to dominate people of color”. This, of course,  promotes the stereotype of the evil racist white European (Ashkenazi) Jew, who is out to destroy the always innocent Palestinian person of color.

Juda Stone, of The Jewish Agency, told the Knesset that he believes that when students are afraid of antisemitism, it “leads them to escape their own Jewish identity”. Of course, this is something that the Jewish community can not allow.

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Hackers blamed for antisemitic print-outs at US university

White supremacist hackers are suspected to be behind an incident in which computer printers at an American university started producing antisemitic fliers.

The incident at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on January 16 appears similar to a spate of occurrences last year at universities nationwide including Princeton, when a hacker caused printers to churn out fliers bearing swastikas and antisemitic text.

On that occasion the Daily Stormer neo-Nazi website claimed credit for producing the material, which spoke of “the Jews destroying your country through mass immigration and degeneracy” and asked people to “Join us in the struggle for white supremacy”.

University spokeswoman Princine Lewis said the new incident happened “in a handful of offices on campus” and campus police were investigating.

“Currently it is an open investigation,” she wrote in an email to the Tennessean newspaper. “However, this most recent incident appears similar to incidents in March 2016 in which an outside source was able to access networked printers at several universities around the country.”

Ari Dubin, leader of Vanderbilt’s Hillel society, said: “Hillel takes all antisemitic incidents seriously and we are outraged by this despicable act. We are grateful for the rapid response of Vanderbilt University and the VUPD. We support their efforts to stop these kinds of hacking attacks from occurring in the future.”

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Police investigate “threatening” voicemail left at Kentucky Synagogue

Temple Shalom in Louisville, Kentucky, received an abusive and antisemitic voicemail on Holocaust Memorial Day.

The Synagogue’s President Keiron O’Connell wrote that the message was “filled with antisemitic invective and veiled threats”, though we do not know the precise nature of the threats or antisemitic language.

Thankfully the police are now investigating the incident and have agreed to provide extra security for the Synagogue, having sent officers to guard the building during Shabbat services.

O’Connell wrote in an email to members that “if you feel secure enough in attending services tonight I am requesting a display of strength and solidarity from the congregation and the Jewish community. We will not back down in the face of hate”.

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Nazi posters in Ashland, Oregon, warn that “a storm is coming”

Police in Ashland, Oregon, are currently looking for an individual who put up Nazi posters around the town.

The signs seem to have been put up on Monday morning, and according to Police Chief  Tighe O’Meara, “people just took the signs down and threw them away”.

The suspect goes by the name @NationalistAct on Twitter, which is written on some of the posters.

He uses the phrase “we will secure the existence of our people and a future for white children” – these are known as the “fourteen words”, a mantra used by Neo-Nazis, often referenced in numerical form simply as “14”.

The bio of the account claims it to be “official page of the #Cascadian Nationalist Resistance”, a group which there seem to be no other traces of.

Chief O’Mera has said that the posters amount to “at the very least, it’s criminal mischief…maybe it could turn into something else like intimidation”

The police chief is correct in that it could amount to intimidation, particularly if the posters have been placed to be visible to members of the small local Jewish community. The phrasing on some of the posters – “a storm is coming”, alongside Swastikas and other Nazi imagery, is deliberately calculated to be ominous and to stir up fear.

The FBI has indicated that it may be willing to become involved if the actions are deemed to have crossed the criminal threshold.

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Expel professor for being a “bitter Jew” demands Goldsmiths student

Campaign Against Antisemitism has been sent a photograph of a board at Goldsmiths, University of London, which suggested that a Jewish lecturer who is an expert in antisemitism should be fired for being a “bitter Jew”.

The comment was scrawled on a suggestion board which asks: ”What do you think teaching and learning should look like in 2022?” But for one student the campus only needed one improvement. They wrote: ”No more David Hirsh, no more Zionism — a bitter Jew“ appended by a smiley face.

David Hirsh is a lecturer of Sociology at Goldsmiths, and is known for writing about antisemitism, and for highlighting the link between anti-Israel student activists and antisemitism.

Describing a lecturer as being a “bitter Jew” and calling for them to lose their job is inherently antisemitic.

Last year the Student Union of Goldsmiths reported “repeated instances” of antisemitic graffiti, including swastikas. One piece read: “Goldsmiths it’s the symbol of world Jewry!”

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Neo-Nazis slogans and imagery drawn outside 3 Florida Synagogues

Three synagogues in Clearwater, Florida, have found antisemitic messages and imagery drawn in chalk on the pavements outside their buildings.

Chabad of Clearwater, Temple B’nai Israel and Beth Shalom all found the drawings near their Synagogues on January 12th.

There were Swastikas drawn, as well as the numbers 14 and 88. 14 refers to the Fourteen Words, a neo-Nazi mantra, and 88 is a numerical code for “Heil Hitler”.

Though one of the congregations’ Rabbi has noted that this has had “little effect” on their community, it does indeed demonstrate that antisemitism will never be far away for Jewish communities, and should remind those in the communities of the need to be vigilant in case things escalate.

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People tweet “light that Jew on fire” at Trump inauguration Rabbi, call Trump a “puppet for the Jews”

Rabbi Marvin Hier made history at Trump’s inauguration by becoming the first Orthodox Rabbi to speak at a President’s inauguration.

Rabbi Hier has met with various Presidents, and is the founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an organisation named after the famous Nazi hunter, and which fights against antisemitism, terrorism and racism, as well helping to educate about the Holocaust.

The fact that Rabbi Hier was asked to speak at Trump’s inauguration, after a divisive campaign which caused many Jewish leaders to express concern, could be seen as a sincere positive step from the Trump camp. Unfortunately, his appearance was marred by torrents of antisemitic abuse.

Some tweets include the following:

“Why is there a Jew on my screen”

“He escaped from the camp! Gas him before its too late”

“someone light that Jew on fire”

“MY EARS ARE BEING RAPED BY JEW INCANTATIONS OMG PUSH THIS RABBI WITCH OFF THE STAGE”

“What the hell is some Jew rabbi doing at the inauguration? They are the enemies of America !”

“not down with that false pig religion of the devil”

“Guys, the Jew put a spell on us!”

“The Jew disappeared soon after his speech. Holding human form takes a lot of energy” – this tweet, which suggests Jews are not really human, but also plays on conspiracy theories about Jews (who are often referred to in more obscure conspiracy theories as “shapeshifters”) controlling the world.

“crazy how they let a Jew speak after their attacks on 9/11”

“Trump is just a puppet for the Jews”

“bruh this is why we need Hitler. who the fuck let the jew out the chamber”

“DON THERES A FUCKIN JEW ON THE SAGE KILL IT”

In the photo displayed above, someone photoshopped an antisemitic caricature of a Jew, and wrote that they were “wearing my ‘they live’ glasses”. They live is a film in which special glasses make the protagonist able to see the propaganda behind everyday advertising and media. However, the creator of the film has recently disavowed its popularity with neo-Nazis, insisting that the film is about consumer capitalism and has nothing to do with antisemitism.

Some in the Jewish community criticised Rabbi Hier for appearing at Trump’s inauguration, as many believe the President employed antisemitic tropes during his campaign. However, it is extremely worrying to see such vitriol being directed towards a Rabbi who was chosen to speak by the President. If these people are Trump supporters, it indicates that some of Trump supporters do not merely engage in antisemitic discourse, but will refuse to accept a Jewish person even when they have some form of personal endorsement from the candidate they support. However, of the hundreds of tweets that Rabbi Hier received, though they tended to have the general character of far right antisemitism, that some would have come from opponents of Trump.

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Journalist’s hard-hitting exposé is scathing of festering antisemitism at SOAS, but will SOAS finally act?

A hard-hitting feature by Rosamund Urwin in London’s Evening Standard has exposed to London’s public the sad truth that most British Jews have long known: that SOAS, the School of Oriental and African Studies, might just as well be named the School of Antisemitism.

Noting SOAS students’ reputation for championing civil rights, and its proud tradition of nurturing future activists from 133 countries around the world, Urwin calls out the festering antisemitism that stains SOAS’s image with hypocrisy. Urwin is scathing in her analysis, pointing out that SOAS Students’ Union has a People of Colour Officer, two Anti-Racism Officers and an Equality and Liberation Co-President.

Urwin calls out the festering antisemitism that stains SOAS’s image with hypocrisy.

In December the cross-bench peer Baroness Deech told the Daily Telegraph’s Education Editor, Camilla Turner, that “amongst Jewish students there is gradually a feeling that there are certain universities that you should avoid — definitely SOAS”.

Incidents at SOAS have been causing serious concern, and those concerns centre around the activities of SOAS Palestine Society. Urwin notes that the Palestine Society is a dominant force on campus: “The Israel-Palestine conflict dominates discussion of global affairs at many universities but nowhere more so than at SOAS. In 2015 the union held a referendum where it voted to boycott Israel. And last year, it held an Israeli Apartheid Week ‘to raise awareness of Israel’s apartheid policies over the Palestinian people’.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism can reveal that the Palestine Society receives more funding than all but two of the 187 other non-sport societies at SOAS, receiving approximately 8% of the funds spent on non-sport societies every year.

It seems unlikely that the current leaders of the Palestine Society will face any consequences for arranging an antisemitic lecture on their campus.

In November, Campaign Against Antisemitism filed a complaint over an antisemitic event lecture organised by SOAS Palestine Society and the response we received showed little urgency. SOAS told us that the Students’ Union — a separate body — had investigated and was now in discussions with the Charity Commission. We found that the Students’ Union had declared the event not to have been antisemitic and that is what they told the Charity Commission. We wrote to the Charity Commission to set the record straight, but now it seems that nobody at SOAS intends to do anything to right this wrong until the Charity Commission has investigated, which is likely to take until after the protagonists have graduated and left SOAS for good. It seems unlikely that the current leaders of the Palestine Society will face any consequences for arranging an antisemitic lecture on their campus.

Shortly after the antisemitic lecture, in response to criticism, the Palestine Society planned a new event. SOAS’s Jewish students discovered that the Palestine Society planned to hold an event defining antisemitism, telling Jews what they are allowed to find offensive, and attempting to justify certain forms of Jew-hatred. It is hard to imagine SOAS inviting a speaker to tell black or gay students that they are no longer allowed to be offended by certain types of racism or homophobia — such an event would trigger a national outcry. In this case, there was only a Jewish outcry, and Palestine Society was quietly pressed to cancel the event, which they did.

“Some students tell me they are too scared to wear the star of David, or speak Hebrew”

Intimidation of Jewish students at SOAS is not difficult, mainly because the Jewish student population is small: Urwin discovered a 2016 Freedom of Information request which found that only 39 of the 5,900 students at SOAS admitted to being Jewish on their signup forms, and Avrahum Sanger, President of SOAS Jewish Society says that only about seven are active in Jewish life on campus, such that it is. “Some students tell me they are too scared to wear the star of David, or speak Hebrew, and Israeli students don’t want to attend Jewish events because they’re afraid of being singled out,” Sanger tells Urwin. He continues: “Even I feel uneasy when I go into the student union. And yet someone from the student union told me that the anti-racism officers didn’t have a mandate to address antisemitism as it wasn’t in their manifesto. Anyway, the only form of antisemitism people think of here is Hitler.”

It is no surprise. Graffiti found at SOAS in April last year threatened “BDS or else”, referring to the campaign to sever all ties with Israel. But Israel is the place from which Judaism originates and where half of the world’s Jewish population lives. Since its establishment it has been the one country that offers persecuted Jews from around the world unconditional safe haven. It is the religious and cultural heart of Judaism. To tell Jews that they will be treated as pariahs unless they renounce all connection to Israel and Israelis is antisemitic. Yet not only is that what SOAS’ few Jewish students are expected to do according to their Students’ Union, this graffiti appears to be threatening violence if they fail to comply. Few incidents are recorded in graffiti however, and we hear of too many incidents in which Jewish students are told, for example: “Why don’t you and your family f*** off to Israel?”

It is sobering to imagine for a moment that you are a Jewish student returning from lectures, and you stumble upon a vigil held for terrorist thugs who killed Jews for being Jews at the behest of genocidal antisemitic terrorist organisations like Hamas.

The influence of extremism on campus is also clear, though rarely highlighted. One such glimpse came in November 2015, when the Palestine Society organised a “vigil” commemorating the deaths of 72 Palestinian “martyrs” despite the fact that some of the “martyrs” were Islamist terrorists who had been killed attempting to murder Israeli Jews for being Jews, and who had declared allegiance to terrorist groups proscribed under EU and British terrorism laws. The absurd coverage of the resulting controversy in SOAS Spirit, a student newspaper, shows the nature of discourse on campus. It is sobering to imagine for a moment that you are a Jewish student returning from lectures, and you stumble upon a vigil held for terrorist thugs who killed Jews for being Jews at the behest of genocidal antisemitic terrorist organisations like Hamas.

Sanger feels that the situation is desperate. He revealed to Urwin that he has proposed an emergency motion at the Students’ Union, calling for equality for Jewish students. Having to propose such a motion at a major British university in 2017 should be the stuff of nightmares, not reality. Sanger’s motion highlights the disappearance of kosher provision and the withdrawal of a Jewish prayer area. He also wants the Students’ Union to appoint a Jewish Officer to work with the Anti-Racism Officers and to help to organise a workshop on antisemitism in Freshers’ Week.

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues to pursue its complaints with SOAS and the Charity Commission. We are extremely grateful to Rosamund Urwin for her coverage of this issue, and to Avrahum Sanger for his bravery in standing up to antisemitism at SOAS.

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Sweden: Malmö woman suffers from antisemitic vandalism attacks, police take no action

For the past few years, a Jewish woman in Malmö has been targeted by a hate campaign (see here and here).  Her front door has been repeatedly vandalized.  She files complaints with the police, but they allegedly take no action whatsoever.

The latest attack was a couple of weeks ago, when her door was vandalized with a swastika and Star of David.

Whilst this is easy to dismiss as mere vandalism, the persistent antisemitic graffiti amounts to a clear message – “we know you are Jewish. We don’t like it, and we know where you live”, which amounts to intimidation

 

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Breaking: bomb threats at at least 32 Jewish institutions in America

Last week we reported that at least 16 Jewish Community Centres across the USA had been targeted with hoax bomb threats. There are now currently reports that at least 32 Jewish institutions across the USA have been targeted with similar threats today.

Threats were called in to JCCs on Wednesday. The ADL has said that there were threats in New York, Ohio, New Jersey, Florida, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Delaware, Connecticut, Alabama, Maine, California, Tennessee, South Carolina, Missouri, Minnesota and Texas, all of which were fake.

Calls often came in within minutes of one another.

Once again, staff at the JCCs cooperated with police effectively and the buildings were all swiftly evacuated. However, the threats further emphasise the urgent need for increased security at Jewish institutions.

These two incidents, as well as the planned armed neo-Nazi march in Montana, point to a very worrying increase in far right activity, which is becoming not only more visible, but more coordinated, better organised, and clearly calculated to intimidate.

More information can be found here.

 

 

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PewDiePie pays two men who unveil “Death to all Jews” sign live on his YouTube channel

PewDiePie, the Swedish YouTube Celebrity who is the personality behind the most subscribed-to channel on the entire site, paid two men who revealed a “Death to all Jews” sign for him in a video.

In the bizarre video, he stated that he would delete his account when he reaches 50 million subscribers. At the time, he had 49 million.

He was reviewing the website Fiverr, which you can pay someone to reveal a message of one’s choice, though it seems as if he didn’t know that this particular message would be unveiled.

He has since apologised, saying “I don’t feel too proud of this, I’m not going to lie. I’m not anti-Semitic or whatever it’s called. It was a funny meme, and I didn’t think it would work… I swear, I love Jews. I love them”, and the two men in the Fiverr video have also apologised.

This does appear to be a very poor attempt at a joke gone wrong, although the explanation could of course be more sinister. However, the mere fact that PewDiePie has so many millions of subscribers, most of whom are young, and many of whom will be or will have been exposed to antisemitic ideas, particularly in anti-Israel discourse, seeing something like this on the channel of a prominent cultural influencer could have the unfortunate effect of normalising antisemitism. Despite this, his apology is to be welcomed.

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Right wing Swedish Democrat Party may expel members for “Camp Auschwitz” flag

The right wing Swedish Democrats Party has expelled two local politicians after they shared a photograph of a man brandishing a “Camp Auschwitz” flag.

Monica and Peter Evertson, a married couple, represent the small town of Sävsjö.

Monica shared the photograph of the man, who the couple apparently camped with, on her Facebook page.

There were a string of racist comments on the image, in which commenters joked about a “negro” stealing one’s wallet. At one point a commenter said “Everything becomes so much worse when a negro is involved”, to which Monica replied “too right”.

Party Press representative Henrik Vinge said The local party organisation has been requested to invite these people to leave the party. If this call is not heeded, the issue will be brought up in the party’s membership committee on Monday. This procedure could lead to people getting their membership cancelled”.

However, firmer action would be ideal, when the couple seem to have revelled in meeting someone who was mocking the Holocaust, jovially posting about it on Facebook.

 

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Scandinavian online bookshop selling antisemitic propaganda for the fourth time

Adlibris, the leading online book retailer in Scandinavia, has been found to be selling antisemitic propaganda, including the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Adlibris had previously been called out on selling antisemitic books, and claimed to have taken action. This is at least the fourth time that the infamous antisemitic hoax text was available on its site.

The company’s information officer released the following statement:

“We have decided not to offer the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and we check every now and then if the book is on our list. However, we happen to work with distributors worldwide, and there are many self-publishers. This means we get up to 75,000 titles a month, and books registered with Amazon automatically get registered on our site too. We need to remove them afterwards and do it manually”

The book has since been removed from the site. However, several other antisemitic books are still available there, including Henry Ford’s “The International Jew”.

Whilst it is important that people are able to study these antisemitic texts in some capacity, it is potentially dangerous for them to be sold without a disclaimer of the factual inaccuracy and an explanation of the context of the text, especially as the authors present the texts as factual.

 

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Jewish man slashed repeatedly with knife and beaten by neo-Nazis in Chile

The Chilean Jewish community, alongside with the Integration Movement and Liberation for Homosexuals (Movilh), have condemned an attack committed against a Jewish member of the Sexual Diversity Group.  He was reported to have suffered a range of physical and verbal attacks, for the sole reason of wearing a shirt depicting the flag of Israel.  The victim (Jorge Arce), has issued a statement following the ordeal, describing how his aggressors followed him: shouting profanities and anti-Semitic slurs, which subsequently descended into applications of physical violence, beginning with stone throwing and followed by beatings and slashing’s.

According to the victim, the assailants were wearing items identifying themselves to Neo-Nazism, thus affirming that the motivation for the attack was wholly antisemitic in origin, and clearly indicates that it wasn’t merely related to Zionism, but to the clear link to Jews and Judaism which the attackers would have inferred from the flag. However, even if the attack was merely motivated by his t-shirt, according to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel” is antisemitic.

Whilst subjecting the victim to fist punches to the chest, the victim’s arms and legs were exposed and subsequently slashed with a knife, from which he suffered multiple cuts. Jorge Arce remarks that there were “40 marks” on his arms, several of which shall scar permanently; a poignant and harsh reminder of the wholly repugnant behaviour he was subject to, for the sole reason of being a Jew.

Movilh condemned the attack, stating the events “deserve total legal and social sanction” and adding that they will fully back any actions the Jewish community sees fit to take. In response to the event, the Jewish community of Chile have stated “we cannot allow more victims of hate in our country.” The incident has made clear the absolute necessity that attacks carried out on the basis of belief or personal identity are condemned, investigated and punished. Unfortunately, the shocking ordeal inflicted upon Jorge Arce offer a harrowing message to the world that the fight against antisemitism is far from won.

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Palestinian TV: Jews stole Kim Kardashian’s diamonds

Last October a huge story hit the press worldwide, when Kim Kardashian and friend Simone Harouche were robbed at gunpoint in Paris, with Kim Kardashian’s diamond ring being among the things stolen.

The story attracted large amounts of attention in the world press, and it was eventually reported that the suspects were a group of men of differing backgrounds, some of whom were Jewish.

However, Palestinian Authority TV (PA TV) seized upon the opportunity of some Jews being implicated in a high profile crime to smear all Jews, having their “Israeli affairs expert” comment on the crime.

PA TV did not bother to mention that the majority of the suspects were not Jewish, with 15 non-Jews also allegedly being involved.

The “expert” provided the following comment:

“Jews who robbed singer (sic.) Kim Kardashian have been arrested. It turns out that they are Jews. That is what is written – it’s not me who says they are thieves. That is written in [the Israeli daily] Yediot Aharonot, it’s not from me. It says “Jews.” They are thieves. In other words – they steal lands here too, no? But the engagement ring worth $5 million could not be found. They did not find it. The Jews hid it and turned it into something else”

Palestinian Media Watch points out that this demonstrates that the antisemitism in PA TV is so deeply ingrained that “even a single mention of two Jews anywhere in the world in a negative context is all that is needed launch another PA Antisemitic rant”. This is a poignant point – there is no attempt to provide either genuine analysis of the crime, or to even portray the events accurately. It is simply an opportunity to milk a high profile public event to demonise Jews and to entrench antisemitism in the Palestinian population.

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German Court rules that attempt to set fire to Synagogue amounts to criticism of Israel

A Court in the German city Wuppertall upheld a previous decision that the attempt to burn a Synagogue was merely an act of protest against Israel’s actions in the 2014 Gaza War.

The attempted arson was committed by three German Palestinians during the 2014 War. They hurled Molotov cocktails through the windows of the Shul.

The court of first instance said that the acts were an attempt to bring “attention to the Gaza conflict”, and did not constitute antisemitism.

31-year-old Mohamad E., the 26 year-old Ismail A. and the 20-year-old Mohammad A. were given suspended sentences.

Wuppertal’s Synagogue was destroyed during the 1939 Nazi pogrom Kristallnacht, and the new building suffered 800 Euros of damage from the attack.

Thankfully, nobody was hurt in this arson attack, and the alert was raised by a boy who saw the flames from his house.

Volker Beck said that the judgment was in error, saying the “attack on the synagogue was motivated by antisemitism”, asking “what do Jews in Germany have to do with the Middle East conflict? Every bit as much as Christians, non-religious people or Muslims in Germany, namely, absolutely nothing. The ignorance of the judiciary toward antisemitism is for many Jews in Germany especially alarming”

Mr Beck is entirely correct in his analysis. The International Definition of Antisemitism states that “holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel”. It is beyond belief that an attempt to set fire to a Synagogue has been minimised as merely “criticism of Israel” by a Court of Law. If even arson attacks against Jewish communal buildings can be passed off as just a case of political protest taken too far, then almost all antisemitism can be minimised as related to Israel in some way. This incident thus shows the urgent need for Western Governments and their institutions to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism, which we have been pressuring for for a long time, and to ensure that it is understood and applied consistently.

You can read the International Definition of Antisemitism here.

 

 

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Neo-Nazis plan armed march against Jewish community in Montana, invite speaker from Hamas and from Nazi organisations worldwide

An armed demonstration by neo-Nazis against the Jewish community of Whitefish, Montana is planned for Monday, January 16, between 4-7 p.m. on Martin Luther King Day, according to ABC Fox Montana News. The neo-Nazis are planning to carry high powered rifles on the march, in a gratuitous attempt to intimidate the Jewish community.

Andrew Anglin, 32,  a neo-Nazi  from Worthington, Ohio, who owns the popular neo-Nazi website, The Daily Stormer, is organizing the march. The protest is in “defence” of  local Whitefish resident, Sherry Spencer, the mother of white nationalist, Richard Spencer, who is a part-time Whitefish resident.

Spencer, who is credited with coining the controversial term, “alt-right”, believes in “peaceful ethnic cleansing”. In November, at the annual convention of Spencer’s “think tank”, The National Policy Institute, a  media firestorm  was ignited when his followers responded to Spencer’s remark, “Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail victory!” with Nazi salutes.

Sherry Spencer told the press that public criticism of her son, Richard, whose toxic political rhetoric she and her husband, Rand, a doctor, “unequivocally” reject, has damaged her real estate business.

This was enough ammunition for Anglin to mount an attack on the Jews of Whitefish, since many prominent Jews have argued that Whitefish should not be associated with white supremacy. Public records in Virginia state that the official address of Spencer’s National Policy Institute is located in a building in Whitefish that his mother owns.

Top elected Montana officials, including Montana governor, Steve Bullock, have condemned the march: “We say to those few who seek to publicize antisemitic views that they shall have no safe haven here”.

This warning has clearly been ignored by Anglin. The march is being held against “Jews, Jewish businesses, and everyone who supports either”. Despite Anglin’s belief that Jews are a “vicious, evil race of hate-filled psychopaths”, he claims that violence will not be tolerated

ABC Fox Montana News reported that Chuck Stearns, the Whitefish City Manager, received an incomplete application for the march from Anglin on January 9. The application must be completed before the city can respond.

Whitefish is a ski resort town located in northwestern Montana near the Canadian border. The population of 6,000 people includes 100 families and individuals who are Jewish. The town has one rabbi, who heads an independent synagogue without walls. Whitefish police, in cooperation with the FBI, have stepped up patrols due to threats against the Jewish community that were generated by Anglin’s campaign.

Anglin urged followers to mount an attack against the Whitefish Jewish community. And while Anglin recommended that followers hang up Nazi flags and hold storybook hours, where neighborhood kids are read Hitler’s, Mein Kampf, Rachel Caroll-Rivas, a co-director of the  Montana Human Rights Network, told Slate that she received online and telephone death threats. She quoted an example: “All of you deserve a bullet through your skull. Choke on a shotgun and die.”

Anglin is calling the demonstration the “James Earl Ray Day Extravaganza”, On April 4, 1968, James Earl Ray murdered 39 year old  Martin Luther King Jr. while he was standing on the second-floor balcony of The Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

The fact that Anglin, a known racist, deliberately set the march to coincide with Martin Luther King Day is no surprise. A comment posted by Anglin on the Washington Post explains what he wishes to accomplish as “Alt-Right neo-Nazi”: “The goal is to ethnically cleanse white nations of non-whites and set up an authoritarian government. Many people also believe that the Jews should be exterminated“. This leaves the obvious question: how many of those marching through the streets with riles, in a deliberate attempt to intimidate the Jewish community, can be counted among the “many people” who believe that “the Jews should be exterminated”.

ABC Fox Montana News reports that, due to a large donation, Anglin says that he now has the financial clout to bring in “nationalists groups from the UK, Sweden, France and Greece” and maybe even “someone from Hamas”.

Hamas has declared in their charter that they aim to murder every Jew in Israel. And, in order to intimidate the Jewish community, Anglin intends to bring Hamas’s celebration of murder to Whitefish. He states: “they [the Jews] will rue the day, as they see two hundred skinhead Alt-Right Nazis marching with a guy from Hamas carrying machine guns through the center of their town.”

According to The Missoulian, the Whitefish police chief, Bill Dial, has told the understandably anxious Jewish community, that while Anglin has the legal right to protest, the law also gives him the right to demand that the rifles are unloaded.

Dial, who along with the FBI, believes that the march will never happen is still not taking any chances. Dial told the press that he’s “hoping for the best and planning for the worst.”

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Wiesenthal Center raises concerns over new Venezuelan Vice President’s ties to Hizbollah

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has raised concerns over Tareck El Aissami’s, the newly made up Vice President of Venezuela’s, ties to Hezbollah, as well as Islamic regimes in the Middle East.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center released a report which expresses concerns that El Aissami “is closely identified with Shiite Iran, the Hizbollah terrorist organization and Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s family, whom he apparently hosted in Caracas”.

El-Aissami is also linked by the report, through his links to Iran, to involvement with the 1994 Buenos Aires Jewish Centre bombing, which killed 85 people and injured over 300, as well as to drug and weapon trafficking between Latin America and the Middle East.

The leader of Hizbollah famously said that that “the Jews will gather from all parts of the world into occupied Palestine, not in order to bring about the anti-Christ and the end of the world, but rather that Allah the Glorified and Most High wants to save you from having to go to the ends of the world, for they have gathered in one place–they have gathered in one place–and there the final and decisive battle will take place“.

Despite claims from various people within Hizbollah that the organisation is merely anti-Zionist, and in fact supports the religious rights of Jews, Robert Wistrich’s book “The Fatal Obsession” details how their ideology fuses both political anti-Zionism with historically common, and far more vitriolic, Islamic antisemitism. This includes, but is not limited to, prominent figures within Hizbollah describing Jews as “the grandsons of apes and pigs”, with one official saying “”If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew. Notice, I do not say the Israeli”. Jews being described as “weak” or “cowardly” is a common strand of thought in Islamic antisemitism.

Hizbollah has also imported various elements of Western antisemitism into its ideology, with Hassan Nasrallah allegedly claiming that “Jews invented the legend of the Nazi atrocities”, and saying that it is evident from the Quran “what they did to the prophets”, invoking the common Christian claim that the Jews are collectively responsible for killing Jesus. Both of these claims are those which we may more readily associate with the far right than with far left or Islamic antisemitism.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is thus rightly concerned that the promotion of an individual with close ties to such a group could lead to a worsening situation for the country’s Jews. Hugo Chavez had a long record of making antisemitic statements, and whilst some of these were clearly related to his ideological opposition to Zionism, some demonstrated the characteristics of traditional antisemitism, with him at one point describing Jews as “the descendants of the same ones that crucified Christ”. When challenged about his antisemitism, Chavez went so far as to say that such claims were “part of an imperialist campaign”.

The relationship between Socialist Venezuela and Islamic antisemitism in the Middle East is a complex one. The country may well feel that, in a part of the world in which left wing governments are particularly concerned about the possibility of opposition or interference from America, they must form alliances elsewhere in the world. Unfortunately, in this case it clearly has led to what CAA Chairman Gideon Falter has described as a combining of “the strains of far-right antisemitism, far-left antisemitism and Islamist antisemitism into one super-resistant antisemitic ideology that is almost invulnerable to the usual social immune defences of reason and opprobrium”.

There is a clear risk that El-Aissami may, as  Dr. Ariel Gelblung of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre says “transform antisemitism into state policy and further the transplantation of the Middle East conflict to South America”. Though there have been efforts to protect Venezuela’s Jewish Community, with El-Aissami having been Justice Minister when the Government was forced to reassure the Jewish community following the desecration of Synagogues in 2009, his links to extremism, and to the 1994 attack in Buenos Aires in particular, are extremely worrying for the Jewish community in the country and must be addressed by the Government to convince international observers that Venezuela will be provide safety for its Jews.

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Bomb threats at 16 Jewish Community Centres across the USA

The JCC Association, a body which oversees Jewish Community Centres across the United States, has attempted to calm its members after a series of bomb threats were made against JCCs yesterday.

16 Jewish Community Centres were targeted with bomb threats in total, which were called into police, with some being recorded and some being live.

Centres in  Florida, Tennessee, Maryland, South Carolina, Delaware, Georgia, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania were targeted by threats.

Thankfully, following evacuations of most of the facilities, which were a concerted effort between police forces and JCC staff members, the threats were all discovered to be hoaxes.

Whilst some groups took aim at President Elect Trump over the threats, ADL National Director Jonathan Greenblatt called for calm, saying  “While each of these threats must be taken seriously, and excellent preparation is key to a good response, bomb threats are most often not credible and are usually used as scare tactics in order to disrupt an institution’s operations, and to cause fear and panic”.

Whilst these threats appear to have aimed to intimidate, not to kill, they still represented a coordinated attack to strike fear into Jewish communities across the country, which will leave many people vulnerable. Many Synagogues, Jewish schools, and other communal institutions now have increasing amount of security, yet this incident seems to be designed to make Jews think that perhaps no amount of security is enough. As an effort, it would have required planning, research and coordination, and quite possible several people.

Whilst it is important to recognise that these threats were an attempt to cause fear, Jewish communities must still remain vigilant of the real threat of violence which they face. We recently reported on similar bomb threats in Florida, and whilst these turned out to be hoaxes, violence against Jews is always a possibility, and such an incident reminds us of the need for greater communal security measures.

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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.

 

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Holocaust denial and sympathy for Hitler in Chinese media

A postgraduate student in China has publicised material from Baidu News which allegedly espouses Holocaust denial, as well as promoting myths about Hitler’s life designed to evoke sympathy for the man in the Chinese public.

In one article, the author claims that only “tens of thousands of Jews” were killed by the Nazis. Such a huge underestimate of Jews murdered by the Nazis can only be described as Holocaust denial, and it is antisemitic to deny “the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust)” according to the International Definition of Antisemitism.

The second article relays an apocryphal story claiming that Hitler had sympathy for the Chinese, but secretly disliked the Japanese, as he was poor and was assisted by a Chinese family in Vienna.

China has been said to have an “obsession” with Hitler, which at best comes across as in extremely bad taste in the Western World. However, deliberate attempts to deny the Holocaust go far, far beyond mere bad taste and are clearly extremely antisemitic.

Baidu is described as “effectively state media”. This is due to the extremely tight controls on information platforms in China, in which very little media is allowed without meeting the stringent censorship requirements set out by state policy.

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Egyptian Sheikh and cleric calls Jews a “cancer”, “germ”, and a “people of falsehood, heresy and decline”

The Middle East Media Research Institute has released footage of an Egyptian cleric, Sheikh Ali Qassem, spouting antisemitic propaganda in a lecture, which is currently on YouTube, called “Path to Allah”, and which was released in December.

In the tirade, he begins by dismissing the concept of “openness towards others” as a “loathsome term”, and seeks to “enlighten” his viewers about the “Jewish Other”.

He then says the Jews “cursed Allah”, that they “slayed innocent people” and “even slayed the prophets”. These two claims mirror long-standing antisemitic canards which were common in Christian Europe. The first resembles a blood libel, examples of which can be found frequently in the Islamic world, but the latter seems to closely correspond to the accusation that Jews “killed Jesus”, who is also considered a prophet in Islam. The claim of “deicide”, as it was to Christians, was frequently used to incite violence against Jews in Christian territories, and a parallel claim seems to be taking root with Islamic extremists.

The cleric then calls Jews “the brethren of apes and pigs”, which is a term increasingly used to smear Jews in the Muslim world, and which has a long history of being applied to Jews by Muslims.

He then uses the term a “people of falsehood, heresy and decline” who will be enemies of the Muslims “until Judgement Day”.

He accuses Jews of having a “covert hatred” towards Muslims which has “not ceased for a single moment”.

He ends the video by celebrating the recent fires in Israel.

Unfortunately, it is very unlikely for antisemitism to start to come to an end in Muslim countries when religious figures are able to pass such unadulterated hatred of Jews off as religious discourse. There is potential for religion to bridge the gap between Jews and Muslims, with both being monotheistic religions, and with various Jewish and Muslim thinkers having written positively about the other, not least of which being Maimonides and his son. However, sadly there are still many cases like this when religion is used to entrench antisemitism in Muslim communities.

 

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Woman and friends beaten up in Poland merely for mentioning Jews

Karolina Tobolska and her two friends were allegedly beaten up in Warsaw for merely mentioning Jews.

The group were allegedly attacked by friends of the bartender of the bar they were drinking in, Foksal Café. The bartender had told them to stop talking “about Jews” because “she is Catholic and doesn’t wish to listen about Jews”, shortly after which they were assaulted.

When the woman said that she had reported the attack on social media, she was bombarded with antisemitic comments.

However, yesterday the former Israeli ambassador Ryszard Schnepf organised for a large crowd of people to attend the cafe, many of whom wore kippot as a sign of solidarity.

The report comes form the Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism, which monitors reports of antisemitism worldwide.

 

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Muslim Public Affairs Committee founder writes “Zionists taught society to hate Muslims”, supports antisemitism of Malaysian ex-PM

Ashgar Bukhari, a founding member of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, who reportedly resigned from the organisation in September 2015, has recently defended the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad, after he was given a dressing down by fellow Muslim Mehdi Hasan on the topic of several antisemitic comments he had made.

Mahathir Mohamed had said that “the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them”. He wrote in 2012 that he was “glad to be labelled as antisemitic” and described sympathy with Jewish victims of the Holocaust as “wasted and misplaced”.

Astonishly, Bukhari defended the comments, bizzarely suggesting that the “whole argument revolved around the…use of the word Jew”, which he contended could either be used positively or negatively. This is clearly factually incorrect, and a brazen misreading of the conversation. Hasan contended that Jews should not be collectively held responsible for Israel, and described the comments as antisemitic.

Saying that sympathy for victims of the Holocaust is “wasted and misplaced” is not a disagreement over the usage of the word “Jew”, but is a shameless attempt to delegitimise the irrefutable historical facts of the Holocaust and to dehumanise its victims. Indeed, when read alongside statements, which he refused to retract in the interview, that Jews “rule the world by proxy”, such a comment could easily be taken as him expressing the view that the Holocaust was somehow justified. Yet Ashgar Bukhari says that it is “wrong to call the Former Prime Minister of Malaysia antisemitic”.

Similarly, claims that Jews control world affairs are antisemitic according to the International Definition of Antisemitism which states that it is antisemitic to make “mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions”. The claim that Jews “get others to fight and die for them” is particularly pernicious, and borders on blood libel, as well as suggesting a belief that Jews cause many of the world’s wars, a belief that Campaign Against Antisemitism research found to be held by 26% of British Muslims. These are not comments a Muslim community figurehead in the UK should be defending.

When researching this, we discovered that Bukhari had announced his resignation from MPAC in a Facebook post on September 11th 2015. In the post, he wrote that Muslims send money abroad to help war torn Islamic countries “never realising that the bombs only fell because the Government and Zionists taught society to hate Muslims right here”. According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, it is antisemitic to use “the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism”, amongst which the canard of Jews controlling world affairs could be considered, to speak about Zionists. This is an example of a leader in the Muslim community, who even styles himself as a “reformer”, using his last act as a figurehead of a Muslim communal organisation to spread an antisemitic canard, providing Muslims in the UK with an easy scapegoat for their problems, and the actions of Western governments.

Bukhari has been no stranger to antisemitism. Several years ago he was forced to repudiate David Irving, the British Holocaust denier, to whom he had sent £6000, which he claims he did under the belief that he was merely an “anti-Zionist” who had been smeared as something much worse. He also famously accused Mossad of breaking into his house and stealing one of his shoes and claimed that “any Muslim who fights and dies against Israel and dies is a martyr and will be granted paradise”. Despite this, he has been allowed to speak for British Muslims on numerous occasions, both in his capacity as a founder of MPAC UK and independently, including appearances on BBC News, The James O’Brien Show, LBC, Sky News and The Big Questions.

 

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LBC and the Daily Mail must deal firmly with Katie Hopkins after her latest publicity-craving provocation

Katie Hopkins has built her career as a publicity-craving ‘provocateur’ but yesterday she crossed a line.

Some celebrities who thrive on outrage make genuine mistakes, but often they will deliberately wound and then apologise just to generate headlines. We cannot imagine that her latest move is a mistake.

Ms Hopkins has retweeted an American neo-Nazi called “AntiJuden” whose profile includes a swastika and the emblem of Hitler’s SS. The American neo-Nazi had cheered her support for racial profiling, tweeting: “Now that is the way it should be told”.  Even without examining its timeline, the virulently antisemitic nature of the account, which now appears to have been closed down by its owner, should have been immediately apparent to Ms Hopkins.

When the inevitable Twitter backlash arrived, Ms Hopkins could have taken the opportunity to redeem herself by issuing a full and genuine apology. Instead, she tweeted a mealy-mouthed apology which trivialised the account’s extremist antisemitic views by referring to it as merely “dodgy” and was accompanied by a photo of Ms Hopkins striking a forthright pose but with a teardrop photoshopped onto her cheek, leaving little doubt as to the insincerity of her words.

Ms Hopkins has prior form in this area. In the run-up to the last General Election, she attracted opprobrium and scorn for making a Holocaust joke about the then Labour leader, Ed Milliband, who is Jewish, and his wife Justine.

If yesterday’s episode was indeed an accident, Ms Hopkins has made herself accident prone. Having built her career on trolling the airwaves, she has developed quite a following amongst neo-Nazis like “AntiJuden”, which cannot come as any surprise to the LBC producers and Daily Mail editors who decided to give her a platform as a presenter and columnist. LBC thrives on debate, but having taken Ken Livingstone off air after his claim that Hitler supported Zionism, if they retain Katie Hopkins then their cover as a responsible broadcaster sometimes caught in the crossfire will be well and truly blown. The Daily Mail likewise.

LBC and the Daily Mail may decide to fire Katie Hopkins, and we would applaud them if they do. If they decided to reprimand her instead, she should, at the very least, be required to visit a Nazi concentration camp and for once make a positive contribution to a debate, perhaps by presenting a show and devoting a column to explaining how irresponsible demagogues are fueling the resurgence of Nazi propaganda online.

We await their decision with interest. While we wait, you may wish to contact them at [email protected] and [email protected].

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Corbyn’s hypocrisy exposed yet again by Labour’s latest stealthy readmission of suspended antisemite

Three weeks ago, on 12th December, Jeremy Corbyn publicly stated that he and the Labour Party accepted the International Definition of Antisemitism, as adopted by the government.

Yet it has now been reported that Labour has quietly allowed the virulently antisemitic Labour councillor Ilyas Aziz back into the Labour Party after gross breaches of that same definition. Mr Aziz announced he had been readmitted on 31st December.

Mr Aziz has explicitly compared the actions of Israel to that of the Nazis.The International Definition states: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic. He has also stated the Jews in Israel should be forcibly relocated to America. The International Definition states that: “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination” is antisemitic. He shared a post invoking the blood libel: the International Definition states that: “Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g. claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterise Israel or Israelis” is antisemitic.

Mr Aziz’s disciplinary process has taken place in secret, with all the lack of transparency that Shami Chakrabarti, supposedly once an advocate of justice and human rights, enshrined in her whitewash report into antisemitism in the Labour Party: not only was it conducted in secret, but the reasons for the lifting of his suspension have not been explained.

Mr Corbyn has now been exposed as a hypocrite. He and the Party have dissembled on the matter of the Labour Party’s adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism.

The report he commissioned from Baroness Chakrabarti has now once again been shown to be a whitewash. It has allowed cover for the quiet lifting of an antisemite’s suspension, and failed to adhere to the definition the Party claims subsequently to have adopted, despite Tom Watson also declaring on 29th November in relation to antisemitism that: “I know there are still some outstanding issues that cannot be ignored. They won’t be ignored. Action is being taken now.”

The Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership is, as the Labour MP Ruth Smeeth stated: “Not a safe space for Jews”. With its first action in relation to antisemitism in 2017, Labour have quietly but clearly demonstrated that the current leadership are determined to do nothing to cleanse the Party of antisemites. In doing so they have nakedly exposed their stated acceptance of the International Definition of Antisemitism as nothing more than a PR stunt, a declaration made hastily in response to the government’s adoption of the definition that Jeremy Corbyn never had any intention of making good on.

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Dutch-Moroccan rapper says “sits on money like a Jew” lyric is a compliment

Ali Bouali, a Dutch rapper of Moroccan descent has been accused of antisemitism, after a lyric in his new song played on the canard of Jews being miserly.

His new song “That is money” includes the lyric that he “sits on money like a Jew” and that he “deports” greedy women.

Dutch Jewish Newspaper Jonet featured a piece on the song, in which the writer lamented the fact that Bouali used his position to spread an antisemitic lie, as opposed to speak out against the antisemitism amongst Dutch Muslims.

However, Bouali rejected the criticism, claiming that he is just saying Jews are “good businesspeople”. Bouali added that “they want to take every word that a Moroccan ever says and turn it into something anti-Semitic”. Whilst being good with money is obviously not a bad thing, claiming that Jews are particularly good with money in itself plays upon antisemitic ideas that Jews have an unusual preoccupation with pursuing money. However, saying that Jews “sit on money” is not merely saying Jews are good businesspeople, but instead evokes images of miserly Jews holding onto their money, and is inherently antisemitic.

Bouali was described by the Economist as a racial “bridge-builder” who has “probably done more to promote Dutch acceptance of Muslims than any policy could have achieved”, whilst simultaneously managing to avoid becoming embroiled in political controversies, which has occasionally exasperated his fans who have called for him to take a stand against Geert Wilders and his right-wing PVV party. Unfortunately, this progressive figure within the Dutch Muslim community has still failed to steer himself away from the antisemitism which has increasingly characterised European Muslim communities.

His music video has now been viewed over a million times on YouTube.

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Besiktas fans tweet “Burn the Jews” and other antisemitic abuse in match against Hapoel Beersheba

Fans of the Istanbul-based Turkish football club have tweeted large amounts of antisemitic abuse following their European qualifying match against Hapoel Beersheba.

Avlaremoz documented some of the tweets, which included:

“We will write ‘champion Besiktas’ on Jewish sperm.”‎

“We drew Jewish sons of bitches. If we do not score 5 goals, we are not men. ‎Jewish bastards.”‎

“You will say ‘Mr. Besiktas who f—s Jews.'”‎

‎”We want Jewish asses.”‎

“Do not return without raping the Jewish bastards. Wish you success, Besiktas.”‎

‎”Hey Israel, we are coming to f— your mothers!”‎

‎”We drew Hapoel. There will be +18 Jewish porn. Nice lots.”‎

‎”Get ready for World War IV. My Besiktas will play against the Jewish bastard ‎Israeli team. There will be a bloodbath. Hapoel [Beer]Sheba.”‎

‎”Come on, Jewish bastards. Let us vomit our hatred on you.”‎

“Are you ready, Besiktas? This time you will walk up to the Jew.”‎

‎”Let’s go to Israel and burn Jews for the love of Besiktas.”‎

One referred to a Hadith of Jews hiding behind trees, tweeting “So we will Fuck the Jewish sperm behind gharqad trees one by one?”.

Earlier this week we covered similar antisemitic tweets originating in Turkey, following political unrest surrounding the assassination of the Russian ambassador, and last month a Turkish Jewish writer was murdered in the street with a police investigation still in progress, which is yet to rule out antisemitism as a motive.

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Bomb threats at Orlando Synagogue and Jewish school lead to evacuation

The police have said that two Jewish institutions in Orlando had to be evacuated after bomb threats were made to police.

Chabad of South Orlando and the Jewish Academy, an elementary school in Maitland, were both evacuated.

The first call was made about the school, with a call ten minutes later threatening a strike against the Chabad house. No explosives have been found in either location.

In Maitland, not only the school was evacuated, but the entire area, which includes a Jewish community centre and a Holocaust education facility.

Television coverage of the story can be viewed here.

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Arrests made after headstone defaced with “f***ing Jew” graffiti

Three arrests have been made after a headstone in Indiana was vandalized with the words “fucking Jew”.

The headstone marked the grave of a Jewish couple, whose grandson posted an appeal on his Facebook for information on Monday.

The headstone was identifiably Jewish, as it had a Star of David on it.

 

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Protesters in Kiev chant “Jews out” to celebrate birthday of Nazi collaborator

Ukrainian far right Nationalists marched in Kiev on New Years Day to celebrate the birthday of Stepan Bandera, a Nazi collaborator.

As we noted in December 2015 in a report on support for Bandera coming from a Mayor in Ukraine, the Nationalist figure has been gaining popularity.

Bandera led Ukrainian troops who fought alongside the Nazis.

Marchers were filmed chanting “Jews out” in German. Whilst Bandera was admired by some for standing up to Communism and for aspiring to an independent Ukraine after the world, the use of German chants explicitly linking their support of Bandera to his association with the Nazis, and not just as a poorly chosen figurehead for Ukrainian Nationalism, the supporters are clearly throwing their lot in with the Nazis and the slaughter of Europe’s Jews during the Holocaust.

According to Oleksandr Feldman, President of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee and a Ukrainian lawmaker, the Svoboda party who appear to be responsible for the march have often engaged in antisemitic rhetoric.

He also added “I still can’t get over hearing it at the rally in honor of Stepan Bandera’s birthday. I admit, I’m choking up with tears. I love Ukraine, love the Ukrainians”.

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Jewish seminary vandalized with swastika

Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, the Jewish seminary in Cincinnati, has been vandalized with swastika graffiti in the last 24 hours.

A police report has been filed and the graffiti was subsequently removed.

Rabbi Johnathan Cohen, the dean of the school, issued a statement this afternoon:

“A minor anti-Semitic action occurred on the Cincinnati campus of Hebrew Union College this morning when a swastika was spray-painted on the HUC sign at the entrance to the Clifton Avenue campus,” Cohen said. “While only a minor act of vandalism, we are grateful for the immediate support of the Cincinnati police and many friends and neighbors in the Jewish and general communities. For more than 140 years HUC-JIR has been committed to being the liberal, open and welcoming center of Jewish life and education. We call on supporters and neighbors to increase their commitment to tolerance and respect among members of all faiths”

Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley described the incident as an”act of hate” continuing to say “I am deeply offended and disturbed by these actions…the City is committed to using all of our resources to bring these criminals to justice. As we work to build a more welcoming and inclusive City, we will not stand for this intimidation”.

 

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Turkish twitter users blame “Zionism” and “lowlife agent of the Jewish lobby” for assassination

Following the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey,  many Turks have taken to Twitter to blame the attack on Zionists and Jews.

Avlaremoz, a Turkish publication which deals extensively with Jewish issues, documented several tweets, some of which included:

“The real enemy of all the Muslims and all of the oppressed in the world is Zionism and the cursed Israel. Behind the assassination is the Jewish lobby and the USA”

“The assassin is a lowlife agent of the Jewish lobby”

“The Jew does not want Turkish-Russian rapprochement. By inciting Islamophobia, their pawn in Turkey is also involved in the game. Whoever will benefit from this should be the perpetrator. (Dograel – a distorted form referring to the word Israel.)”

“This looks like Jewish work. Simple and effective”

“The assassin has the typical Jewish look. I don’t know if it’s just me but he is a real Jew”

After the attack, protesters invaded the HQ of the People’s Democratic Party, which is pro-Kurdish in its stance, climbing to the top of the building and starting fires, yet many took to Twitter to blame Jews for the further unrest:

“If you were not treacherous, if you were not kafir, if you did not have Jewish roots, you would not attack unarmed soldiers. Victory will be ours, hell will be yours.”

“As you have cowardly asses, you were not able to confront our soldiers and you carried out a treacherous bomb explosion, you Jewish bastards. You will not make it. Revenge will be ours, remember that.”

“Hey you, cowardly Jew, whose humanity is only as much as his money. As you and your dogs burn in hell, those who you have made martyrs will be in heaven.”

“Obviously, we will not have peace unless there are explosions in Iran, England and in the Jewish lands.”

“Cowardly, undignified ones with no honor. You do not have the courage to stand up to a single soldier of ours. Satans. Armenian, Jewish sperms. You will all be croaked.”

“We do not want death penalty for them. We want torture for them. Let them all pay for what they have done, Jewish dogs.”

“Vile, ignoble, Armenian, Jewish, dogs of Hitler. They attacked our soldiers again dastardly. May Allah curse you. The pigs of the EU, USA and Israel.”

“You will not make it, ignoble servants of Jews. This system will change and this country and this nation will get rid of you. Get out and take your owners with you.”

“You Godless ones, those without a holy book, you Armenian, Jewish, Persian, kafir underbred ones. Cursed sperms of rats. Enough is enough.”

Such tweets are illustrative of how even when an event occurs which involves no Jews, to which there is no logical or reasonable connection to Jews, Israel or Judaism, and for which there is no evidence, even circumstantial, that Jews have been involved, that Jews will nonetheless become a scapegoat.

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Antisemitic vandals break Menorah into Swastika shape

A Jewish family in Arizona has been left feeling shocked and upset after a large Menorah they had displayed in their garden for Chanukah was twisted into the shape of a Swastika by antisemitic vandals.

Naomi Ellis took to Facebook in a post which has now been shared over 2000 times to decry what she has described as a hate crime and to appeal for people to contact the police with any information.

The family awoke on the morning of December 30th to find the Chanukiah vandalized.

To vandalize a religion symbol on another person’s property is a blatant act of intimidation, and is understandably upsetting for the victims, who are celebrating a festival which commemorates the Jewish struggle for survival against intimidation and attempts to erase Jewish religious practice and culture.

Ms Ellis’ statements is as follows:

We were just VICTIMIZED by a HATE CRIME
Last night my home was victimized by HATE. Instead of waking up to see our lighted Hanukkah menorah display on our front lawn, there was a swastika. My husband built the menorah to celebrate the Hanukkah holiday after our kids (3 boys 9, 7,5) asked for their own holiday lights for the season. We live in a great neighborhood with kind and welcoming neighbors. We never would have imagined that someone would spread so much hate here. However, this morning we were greeted with this horrible act of aggression. Our menorah was destroyed and altered to resemble a swastika. This clear act of hate and racism is disturbing and sad. I broke down in tears waiting for the police to come and hoping that my kids would not be awake to see it. The officer helped me take it down, before they woke-up. I’m still not sure how I will explain this to them. I’m not sure I quite understand it myself, nor have I ever understood racism or prejudice in any form. How can people can be filled with so much hate and violence? To think that someone would make such an effort to hurt and vandalize a family, is downright sickening. If you or anyone you know has any information that may help the police, please share and contact Chandler Police in response to 16-148624

Update: shortly afterwards over 200 people turned up to repair the Menorah and to sing Chanukah songs with the family, in a wonderful display of solidarity.

The police continue to investigate.

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“Filthy Jews”, swastikas spraypainted on Anne Frank School, France

Graffiti saying “filthy Jews” was spray painted onto the letterbox of a school in France.

The antisemitic vandals also wrote “Jews forbidden” in German and “Filthy Jewish and Romani people” in French.

The Anne Frank School is a Jewish school in Montreuil, a suburb of Paris.

The police collected evidence, and subsequently had the graffiti removed at the request of the Mayor. However, similar antisemitic graffiti has been found in the locality.

Juliette Timsit, who was formerly the Headteacher of the school, commented “this is the school that was targeted, particularly because of its name, Anne Frank. I was very proud to be a principal in this school. I love it…I am deeply affected by this and can barely hold back the tears”.

Whilst we report on a great deal of antisemitic graffiti, this incident is particularly shocking, both because it has targeted a Jewish school, but also because of the particularly nasty references to the Holocaust and Nazi Germany, coupled with the fact the school is named after Anne Frank.

 

 

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‘Anonymous’ collective promotes conspiracies about Jewish ‘control’ of banks and the ‘synagogue of Satan’

Anonymous, the ‘hacktivist’ collective, has shared a number of anti-Semitic articles online this month, including accusing Ashkenazi Jews of being ‘Satanic’ and conspiracies about global financial and political institutions by a network of wealthy Jews.

The Facebook page of the group, whose supporters are known for wearing Guy Fawkes masks, shared an article, ‘The History of the House of Rothschild’ (15 December), claiming that the Rothschild family has ‘been in control of the world for a very long time, their tentacles reaching into many aspects of our daily lives’. The article goes on to allege that ‘the leader of the Ashkenazi Jews in the world today is the Rothschild family’, repeating the racist claim that Ashkenazi Jews (those of European descent) are not ‘real’ Jews and lie about their identity:

“You will find that approximately 90% of people in the world today who call themselves Jews are actually Khazars, or as they like to be known, Ashkenazi Jews.“

The “Khazarian hypothesis” has been repeatedly debunked by genetic studies, and is a common tool used by antisemites to attempt to deny Jewish people their collective identity as a united people. Its inclusion here clearly demonstrates that whilst the authors may focus largely on one Jewish family, this in fact constitutes an attack on the Jewish people as a whole.

The article also refers to ‘so-called persecution of the Jews’ and even makes the bizarre claim that the following verse from the Book of Revelations was written about Ashkenazi Jews:

“I know thy works, and tribulation and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.”

A few days later (18 December), Anonymous’ Facebook page shared an article entitled ‘Complete list of all Rothschild owned and controlled banks’, promoting conspiracy theories about the Rothschild family being the ‘most powerful bloodline on Earth’ which ‘controls everything’, including a list of over 160 banks. The article also accuses the Rothschilds of being ‘behind all wars since Napoleon’:

“So, the world is still at war because it is very, very profitable to the Rothschilds and their parasite bankster bloodlines.’

“The House of Rothschild is really at the top of the pyramid of power. They are behind the New World Order and the complete domination of the world agenda. They are behind the European Union and the Euro and they are behind the idea of a North American Union and the Amero. They are controlling all of the world’s secret services and their private army is NATO.”

Reference to the Rothschild family is a common form of ‘dog whistle’ anti-Semitism, invoking age-old myths about Jewish global domination of the political and financial systems through the use of coded language. More recently, it has been recycled by some left-wing activists, ranging from 9-11 ‘truthers’ and the Occupy movement, to the British Green Party.

Source: Anonymous ‘Complete list of all Rothschild owned and controlled banks’, ‘The History of the House of Rothschild’.

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Nazi parade in Taiwanese school

Images have emerged of a school in Taiwan which has engaged in Nazi role playing with teachers and students.

The shocking images were revealed by the Daily Mail, and show students and teachers in Nazi uniforms, students performing Nazi salutes and teachers riding in cardboard tanks.

German and Israeli officials have both condemned the school involved.

The images appear to have been taken during a history lesson, but the school’s statement admits that the children did not really understand what the symbols represented. This means that there could have been little to no educational value derived from such an exercise, which is instead merely a gratuitous and grossly offensive display of Nazi imagery.

Israeli Representative to Taiwan Asher Yarden wrote on his Facebook page “We strongly condemn this tasteless occurrence and call on the Taiwanese authorities, in all levels, to initiate educational programs which would introduce the meaning of the Holocaust and teach its history and universal meaning”.

The Presidential Office gave a statement expressing its regret at the images:

“We feel it is extremely disrespectful to the Jewish people who had been victims of the oppression perpetrated during wars, but more importantly, it highlighted ignorance about history”

“The responsibility of an education facility is to teach students that peace and diversity did not come easily. The freedom of thinking should be based on justice and respect, rather than misconduct”.

“‘Education authorities should require the school to shoulder responsibility by seriously reflecting on the incident, understand and improve education in related fields of study and apologize to the countries it offended”

However, to many, merely requesting the school seriously reflect on the incident will seem insufficient, given the shocking nature of the images.

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German protester blames “Zionists” for terrorist attacks

A photograph has been taken of a protester in Germany with a banner blaming “Zionists” for the recent terrorist attack.

The banner translates roughly to “US Zionists and German Zionists with International Zionists terrorise the Germans, foreigners and the whole world”.

Accusing “Zionists” of pulling the strings behind world events is antisemitic, and is drawn from antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jews controlling world affairs. In recent years, antisemitic conspiracy theories have often accused Jews of carrying out “false flag” attacks and laying the blame elsewhere.

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France: Jewish man beaten by attackers shouting “dirty Jew”

A 30 year-old Jewish man, who was walking home from work, was beaten by a group of men on a street in Creteil, France, a suburb south of Paris.

Despite the fact that one of the attackers called the victim an antisemitic slur, a “dirty Jew”, the police have not classified the incident as an antisemitic attack, the local judiciary police have opened up an investigation and are currently trying to determine if the crime was motivated by antisemitism.

The crime occurred in the courthouse neighbourhood, an area that Jewish businesses helped develop. Petty criminals are known to frequent the area.

Haaretz reported that when the police showed the victim 120 photographs of local criminals, he was able to recognize one of his attackers. The Haaretz article also revealed that “police believe the same local thug attacked a non-Jewish man on the same day.”

Albert Elharrar, the leader of the Creteil Jewish community, told the press that “the local thugs” assaulted the victim, a father, who was “returning home from work”. The perpetrators “hit” [the victim] “from behind” and “threw him on the ground and beat him”.

Elharrar told Le Parisien that “the victim was brave enough to hit one of his aggressors back, which allowed him to try to escape, but they caught him.”

Creteil, which is the home to approximately 22,000 Jews, is one of France’s largest Jewish communities  As reported in Haaretz, Elharrar believes that, despite this attack, Creteil is a “safe” city for Jews. “This is a place where different communities live side by side”.

However, in the past three years, there has beenan antisemitic robbery and a rape, which motivated several Jewish families from Creteil to move to Israel. But Elharrar thinks that “it’s not because of Creteil itself, but [because of] the feeling of insecurity in France altogether”.

According to French Jewish leaders, antisemitism stills threatens the safety of Jews. In 2015, there were 808 assaults on Jews, a record high, which caused many French Jews to leave the country. But despite a 61% reduction of hate crimes against Jews in France in 2016, the Jewish community remains vigilant.

Therefore, it is of great concern that the Jewish man, who was attacked in Creteil, was called a “dirty Jew”. As Elharrar pointed out in the Haaretz article:”he wasn’t wearing any distinctive sign”, like a Jewish skull cap, that would have “identified him as Jewish”.

Unfortunately, there is not enough evidence, at this point in time, to determine if the attackers marked the victim as a Jew because they saw him  enter a synagogue, or a kosher supermarket. However, the fact that there was no obvious way to identify the man as Jewish opens up the disturbing possibility that the attackers could have been searching for victims in the Jewish community. The police must conclude their investigation before it is known if the attacker intentionally tracked the victim, in order to commit an antisemitic crime.

 

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Rabbi Nachman’s grave desecrated with pig’s head, blood

Visitors coming to pay their respects at the grave of Rabbi Nachman were “astonished” to find the site had been vandalised.

Antisemitic vandals left a severed pig head, and what is either red paint or blood, with reports varying.

The vandalism appears to have occurred on Tuesday night, and was discovered this morning.

The grave is located in Uman, Ukraine.

Rabbi Nachman was the founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement, and died in 1810. His grave is attended by around 150,000 visitors every year.

Rabbi Moshe Asman, the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, told an Army radio station: “We will look into it, we have ways to do this, along with the police and local intelligence institutions, we will try to reach them. Vandals threw a pig’s head and shed blood”.

The question now is who did it, it wasn’t easy to move it there, because the area is inhabited by a lot of Jews”.

“There haven’t been events like this, but there are always cases of antisemitism before the New Year. In such a small place sometimes there are incidents, but I don’t have any more details, we will learn more from the investigation”.

Yair Lapid, Chairman of Israel’s Yesh Atid Party, urged the Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel to look into the incident personally, saying “I was shocked this morning to hear about the sickening and violent antisemitic attack, which occurred at the grave-site of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, in Uman, Ukraine”, and calling the incident “unacceptable and reminiscent of the darkest days of the history of the Jewish people in Europe”.

 

 

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Rapper Lupe Fiasco accuses “dirty Jewish execs” of stealing his money, quits music industry after backlash

Rapped Lupe Fiasco has apparently decided to quit music after having released an antisemitic track.

The Chicago-born rapper, 34, released a track on his Soundcloud earlier this week, which included the line “Artists gettin’ robbed for their publishing / By dirty Jewish execs who think that it’s alms from the covenant”.

The idea that Jews are obsessed with money and exercise undue influence over various areas of business is an inherently antisemitic one, yet is an idea which is very common.

However, media coverage has tended to focus on the first line about “dirty Jewish execs”, whilst ignoring the accusation that such behaviour is “alms from the covenant”. The idea that Jews are led to extract money from others due to a perceived sense of religious superiority is clearly antisemitic, and is in fact a common theme found in the antisemitism of white nationalists.  Here two antisemitic stereotypes co-exist; the idea of Jews as baseless cosmopolitans, influencing, dominating and exploiting the world of business; and the idea of Jews as backwards religious traditionalists, who allow everything to be directed by religious precepts, many of which are painted as supremacist in nature.

He faced a backlash from fans after releasing the freestyle track, and fired back against accusations of antisemitism in a series of tweets, saying “I’ve walked inside the ovens of Auschwitz” and “I’ve studied the Hebrew bible”. However, clearly studying the Bible and visiting Auschwitz does not exclude one from being antisemitic, particularly when one makes blatantly antisemitic comments such as these without apology.

Instead of apologising for his comments, he instead claimed he was “getting beat up for telling the truth”.

He went on to say that he would not release any more music.

 

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Australia: Man charged with terrorism after making “how to” videos about killing Jews

A man in Australia is being charged with a series of terrorism-related offences after he allegedly produced a series of videos inciting violence against Jews.

The man, 50, was arrested by police in Adelaide on Thursday, and is being charged with four counts of advocating terrorism, each of which carries a potential 5 year sentence.

His lawyer has claimed that her client has mental health difficulties, and his initial hearing took place via telephone from the state infirmary.

Commonwealth Prosecutor, John Clover, said:

“In each video the defendant is depicted advocating with other persons engaged in acts of terrorism via the defendant providing explicit verbal instructions as well as physical demonstrations with weapons as to how to kill Jewish people”.

We applaud the action of the police and prosecution services, who have assured Jewish communities in Australia that there is no heightened risk as a result of the videos.

 

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Germany: Jewish cemetery vandalized

The Jewish cemetery in Hagen, in the West of Germany, was vandalized in mid-November.

Two tombstones were knocked over, appearing to have had their bases smashed, and an attempt was made to remove the lettering from another.

Another tombstone was damaged by an “unknown tool”.

The damage is estimated at 800 Euros. Police are investigating.

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Jewish writer murdered in Turkey, antisemitism suspected as motive

The popular Turkish-Jewish author Beki İkala Erikli, has been found murdered in Istanbul.

Erikli was found shot outside her office in Istanbul.

It was reported in the Turkish press that she had been shot three times in the afternoon, and was found lying in a pool of her own blood.

She is married to a Turkish Muslim man, and briefly lived in America before returning to Turkey.

The local Jewish community, of which she was an active member, raised concerns that this could be an antisemitic murder.

Erikli’s books were apparently popular among Turkish women.

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“Anti-Zionists” release “United Against Jews” poster

So-called Anti-Zionists have reportedly released an extremely antisemitic poster in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

The image shows a Star of David with a cross through it, a handshake, and the words “United Against Jews, and was reported by Jews News.

It also features the caption “Rotterdam and Palestine”.

This extremely worrying incident points to the connection between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, with Israel being singled out as the Jew amongst nations.

Jews News believe that BDS activists are behind the image. We await more information.

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After Oberlin Professor fired for antisemitism, Jewish academic targeted with “Gas Jews” graffiti

After a lengthy nine month investigation, Joy Karega, a non-tenured assistant professor at Oberlin College, has been fired over antisemitic Facebook posts.

Karega was hired in 2014 to teach rhetoric and compositon classes at the prestigious private Ohio liberal arts college that comes with a $200,000 four year price tag, In November, 2015,  Karega wrote on her now deleted Facebook page: “I promise you, ISIS is not a jihadist, Islamic terrorist organization. It’s a CIA and Mossad operation.” Karega blamed the Paris magazine, Charlie Hebdo, terrorist attack on the CIA and Mossad, Israeli intelligence.

In January 2015 she accused Israel, the “same people behind the massacre in Gaza”, of shooting down Malaysian Airline flight No.17 over Ukraine. A 2015 inquiry came to the conclusion that a Russian-made missile probably caused the tragic crash.

An article in The Tower also revealed that in January, 2015, Karega shared an antisemitic image of an ISIS terrorist disguised as the Israeli president, Benjamin Netanyahu. The acronym, JSIL, a slur that compares Israel to ISIS, was drawn on Netanyahu’s arm along with a picture of the Star of David.

The text on the graphic implied that the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists were murdered in order to erode French support of the Palestinians. Karaga posted on Facebook: “This ain’t hard. They unleashed Mossad on France and it’s clear why”.

Karega also posted an unflattering photo of banker Jacob Rothschild and accused him of “controlling your news, the media, your oil, and your government”. Besides being a ridiculous comment, this antisemitic remark plays into the age old stereotype of the greedy, evil Jew, who wants to control the world in order to reap all of the advantages, while leaving everyone else to suffer.

On her Facebook page in March 2015, Karega  provided a link to a video of Louis Farrakhan, the controversial Nation of Islam leader. In the video, Farrakhan states:”It is now becoming apparent that there were many Israeli and Zionist Jews in key roles in the 9/11 attack.” In a post accompanying the link, Karega wrote, “Farrakhan is truth-telling in this video”.

Oberlin’s president, Martin Krislov, who is Jewish, ignited a national firestorm when he refused to condemn Karega’s posts. In a statement released to the press, Krislov said: “Oberlin College respects the rights of its faculty, students, staff and alumni to express their personal views.”

In sharp contrast to Krislov’s response, the Oberlin Board of Trustees in March called Karega’s statements “abhorrent” and “antisemitic”. The Board asked the school to “challenge the assertion that there is any justification for these repugnant postings.” 

 In a seeming nod of approval, a member of Stormfront, the white supremacist neo-Nazi website, was pleasantly surprised that the school protected Karega :”I am amazed that she posted the same stuff we do and [that] she wasn’t fired on the spot.”

Melissa Landa, president of the Oberlin chapter of Alums For Campus Fairness (ACF), a national college network that fights antisemitsm, would not disagree. It was their chapter, in fact, that was responsible for bringing Karega’s Facebook posts to the administration’s attention.

Landa issued a statement in April that Jewish students experience a “persistent hostile campus atmosphere”. Reporter Emily Shire of The Daily Beast spoke to a group of Jewish Oberlin students who said that they feel “increasingly threatened’ and were “dismissive of complaints of antisemitism.”

Ultimately, public pressure lead to Karega being put on paid leave in August. She was barred from campus while the school investigated her case. Karega refused to apologize and accused Oberlin of “pandering to the dictates of a handful of vocal and wealthy religious zealots.” On her Facebook page, Karega thanked writer, Kevin Barrett, a contributor to Veterans Today, which the Southern Poverty Law Center believes is “squarely in neo-Nazi terroritory”.

As a result of the controversy generated by the Karega scandal, President Marvin Krislov announced in September that he would be leaving Oberlin effective June 30, 2017.

On November 15, after bitter debate, Professor Joy Karega was fired by the Board of Trustees for “failing to meet the academic standards that Oberlin requires of its faculty” and for “failing to demonstrate intellectual honesty.”

Karega responded to her dismissal by accusing Oberlin of having a “discriminatory and biased approach”. She plans to file a lawsuit against Oberlin, as well as file a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Employment Board.

Two days after Karega’s firing, Benjamin Kuperman, the chairman of Oberlin’s computer science department, called police at 3:40 a.m. when he discovered, after hearing noise, that his front porch had been vandalized. Decorative seashells had been smashed, and placed behind a mezuzah that was on the door frame, was a note made from a piece of ripped white paper, with glued on cut letters, that said “GAS JEWS DIE”

Kuperman told police that he had no conflicts with friends, neighbors, Oberlin students or faculty members. The police, who are investigating, have classified the incident as a hate crime. Whether or not there is a link between the vandalism and Karega’s firing is unknown.

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Neo-Nazi asks for directions to Hillel at Northwestern University, shouts “Sieg Heil” at Jewish lecturer

A Jewish lecturer at Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois, has been targeted with antisemitic abuse as he walked near to campus.

The lecturer, who teaches Jewish Studies, was walking at around 5:30pm when a black SUV pulled up to him. A man leaned out of the passenger seat and asked where the Hillel building was. The lecturer pointed to it. The man then asked if he was Jewish. When the lecturer said he was, the man performed a Nazi salute and shouted “Sieg Heil”.

It is extremely worrying that these individuals were trying to locate the Hillel building, and such a request for information being immediately followed by a Nazi salute could easily be construed as an act of intimidation against Jews in the area.

The University has increased patrols around the area for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately CCTV footage is too dark to identify the man or the vehicle, but the police seem to be investigating.

 

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Fascist salutes in Spain as Fascists commemorate Franco

Video has emerged of Spanish Fascists giving Fascist salutes in pro-Franco rallies across the country.

The Dictator, who ruled Spain from 1939 until 1975, and who came to power directly aided by Nazi forces in the Spanish Civil War, is experiencing a resurgence in popularity in Spain. The rallies appear to coincide with the 31st anniversary of his death, November 20th.

The right handed “Roman salute” is almost exclusively associated with Nazism, and was adopted by Franco in 1937 for the Fascist movement in spain, doubtless inspired by his supporter Adolf Hitler. The use of the salute today, even if those performing it claim to merely be supporting Franco’s traditionalist Catholic Fascism as opposed to German Nazism, is directly reminiscent of Nazi Germany, and it is hard to see how anyone could fail to grasp how performing the salute constitutes antisemitism.

The crowd make chants directed against Spanish Muslims. It is clear that Jews would not be far behind on the list of targets if Spanish Muslims are allowed to become victims of Fascism.

The video also shows an anti-Fascist being beaten up by the crowd.

 

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Antisemitic banner displayed at Swiss train station

The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs has intervened after an antisemitic placard was displayed at a Swiss train station.

The advert at the main train station in Zurich shows a girl, who symbolises Europe, kneeling to kiss the feet of Benjamin Netanyahu. The Ministry have requested that the poster is removed.

The image is accompanied with text which translates to “We are breaking the international law by stealing land, expulsion and apartheid but our joker is the conscience of Europe”.

Portraying European countries, amongst the most powerful and prosperous in the world, as bending the knee to Netanyahu rests on the idea that Israel has some undue influence in world affairs. Only by appealing to the idea that Israel is able to manipulate world governments can one suggest that Europe is behaving in such a way. Yet such an idea is inherently antisemitic, playing directly upon antisemitic conspiracy theories to portray Israel in a similar light. According to the definition of antisemitism, “using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g. claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterise Israel or Israelis” is antisemitic.

The poster also calls for sanctions on Israel.

It is unknown whether this is a one-off incident, or whether it is part of a concerted campaign, and if so, whether it has been explicitly allowed by the authorities.

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German neo-Nazis publish addresses of Jewish sites on Kristallnacht

 

BERLIN — A map pointing out locations of almost 70 synagogues, Jewish kindergartens, schools, memorials, businesses, restaurants and cemeteries has been posted on the Facebook page of a far-right Berlin group, on the anniversary of Kristallnacht. German police have launched an investigation. 

In the Gothic font commonly used by the Nazis, the words “Jews among us!” appeared on the map. “Kristallnacht” or the “Night of the Broken Glass” was a pogrom against the Jews which occurred on the 9th and 10th of November, 1938, and which is often cited as the starting point of the Holocaust. During the attacks, Nazi thugs plundered Jewish businesses throughout Germany, torched synagogues and rounded up about 30,000 Jewish men for deportation to concentration camps. The name Kristallnacht refers to the shards of broken glass that littered the streets.
The map was a chilling reminder of the lists of Jewish addresses published on the night of the 1938 pogroms, and a warning to Jews everywhere that anti-Semitism is ever present.
The Jewish institutions listed have been warned of the neo-Nazi post, according to the Tagesspiegel.
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Tennessee students: “may Allah annihilate the Jewish dogs”, “we need a new Hitler”,

The Canary Mission, a group which monitors antisemitic and other extremist activity on American University campuses, has exposed various Muslim students at Universities in Tennessee as having posted virulent antisemitic statements online.

Canary Mission had previously revealed a “cesspool” of antisemitism at Knoxville, University of Tennessee.

In a new investigation, Dana Swaies, who had previously been an organiser for the Muslim Students Association, and who studies at Middle State University Tennessee, was found to have posted a number of antisemitic statements on his Twitter. One tweet in Arabic read “may Allah annihilate the Jewish dogs”. Responding to a rocket attack on Israeli territory he tweeted “Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dog!!! May Allah annihilate you!”.

Dareen Ahmad, another member of the MSA at Middle State called for a “new Hitler” who he hoped would wipe out Israel.

Following the kidnapping of Israeli’s in 2014, Ahmad wrote “May Allah annihilate them…May Allah defeat them. Dogs,” and “May Allah annihilate you [Jews], Allah willing!”.

He also wrote that the “yahood” (Jews) are stopping Palestinians from returning home.

A freshman at Memphis University, Nadeen Elayan, called Jews “pussies” for mourning the murder of three Jewish boys by terrorists.

Mohamed Khalil, a sophomore at Memphis, wrote “fuck the Jews, may Allah annihilate them”.

Nadine Taha also accused “Zionists” of committing Genocide of Palestinians, directly comparing it to Nazi Germany, which is antisemitic according to the International Definition of Antisemitism.

Comments such as these demonstrate two things all-too-clearly. Firstly, they are indicative of a horrible environment for Jewish students on University campuses, who are being asked to co-exist with people literally and openly calling for their extermination, who often can do so with impunity. Secondly, they illustrate the extent to which anti-Israel discourse has crossed over a line into unambiguous and dangerous antisemitism, much of which amounts to incitement. Such a situation is intolerable for Jewish students, and Universities must start address antisemitism on their campuses before social media barrages like these turn into incidents of physical violence.

These are just a small selection of the comments from Muslim students in Tennessee.

 

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Germany: Police investigating “Jewish” effigy hanging by neck from bridge

A CPR mannequin with a Star of David and swastika was hung on a bridge in Roßwein, in central Saxony.  The police are investigating this as a hate crime.

The effigy of a Jewish man was spotted by a driver, who initially thought a human was hanging. Obviously this is a shocking public display of antisemitism, which borders on incitement, and we hope that the police are successful with their investigations.

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Dutch Muslim accused of threatening to behead Jews in Ireland

A 39-year-old Dutch Muslim is facing trial in Cork, Ireland, for threatening to kill two French nationals as well as threatening to behead Jews.

Smael Heirouche is accused of saying to the two men that “Zionists should have their throats cut”, whilst calling them “Zionists” and making threatening gestures.

Mr Heirouche is also accused of saying that if he had a sword he would cut off the heads of Jews.

“He was quoting the Koran. They did not have the same belief. He did not take kindly to this. He made reference to recent terrorist attacks in France” said Detective Geraldine Daly. He apparently spoke approvingly of terrorist attacks against Jews in France.

Heirouche was was allegedly making the threats in the name of Islamic extremism, and brandished a Koran as he did so.

Heirouche was refused bail by the judge, due to the severity of the accusations, as well as having attempted to book flights abroad, presenting a risk that he would abscond.

 

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Canada: Muslim students and SJP block Holocaust Education Week, intimidate Jewish student attempting to attend vote

Students from the Muslim Student Association and Students for Justice in Palestine have blocked a student motion which would allow for a week of Holocaust education on campus at Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

According to reports received by Campaign Against Antisemitism and Everyday Antisemitism, a motion which aimed to institute a Holocaust Education Week was blocked by the groups.

Not only did the groups oppose the motion, but they also attempted to prevent others attending, essentially preventing Jewish students from having their voices heard. According to a report from a Muslim student*, who condemned the MSA and SJP, members from the two groups blocked hallways and seemingly intimidated Jewish students attempting to attend the meeting, telling one that she wasn’t welcome.

In the Facebook post from the Muslim student, she decries the antisemitism in the Muslim community, saying “we’re literally a step away from Holocaust denial”. She put up a video shortly after, in which she says explicitly “they intimidated Jewish students”.

This is an incredibly worrying event. The attempt by Students for Justice in Palestine to block Holocaust education is sadly not surprising, but it is disgraceful and blatantly antisemitic nonetheless. For an organisation which claims to merely campaign against Israeli policy to then prevent students from learning about the Holocaust, an event which convinced many of the need for a Jewish state, and which predates the existence of Israel, is clearly antisemitic, and a cynical attempt to delegitimise the state of Israel by ‘going after’ the collective Jewish experience of persecution of the worst kind. The fact that Muslim students, who may themselves be worried about rising Islamophobia, have blocked such a motion is equally dismaying.

Not only is the intimidation of Jewish students on University campuses clearly on the rise, but there is also cause for concern in that a University campus, a space reserved for education and to develop those within it, now finds itself unable to undertake a educational program examining one of the defining events of human history. The Holocaust, the attempt to systematically eradicate the entire Jewish people, as well as homosexuals, the disabled, Socialists, Romani people, and others, based on the pseudo-scientific ideas of racial supremacy, and through the use of modern technology to turn genocide into an exercise in efficiency, was a uniquely evil event in history. The ability to confront events like the Holocaust and to attempt to understand how mankind could be driven to such a horrifying moral depth is at the heart of why education is valuable. These are issues which any educated person must be able to consider, and they are issues which do not simply vanish by virtue of discussion about them having been silenced. Students at this University are now being cheated out of a hugely important learning opportunity by antisemitic campus activism, and unfortunately Jewish students must now be feeling incredibly isolated and vulnerable.

We await to see what action the University will take. As of yet, it seems that no official statement has been released by the University.

 

*the student in question does not attend Ryerson, but we have since corroborated the facts of the story with students who were present.

 

 

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Germany: Energie Cottbus fans call rivals “Jews” and that they should be gassed

Energie Cottbus played against Babelsberg 03 this past Saturday.  Babelsberg fans are known for being leftist and anti-fascist.

Cottbus fans yelled out “Jews” and “Gypsies” at the opposing team and made the Hitler salute.  The club apologized for its fans behavior.

In addition, Cuttbus fans left antisemitic graffiti, saying Babelsberg were “Jews” and wishing they were gassed.

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French Embassy reinstates “Hitler didn’t finish the job” employee

The French embassy in Tunisia has allowed a worker to resume their duties after antisemitic comments were posted on their Facebook page.

Selim Dakhlaoui was suspended in August after comments surfaced that had been made in his name.

These comments included “Hitler didn’t finish the job”, said in the context of a discussion about Israel. He also allegedly posted “Soon it will be the end of Israel” with a missile emoji and “Go to hell, Israel”.

He later claimed that his account had been compromised. The JTA has just revealed that he was reinstated after an investigation.

Online antisemitism is absolutely rampant, and Dakhlaoui’s claim that his account has been compromised will seem like a get out of jail free card to Jewish communities in France, and the tiny number left in Tunisia, who are unlikely to be convinced by such a defence.

The CRIF, which represents Jewish communities in France, commented on the initial allegations: “This is a hateful comment, just like the ones we see too often on social media…except this one was authored by an employee of the embassy of France in Tunisia. We anxiously await their reaction!”

We cannot help but think that many Jewish communities will be saddened and disappointed, albeit not necessarily surprised by such a reaction. Employers and states must start to find ways to deal with online antisemitism of this sort, as unless they do so, almost anyone will be able to avoid disciplinary action simply by denying authorship of a post on their own account.

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Russian spokeswoman claims that “the Jews” are behind Trump’s win

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, seems to have suggested that Jewish money won the election for Donald Trump.

Zakharova told a Russian TV channel “If you want to know what will happen in America, who do you have to talk to? You have to talk to the Jews, naturally. But of course”.

“They told me: ‘Marochka (a Russian diminutive for Maria), you understand, of course, we’ll donate to Clinton. But we’ll donate twice as much to the Republicans.’ That was it! The matter was settled, for me personally”.

In fact, a majority of American Jews opposed Donald Trump.

She then said that people should ask residents of Brighton Beach, a New York area with a large Jewish population, with a particularly large Russian-Jewish community.

Throughout the comments she allegedly put on a “cartoonish Jewish accent”.

Accusing Jews of pulling the strings of political events, and in particular funding both parties simultaneously, is inherently antisemitic and draws upon antisemitic conspiracy theories such as Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which originated in Russia itself.

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Facebook says “gas this shriveled up Jewish piece shit” doesn’t violate its Community Standards

Facebook has refused to remove a comment from an Alt Right page which called for George Soros to be gassed.

The comment on a page called Disdain for Plebs, which though right wing, is not itself an antisemitic page, reads:

“Gas this shriveled up Jewish piece of shit. If he really misses Uncle Adolf, he would love getting shoved in an oven, and later made into soap”.

85 people (so far) liked the comment.

When the comment was reported, Facebook said that it did not violate its community standards. The comment was made by a man called “John Holloway”, but we know nothing about the individual minus his name.

Soros, who is Jewish, is a controversial figure in the Jewish community for his support of pro-Palestinian causes. Nonetheless, calling for a Jew to be gassed in blatant reference to the Holocaust is antisemitic.

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Canadian student’s dorm room vandalized with word “Jew” and a Swastika

According to an online report from a Canadian lawyer, somebody carved the word “Jew” and a swastika on the door of a Canadian Jewish student’s dorm room on the night of the American election.
The man said that a daughter’s friend had suffered the incident, and indicated that he would release more information at some point, but presumably cannot do so at the moment for safety concerns or due to a police investigation.
Whilst he believes the incident to have been related directly to the election, this is of course far from self-explanatory. Intimidation of Jewish students on campus is all-too-common and comes just as often from the far-left as it does from the far right
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Jewish man told that Hitler should have killed all the Jews in Brazilian airport

A young, Jewish, Brazilian man was the victim of a verbal anti-Semitic attack at Rio De Janiero airport, in October.

Leo Rabinovitsch, 20, was checking in to an Anitalia flight to Tel Aviv via Rome, with his mother, when allegedly he was accosted by Fabrizo Trichero, an Italian passenger who hurled anti-Semitic abuse at him. Seeing Rabinovitsch’s kippah, Trinchero made the Nazi salute at him, and screamed that Hitler should have exterminated all the Jews.

Rabinovitsch, whose only crime was being Jewish was shocked by the outburst. “Such offensive and sudden aggression was totally unexpected,” he told JTA. “He was fuelled by much hatred. He said he didn’t like either Jews or Muslims, and that Jews owned the World Bank.” Conspiracy theories such as these are common, and fuel anti-Semitism.

The incident at Antonio Carlos Jobim Airport, was reportedly witnessed by a number of staff and fellow passengers, whose presence potentially prevented this attack from turning violent.

Fabrizio Trinchero was released after paying a $600 bail following his arrest.

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Jewish, LGBT, non-white students targeted with Swastikas in their dorms, NY.

Dorm Rooms in the Kerrey Hall residential building were vandalized with Swastikas over the weekends.

Kerrey Hall houses students at the New School, NY.

Several students woke over the weekend to find that the doors of their dorm rooms had been vandalized with Swastika graffiti. It appears that the vandals have deliberately targeted Jewish, LGBT and non-white students.

The School’s President circulated the following statement to students by email:

“I have just learned of the defacement of four dormitory doors on our campus with a symbol intended to threaten and express hatred toward some of our students because of their identities.  Our community standards are very strong and hate crimes are unacceptable at The New School.The New School is committed to tolerance, respect, and diversity.  Any form of expression that denigrates members of our community based on their race, ethnicity, religion, sexual or gender identity, or political beliefs is completely abhorrent and antithetical to our core values. We take any such instance seriously, investigate swiftly, and take appropriate action to ensure the security and safety of all our students”

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has also said “Hate speech is reprehensible, and has no place in NYC. To the affected, we stand with you. To the perpetrators, we are better than this“.

Though it appears as if the School has taken the incident seriously, it is unknown whether the police have become involved. This is just one in a string of incidents that have victimised Jewish students, a trend which inevitably has started to target other minority students too. It is indicative of an environment on University campuses, both in the USA and elsewhere, in which Jewish students no longer feel safe.

Whilst some news sources have tried to link the incident to the election of Donald Trump, which in some areas has indeed led to flare ups of antisemitic incidents, there appears to be little evidence to substantiate this claim in this case. Instead, it fits clearly into the trend of campus intimidation against Jewish students, both from the far-left and far-right.

 

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After Trump victory, child tells classmates that now “all the Jews have to leave this country”

The day after Trump was elected President of the United States, a student at Burns Park Elementary school in Ann Harbor, Michigan reportedly said that “Now that Trump is president, all the Jews have to leave this country”.

This is one of a number of reports of alleged antisemitic activity that have occurred as a result of Trump’s victory.

The Principal of the school appears to be taking the issue seriously, and has circulated a short letter to the students and parents which calls for calm in the light of unrealistic claims about Trump’s presidency, as well as restating the school’s commitment to ensuring that nobody is excluded.

We will be reporting on any further information relating to this incident.

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Signs at Athens far-right rally call for opposition to “any Zionist ideology”

Supporters of the Golden Dawn, the far right part in Greece, have been photographed with signs with antisemitic slogans at a rally.

Supporters at the rally in Syntagma Square were photographed with signs urging people to “sign for freedom” and to oppose “any Zionist ideology”.

They contrasted this Zionist ideology with “Greek values”. The idea of Jews or “Zionists” undermining the values or culture of a host nation is a common antisemitic canard, which has unsurprisingly found expression in this group.

In the past, party figures had described Hitler as a “great social reformer” and “military genius” and one of their members quoted the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in the Greek Parliament.

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OC Jewish cemetery vandalized with Swastikas, “Heil Hitler”

It has just been discovered that a Jewish cemetery in Orange County was vandalized on the eve of Yom Kippur, last month.

The Beth Shalom Cemetery was found to have been vandalized with several Swastikas and the words “Heil Hitler”, as well as the SS logo.

The cemetery is connected to the Temple Beth Shalom, whose Rabbi Rebecca Shindler commented “These images are painful. They bring up the worst in humanity, and there are members of my congregation that don’t have anybody left. To come to what is supposed to be sacred ground for our congregation, and to be desecrated is unsettling, to say the least.”

Despite the upsetting attack on the community, they are still putting out a positive message. One member of the congregation said “It’s really important that good people in Warwick, who are Christian, Protestant, Catholic, Buddhist, Muslims, and Jews get together to be upset about this stuff, fix this stuff, make sure it happens to no one”, and one younger member of the community said “They can spray paint the walls, but we can build another wall, we can take off the spray paint, and we can still be a whole people. These attacks won’t destroy us”.

 

 

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Orthodox Jew beaten by attacker shouting “Dirty Jew, I will kill you” in Strasbourg

A 70 year-old Orthodox Jew, wearing a kippah, was attacked on November 6th.  The attack took place in the middle of the day, outside the main synagogue of Strasbourg.  The attacker beat the victim in the face and legs, and cursed him and said “Dirty Jew, I will kill you”.  The attacker had previously sworn at a Jew passing by on a bicycle.

The victim was lightly injured and needed medical attention.

Witnesses to the attack called in the police and an ambulance.  The attacker, who tried to escape in his car, was detained by the police, but was shortly thereafter released.

We await further information as to the police investigation and actions.

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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.

 

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Academic with ties to antisemitic extremism one of Trump’s prominent academic supporters

Dr. Boyd Cathey, a North Carolina archivist, who is an active member of The Institute Of The Historical Review, the world’s leading Holocaust denial organization, is one of the chief organizers of a “Scholars for Trump” list.

The international definition of antisemitism clearly states that “Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust)” is antisemitic.

The list of more than 50 scholars, some from such prestigious American universities as Yale, Duke, and Emory, was created with the aim of boosting Donald Trump’s intellectual profile. The Daily Caller stated that the academics wanted to challenge the idea that Trump supporters were “limited to the badly educated and the ill-informed’.

A comment from the signed statement revealed that “those who have attached their signatories are accredited scholars, mostly with PHDs, who are endorsing Trump as a credible candidate for the presidency and as the only barrier now standing between us and Heaven [forbid] the election of Hillary Clinton”.

In an article in the Daily Caller, Cathey, along with his associates, Dr. Paul Gottfried and   Dr. Walter Block, explained that “we are fully aware that signing this statement will not bring the signatory the same professional rewards as speaking at a conference on why Trump is a ‘fascist’ or on why he reminds one of the late German Fuhrer”.

An article in the Forward states that Cathey is aware of his dark reputation. Cathey explained that “dealing with Wagner, Judaism, and Germany, whether reasonable or not, would probably get me exiled even deeper into the realms of the prejudiced unwashed”.

The Southern Poverty Law Center lists Cathey as having had a long and troubling relationship with extremists and extremism, with links to not only to Holocaust denial, but also the neo-Confederate Movement (post American Civil War) and ‘radical traditionalist Catholicism’. He has ties to Catholic groups who were excised from the Catholic Church for having rejected attempts to reconcile and normalise relations with Judaism.

Cathey is also a supporter of the controversial retired California State University, Long Beach, psychology professor, Kevin MacDonald. MacDonald, an American who’s a member of the White Nationalist Party, believes that Jews, because of their genetic make-up, have an innate drive to bring down Western society.

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not respond to questions from the press about the Cathey’s scholars list.

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Three Jewish Businesses Vandalised in Sullivan County Just Weeks After Cemetery Incident

Three Jewish-owned businesses have been vandalised in Fallsburg, NY, just two weeks after Nazi graffiti was found on the entrance of the Jewish Beth Shalom cemetery in the NY town of Warwick.

Broken and damaged windows thought to be caused by a BB gun or similar weapon were found at all three businesses. The establishments were located in South Fallsburg, Woodbourne and Woodridge.

The Fallsburg police are still unsure as to whether these attacks were intended to take place during the beginning of Sukkot.

Such routine intimidation of the Jewish community is clearly reminiscent of the targeting of Jewish businesses in Germany in the 1930s. The police are still investigating.

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German “artwork” juxtaposes Star of David with Swastika

An exhibit in the German city of Cologne compares the Star of David and the Swastika.

The image shifts to display a Star of David or a Swastika, depending upon which angle it is viewed from.

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic.

Such an image seems to evoke a comparison between Israel, which features the Star of David on its flag, and Nazi Germany. Whilst such comparisons are inherently antisemitic and are, as mentioned above, defined as such by a widely-used and comprehensive definition of antisemitism, it is also grossly offensive to use the Star of David, a symbol used to mark out Jewish victims in Nazi Germany as less-than-human, as a shock device in comparison with the symbol of the Nazis, who systematically exterminated six million Jews.

 

The artist, Juraj Kralik, responded to the controversy, saying “Le Quattro Stagione – Stolen Geometry I installation, which juxtaposes the symbols of David’s Star and the Nazi swastika, presented at Art Cologne last month, is part of this series of works. This canvas, as is the case with the rest of the series, does not aspire to comment on an individual/isolated ideology, religion or faith.”

“It does, however, aspire to be this artist’s memento of their clash, resulting in 60 million casualties, be it on the battlefield, in the concentration camp, while escaping the war zone or perhaps hiding in one’s own cellar. My emotions were the strongest while creating this piece, and I recall my hands shaking on many occasions thinking of the suffering and atrocities caused.”

However, theatre director Gerd Buurmann who has written about antisemitism, wrote on his blog: “My reply is: no, no, no! The Jewish Star of David and the Nazi swastika don’t merely symbolize ideologies. The one ideology isn’t comparable to the other. Judaism is not Nazism. Israel is not Nazi Germany.”

“There is a clear, qualitative difference between the Jewish Star of David and the Nazi swastika. Moreover, the two symbols were not in conflict with each other! Rather, it was those who ganged up behind the swastika who wanted to annihilate without exception all the people – the men, the women, the children, the infants – who stood behind the six-pointed star.”
“The Holocaust was not a conflict between Nazis and Jews! The Holocaust was the Nazi attempt to exterminate the Jewish people. That’s not an armed conflict, that’s mass murder! To say this ‘conflict’ between Jews and Nazis led to the battlefield casualties of World War II, as if the Jews were a war party, is absolutely grotesque and trivializes the inhumanity of the Holocaust.

“Maybe artists shouldn’t interpret their own works of art,” he concluded. “In any case, this artist’s interpretation makes my hands shake!”

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Jewish family’s cars set on fire, “Jews die” graffiti outside their house

A Jewish family have had their cars set on fire and had antisemitic graffiti spray-painted outside their house, in Burien, Washington.

“Jews die” and “14/88” were spray-painted onto their garage door. 14/88 is a reference to the 14 words, a creed used by neo-Nazis, and the number “88” which is a numerical code for “Heil Hitler”.

There was also Swastika graffiti.

The family have no idea who committed this crime, but are concerned for their safety and, unsurprisingly, expect it to be an intentional hate crime.

Police are treating this as an arson investigation. It is unknown whether they are also treating it as a hate crime. These acts are blatant acts of intimidation against an innocent Jewish family and must be treated with the appropriate severity by the Police.

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Jewish Democrat portrayed as the Devil in antisemitic flyer

A picture has emerged of a flyer which portrays Jewish Congressional challenger, Josh Gottheimer, as a devil.

Gottheimer is running as a Democrat for Congress in New Jersey.

The flyers depict Gottheimer with devil horns. Jews having horns, and Jews being devils, are both antisemitic canards which were common in Christian Europe from the Middle Ages onwards.

The flyers also make a series of other allegations, such as Gottheimer wishing to legalise “11th hour partial birth abortions”.

The image of Gottheimer  has a speech bubble saying “But big media owns me”. Accusing Jewish politicians of being in league with “big media” plays on antisemitic stereotypes and should be avoided.

His opponent Rep. Scott Garrett has publicly condemned the flyers, and their origin is unknown.

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Trump supporter: Zionists control “all the money”, are “brainwashing” people

Footage has been released of a Trump supporter spewing antisemitic canards under the guise of criticising “Zionism”.

In an interview he states that he hopes Trump will stop two things: immigration and “Zionism”.

He describes Zionism as the “biggest problem in America today and around the globe”. He describes it as “A few people controlling pretty much everything…all the money, all the business…brainwashing all the people from the education system…it’s controlled by a few people at the top”.

When challenged on what he means by “Zionism” he says “it’s not just a religion, it’s a political ideology”.

He also says that Zionists are “a few people at the top from a particular religious group”.

Though he denies he is talking about Judaism or Jews, his comments employ a vast number of ideas which we would consider antisemitic, many of which come straight from antisemitic conspiracy theories. The International Definition of Antisemitism explicitly states that it is antisemitic to use “the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g. claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterise Israel or Israelis”

 

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Munich: Jewish restaurantier faces persistent harassment from BDS

Due to the rise of antisemitism in Munich, Florian Gleibs, the Jewish owner of the Schmock Israeli restaurant, is closing his restaurant in the Bavarian capital after 16 years of operation.

Gleibs, who is 45, told the German national daily newspaper, Die Welt, that when his restaurant became a magnet for anti-Israel tirades, he hung up a large sign in Schmock’s window that said: “We are not involved in politics.”

But, despite Gleibs efforts, the personal attacks against Gleibs and his restaurant continued. In an article in the Jewish Chronicle, Gleibs stated: “I always have to get into discussions and I don’t want to do it anymore.” Gleibs said that he even received a letter where he was accused of being a “corrupt thief who hawks goods produced by terrorists on stolen land, with stolen water, and fertilized with Palestinian blood”. Such claims amount to nothing short of blood libel.

Marcus Schaefert, who is the spokesman for the Bavarian domestic intelligence agency, told Die Welt, that “anti-Zionist antisemitism pretends to criticize Israel, but, in fact, rejects Israel’s existence”.

And this anti-Israel hate, which is being driven by the German BDS campaign, has been directed at Gleibs. “People from the educated, well-off middle class have decided to hold me responsible as a representative of Israel, according to the motto: What you people are doing is no different than what we Germans did back then [in the Holocaust],” Gleibs told Die Welt.

Charlotte Knobloch, the leader of the Munich Jewish community, and a Holocaust survivor, explained to the Jerusalem Post, “The BDS campaign disguises the socially unacceptable. It has modernized the Nazi slogan, ‘Don’t buy from Jews!’ by demanding, ‘Don’t buy from the Jewish state'”.

Gleibs, who is actually an Iraqi Jew, told Die Welt that he “sees antisemitism as more emotional now than before the [2014 war].” He revealed to the Die Welt reporter that he has experienced firsthand “people on the streets screaming ‘Jew, Jew, cowardly swine come here and fight alone.'”

But German antisemitism will not force Gleibs out of the restaurant business. His popular restaurant, Meschugge, will offer patrons dishes from his now closed Schmock restaurant. However it won’t be closed for long. Schmock is being turned into an eatery that serves up cuisine from the country of Laos. Gleibs told the Jewish Chronicle that his new Laotian restaurant “will run perfectly” because the public doesn’t care about Laotian history’s darkest days. “Nobody will care about that because no Jews [were] involved.”

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Trump supporter shouts “Jew-S-A”, other antisemitic abuse at journalists

The Trump campaign has condemned a supporter who shouted antisemitic abuse at journalists.

The supporter, who was wearing a “Hillary for Prison” t-shirt, shouted “Jew-S-A” at journalists at a Trump rally in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday.

He went on to shout “we know who you are. You’re the enemy. You’re going down”.

Such statements clearly echo antisemitic conspiracy theories. The slogan “Jew-S-A” unequivocally shows a belief that Jews control the American government, and targeting journalists similarly betrays such a belief about the media. The words are also, of course, extremely sinister and threatening, and unfortunately demonstrate the sort of antisemitism that the Trump campaign has emboldened. Identifying Jewish people as “the enemy” is a sad representation of the resurgence of right wing antisemitism following the rise of the “Alt Right”.

Hope Hicks, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, condemned the behaviour, saying “it is not acceptable at our rallies or elsewhere”.

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Two men arrested for antisemitic threats against Jewish father in Connecticut.

Two men have been arrested for subjecting a Jewish father and his family to antisemitic abuse at a Bradley International Airport.

The victim was travelling back to Connecticut on October 27th, accompanied by his family, and was wearing a kippah. Two men allegedly threatened him and directed antisemitic abuse at him.

The State Police attended the scene, saying: “he victim explained that the two suspects shouted ethnic slurs and vulgarity at him and his family while they were waiting to leave the airport. The victim was able to avoid a physical confrontation despite the provocation and gathered photos of the suspects as well as their license plate when they fled the area”

The police were able to arrest the men, who attempted to flee. They are being held and are facing charges.

 

ADL Connecticut Regional Director Steve Ginsburg released a statement saying: “We have seen a recent spike in anti-Semitism around the state and country, and this act apparently fueled by bias is an unfortunate reminder that we have significant work still to do to combat anti-Semitism. When a victim is chosen because of his or religion, the impact resonates beyond just the person targeted- it can leave the entire community feeling vulnerable. This lack of civility, respect and kindness ignore our country’s shared value of religious diversity. We applaud the Connecticut State Police for their swift action and investigation”.

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“Dogs” graffiti in Mexico City Synagogue, organised hate group may be to blame

The Agudat Ahim Synagogue in Mexico City has been broken into and vandalised twice in the past week.

In one of the incidents, vandals broke in and smashed tables, chairs and windows, and spraypainted “blasphemous” words in the Synagogue, as well as the word “Perros” – meaning dogs. Of course, any instance of calling a group of people dogs is dehumanising and to be condemned, but it must also be noted that comparing Jews to animals has been a constant feature of antisemitism for hundreds of years.

There was also a form of “Anarchy” symbol. That an anti-establishment symbol would come to be used in an attack upon a Synagogue is extremely telling, as it demonstrates that Jews are associated with the establishment, which potential betrays an underlying conspiracy theory mindset as one of the motives of the attacks.

Representatives believe that the attacks have been perpetrated by an organised group whose express goal it is to intimidate the Jewish community.

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Alex Jones says “Jewish mafia” responsible for Obamacare, Uber, TPP

American conspiracy theorist and popular Conservative radio host Alex Jones has made a long antisemitic statement in which he alleges that a “Jewish mafia” is ‘behind’ things as diverse Obamacare, TPP, to Uber – the cab hailing app.

He claims that there is a “Jewish mafia in the United States” who “run Uber” and “the health care” and that “they’re going to scam you; they’re going to hurt you”.

It is unknown why he thinks that Uber is a conspiracy.

He also accused George Soro and Madeleine Albright of being Nazi collaborators.

He then complains about being described as antisemitic for his comments about TPP, yet goes on to say “I better do some exposes on the Jewish mafia”. He describes a metaphorical Jewish presence as someone “foaming at the mouth with knives at cabinet meetings, basically threatening the president”.

Claiming that Jews are behind everything from TPP to Uber, and that Jews are a sinister influence on policy is a typical antisemitic canard, which has been lifted straight from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Jones makes reference to a ” a global, corporate, combine”, and frequently speaks about “globalists” elsewhere – rhetoric directed towards “globalists” often crosses over into antisemitism, and many of the ideas seem to have originated with antisemitic conspiracy theories.

The author of the Daily Wire report on Jones’ rant astutely suggests that such conspiracy theories were more commonly the preserve of the American left wing, which have gradually been adopted, and eventually popularised, by the Alt Right and figures such as Jones, with the result being that the far left and far right have ‘met in the middle’ in their anti-‘globalist’ conspiracy theorising. The extent to which such an analysis is correct is not for us to comment on, yet when considered alongside the often-related issue of antisemitism, it is strikingly similar to the ever-increasing willingness of the far left to engage in antisemitism, a prejudice often considered to have been the preserve of the right. Jones’ comments, then, can be taken as the latest indicator of the ever-growing similarity between the far left and far right, particularly when it comes to their propensity to single out Jews.

 

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Chicago-area doctor receives antisemitic hate mail

A Jewish doctor from the Chicago area received an unmarked envelope from Baltimore.  The envelope contained a sheet of paper with the “Happy Merchant” and “Pepe the Frog” antisemitic memes.

The doctor in question is often attacked on Twitter by various antisemites, and returns in kind. However, the fact that the harassment has stepped over from the digital realm and into the doctor’s day-to-day life is extremely worrying, and demonstrates the necessity of taking such online abuse seriously.

The issue was reported to the police, who expressed concern and said they would investigate.  However, they said that, unfortunately, they didn’t think there was much they would be able to do

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Antisemitic “Juden” graffiti targets Jewish students in Virginia

Antisemitic grafitti was found on Sunday near student accommodation in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The word “Juden” was spray painted outside the GrandMarc apartment complex, above a Star of David. “Juden” means Jew in German, and its use alongside the Star of David is overtly reminiscent of the forced labelling of Jews with Star of David badges with the word “Jude” were used. The symbolism was also used to mark Jewish homes and businesses.

The apartment complex houses many Jews who attend the University of Virginia. Several students interviewed expressed how they were worried about being targeted because of their religion for the first time

The Student Council and the Jewish Leadership council said that the graffiti was intended to “intimidate Jewish students and make them feel uncomfortable in their community”. Such public displays of antisemitism take away safe areas for Jews, and turn home neighbourhoods into spaces where one can be subjected to prejudice and intimidation.

The Police are currently investigating. Jewish students who were interview have voiced their approval of the University who, despite the incident having taken place off University property, have been proactive in investigating and in providing services to report incidents such as this.

 

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Report says Chakrabati knew she was being offered a peerage before her whitewash inquiry into antisemitism

An exposé in The Telegraph appears to confirm our suspicions that Shami Chakrabarti’s peerage was a reward for her whitewash report into antisemitism in the Labour Party. Baroness Chakrabarti was then named Shadow Attorney General.

Shami Chakrabarti’s inquiry into antisemitism was suspected of being a fraud from the moment she promised to conduct it in Labour’s interests. Sure enough, she delivered a whitewash which failed to deal with Labour’s antisemitism problem in any meaningful way. She did not tackle allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party or their woeful handling by Jeremy Corbyn, and she even refused to adopt a definition of antisemitism.

According to The Telegraph, “Jeremy Corbyn discussed giving Shami Chakrabarti a peerage with his team in March, it has emerged, amid claims she was aware her name was listed before agreeing to conduct a Labour report into antisemitism…The Shadow Attorney General’s name was added [to the honours list] before she was approached to conduct a report into antisemitism and Labour sources have claimed that the peer was told this prior to the announcement on 29th April that she would chair an independent inquiry into antisemitism and other forms of racism in the Labour party.”

Shami Chakrabarti, Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party have all repeatedly denied that the offer of a peerage was made before Baroness Chakrabarti concluded her report into antisemitism.

The failure of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party to stamp out antisemitism in its ranks was exacerbated by Shami Chakrabarti’s report into antisemitism and contributed to an institutional failure to address antisemitism which has made the Labour Party unsafe for British Jews.

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President of UJS tells President of NUS to fight antisemitism or step down

Writing in The Times, the President of the Union of Jewish Students, Josh Seitler, has called on the President of the National Union of Students, Malia Bouattia, to fight antisemitism head on, or step down. In a scathing article, Seitler told Bouattia: “you have failed to act and so I am forced to say that the time for action is fast running out; it’s time to act now or it might be time for you to step down.”

Bouattia has previously called Birmingham University a “Zionist outpost in higher education” because it has “the largest Jsoc [Jewish student society] in the country.” She has railed against “Zionist-led media outlets”, defended Palestinian terrorism as “resistance” and voted against condemning ISIS. When called on by Campaign Against Antisemitism and countless student leaders to retract her comments, she penned anarticle in The Guardian claiming that her accusers were simply sexists and racists. Bouattia then drew further condemnation in July when sheused her casting vote to strip Jewish students of their ability to elect their own representative. Student leaders have even gone so far as to write open letters expressing embarrassment and apologising to Jewish students for the actions of Bouattia and the National Union of Students.

The House of Commons Home Affairs Committee’s report into the rise of antisemitism in the UK released two weeks ago said that Bouattia “does not appear to take sufficiently seriously the issue of antisemitism on campus, and has responded to Jewish students’ concerns about her previous language with defensiveness and an apparent unwillingness to listen to their concerns…Referring to Birmingham University as a ‘Zionist outpost’ (and similar comments) smacks of outright racism.” In response, members of the National Union of Students’ Executive Committee joined an open letter claiming that the Home Affairs Committee was on a mission to “delegitimise NUS, and discredit Malia Bouattia”.

Bouattia continues to rebut both criticism and attempts at dialogue, including from Campaign Against Antisemitism.

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“Death to the Jews” in Netherlands supermarket

Reports have emerged that someone rearranged lettered products in a Netherland’s supermarket to spell out “Death to the Jews”

In Dutch the words read “Joden Daan Eraan”, which translate to “Death to the Jews”.

Further information is not forthcoming at this point. However, this is quite a disturbing public display of antisemitism, which is bound to make Dutch Jews feel uncomfortable, unwelcome and vulnerable when doing day-to-day tasks such as their shopping.

Though the incident was reported recently, it is unclear precisely when it occurred.

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Holocaust memorial desecrated in Ukraine

A moment dedicated to the memory of thousands of Jews who were murdered by the Nazis in Kremenchug, Ukraine, has been desecrated.

Neo-Nazi vandals, the identities of whom are unknown, drew several swastikas as well as the numbers “14” and “88” on the memorial. 14 and 88 are both Neo-Nazi codes, with 14 referring to the ’14 words’, a creed used by neo-Nazis, and 88 referring to the eighth letter in the alphabet being repeated twice, which stands for ‘Heil Hitler.

Local authorities have washed the graffiti off the monument. The police are currently seeking the perpetrators.

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Jewish brothers attacked on Yom Kippur in New York

Two Jewish brothers wearing yarmulkes and prayer shawls were attacked around 3:45pm on 12th October 2016, report Rocco Parascandola and John Annese in the New York Daily News on 16th October,  2016. The writers note that police sources  state anti-semitic slurs, “fucking Jews”, were aimed at the brothers aged 19 and 23, and police are investigating whether this assault by three white men is a hate crime. The victims were leaving Yom Kippur prayer services in Brooklyn,  New York. Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish year.

Also reporting about the incident on 16th October,  2016, The Times of Israel quoted Evan R. Bernstein, New York regional director of the Anti-Defamation League as having said:

“This appalling act of apparently hate-inspired violence is a sad reminder that despite the unprecedented freedom of religious practice that Jews enjoy today in America, there remains much work to be done  to combat the evils of anti-semitism and bigotry, including right here in New York City.”

“The fact that this occurred  at the most solemn time of year for Jews makes the incident even more disturbing.”

 

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“Gas the Kikes” graffiti and other racist language at Duke University

A local news source has reported that antisemitic and racist graffiti was found on the Duke University campus ahead of an NAACP event.

The graffiti read “Gas the Kikes”. Such a statement is not just merely antisemitic, but could easily be considered an act of incitement. Using the imagery of the Holocaust to target and incite Jews is an unambiguous call for genocide.

Other graffiti included “F*ck N*ggers”.

Alec Greenwald, who works with the Duke chapter of NAACP, told the press “as we were waiting for the other student groups to trickle in, my kids wanted to read some of the messages that were on the tunnel. As we walked through the tunnel, we arrived at 3 derogatory messages targeting various identity groups. After having a conversation with my kids about the messages, I suggested to the student groups that we focus on that portion of the wall to paint over“.

The identity of the perpetrator is currently unknown, but the police are investigating.

A Duke University NAACP Representative commented:

The hate speech covering the graffiti wall was unfortunate, but perhaps more unfortunate was that the existence of the slurs was genuinely unsurprising to many of the students present. Racism and homophobia are not relics of an ancient and forgotten America—or Duke, for that matter—that has since been cleansed of imperfection with time. They are instead inevitable in the experience of many of the students on this campus. Extreme examples such as this only serve to remind us of the work that remains to be done in ensuring that members of our community feel safe during their earned pursuit of academic excellence.”

 

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“I don’t serve Jews”: two antisemitic incidents in Berlin

Reports have emerged of two antisemitic incidents against Israeli tourists in Berlin.

1. Two security guards for the S-Bahn were checking an Israeli tourist on Tuesday morning.  He was having his ticket inspected and was asked to provide ID. When they saw his ID, they made antisemitic comments to him.  The security guards were described as ‘Mediterranean’.

2. An Israeli tourist ordered coffee at a fast-food restaurant in the Mitte borough.  A restaurant employee refused to take his order saying “I don’t serve Jews” (In English).  The employee finished his shift before police arrived.

It is as of yet unknown what, if any, action will be taken with regards to these two incidents.

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Senior Labour Activist Claims Israel has “inflicted” and “exploited” the Holocaust

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, Vice Chair of the Chingford branch of the Chingford and Woodford Green Constituency Labour Party, and the founder of Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, has taken to the airwaves to say that Israel has “inflicted” the Holocaust on other people and “they use and exploit” the Holocaust for political ends.

She said: “When it comes to the Holocaust, of course, there must never be any minimisation of that horror. It’s inflicted on other people in the sense that apologists for Israel use the suffering of Jews to excuse the suffering of Palestinians. I hear it all the time: ‘Oh, they’ve suffered so much, let them get on with it.’ I’m not saying that Israel is committing a Holocaust. I’m saying they use and exploit the fact of the Holocaust to justify what are, in some cases, crimes against humanity…So the mass slaughter of Jews in Europe should never be inflicted on others. That’s my view and that includes Palestinians. But for that, I’m called a self-hating Jew.”

Her statement is antisemitic according to the international definition of antisemitism which the Home Affairs Select Committee on Sunday unanimously recommended that all parties should use, in accordance with Campaign Against Antisemitism’s manifesto for fighting antisemitism in political parties.

The definition says that “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic.

Wimborne-Idrissi’s latest tirade came less than three weeks since she last appeard on LBC and moved a Labour MP to tears by accusing Ruth Smeeth, a Jewish Labour MP, of having staged an antisemitic incident as a means to attack Jeremy Corbyn. At the time, she claimed that Smeeth “is against Corbyn, against his whole Socialist vision”. Referring to the whitewash Chakrabarti inquiry, she added: “The Chakrabarti Commission has been undermined at every turn by people like Ruth Smeeth and Louise Ellman [another Jewish Labour MP] and others like them who have a political agenda. The question of antisemitism is being used as a weapon in a political battle.”

We are not aware of any disciplinary action having been taken against Wimborne-Idrissi, but in any case the Labour Party has refused to revealwhether it is disciplining members accused of antisemitism.

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Conspiracy theorist calls Angelina Jolie “Zio-Mafia Witch”, says Jews want to “enslave the goyim”

A Facebook user has posted a disturbing antisemitic rant in which he accuses celebrity Angelina Jolie of being a “Zio-Mafia Witch”.

In an All Caps tirade, Philip E Taylor wrote that a “Rothschilds/AIPAC Zio-Mafia fake wars to create refugees”.

He accuses Jews of using Hollywood to “create the idols then their United Nations to uses them to sell bull shit to destroy Europe and America”.

He also says that “Jews keep themselves separate as a psychopathic state of mass murders and apartheid” continuing that Jews want to divide the rest of the world with “civil wars” and “mixed propagandized races to destroy non-Jews and enslave the goyim”.

Whilst the general content is an exaggerated, yet essentially familiar form of antisemitic conspiracy theory, it is worth noting that the refence to “mixed propagandized races” indicates that this is someone espousing far right views. In White Nationalist circles, the claim that Jews promote “race mixing”, as they often put it, is a common one, and Zionism is set against an alleged Jewish attempt to dilute other forms of Nationalism and national identity.

So far, over 80 people have reacted to the post.

His Facebook is littered with similar posts, such as blaming Jews for upheaval in Libya, and, of course, blaming “Jewish neo-cons” for creating ISIS.

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Parkland Synagogue vandalized with “free Palestine”, expletives over Holidays

A Synagogue in Parkland, South Florida, has been vandalized over Rosh Hashana.

The vandals wrote “free Palestine” on the Synagogue’s sign, as well as some expletives which reporters say were too obscene to broadcast on television.

According to the definition of antisemitism, it is antisemitic to hold Jews collectively responsible for the actions of the state of Israel. Even if this were not the case, vandalising a place of worship for political reasons, as that community marks the holiest period of the area, is a cynical attack on Jewish collectivity.

“This is highly disturbing, being that it is Rosh Hashana, to know that there are people out there trying to intimidate the Jewish community” Rabbi Shuey Biston told a local news channel.

Rabbi Mendy Gudnick said “this is the holiest time of the year. This is the Jewish New Year and so people are thinking about going to synagogue who don’t usually come to pray, and it gives them a little pause.”

It is currently believed that the incident was linked to anti-police activity in the area, as the number 12 was also painted, a number which has been associated with such anti-police activity. This is possibly because of the fact that the Synagogue held an event in support for the police.

The Mayor Michael Udine said “we were shocked and sickened by this because the Chabad, they are our neighbors and our friends”.

Rabbi Biston also commented “My message to the Jewish community is that, whenever we are faced with these acts of terror and violence and intimidation, we should all respond with acts of goodness and kindness and light”.

 

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Trump supporters send death threats to Jewish journalists

Although Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has publicly stated that he has no ties to antisemitic hate groups, that has not stopped Trump’s antisemitic               supporters – neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and the alt-right – from making death threats against the press.

Jewish journalists have discovered that for some Trump supporters, demonstrating loyalty to their “Glorious Leader”, the extreme right’s nickname for Trump, has threatened their sense of personal safety.

Jewish Russian-born journalist, Julia Ioffe, infuriated Trump supporters when she wrote an article for the magazine, GQ, that was critical of Trump’s wife, Melania. As a result, Ioffe, filed a report with the Washington D.C. police over  threats “to kidnap or injure a person”.

Flooded with death threats and prank calls, Ioffe, even received a prank call that played a recording of Hitler’s speeches. Another caller said “her face would look good on a lampshade”. Ironically, Ioffe’s family fled Russia because of antisemitism.

Reporter Bethany Mandel, a convert to Judaism, who has an active presence on Twitter, wrote in an article for the Jewish newspaper, the Forward, that after making anti-Trump tweets, she was a victim of “terrifying and profound antisemitism”. But it was receiving actual death threats in her private Facebook mailbox that motivated Mandel, a resident of New Jersey, to file a report with the New Jersey police.

Ultimately, Mandel, who was called a “slimy Jewess” and told that she “deserved the oven”, felt so threatened that she even applied for a gun permit.

Former Breitbart writer, Ben Shapiro, who is an Orthodox Jew, also felt the need to purchase a weapon after being hit “with a number of death threats”. Shapiro told writer Bethany Mandel that “there are an outsized set of Trump supporters who will threaten your safety”. The fact that Jews feel so threatened by supporters of the Trump campaign that they feel like they must own weapons for their own safety indicates just how dire the situation is becoming, with rising far-right activity clearly denting citizen’s faith that the police can protect them.

Shapiro, who is the recipient of hate tweets from David Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the Klu Klux Klan, left the conservative website, Breitbart, because he was unable to support their pro-Trump editorial stance.

And yet, according to Jewish writer, Bradley Burston, a reporter for the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, it’s just not Trump’s supporters who are dangerous. Trump harms democracy because he “enables and tolerates and excuses and pumps it [antisemitism]”.

Andrew Anglin, the editor of the alt-right (alternative right) white nationalism website, The Daily Stormer, told the Los Angeles Times that “virtually every alt-Nazi I know is volunteering for the Trump campaign”.

Peter Montgomery, who tracks far right groups at People For The American Way, an advocacy group, believes that the extreme right’s involvement in politics will have “damaging, long-term consequences” for America. This fact would not surprise Burston, who criticized Trump for giving “a podium to bigots, an arena stage to hatred”.

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Palestine activist implies another Holocaust is coming, spouts blood libel

Mamal Tamimi, a member of the Palestinian  Tamimi family renown for their anti -Israel protests is shown to use social media to express highly inflammatory  anti-semitic messages and images in an article from Israellycool dated 16th September 2016.

“Much has already been written about her support for terror against Israel. But what is perhaps less known is that she is an out-and-out Jew hater”, states Aussie Dave.

His article contains examples of Mamal Tamimi’s postings which demonise Israelis, are wholly offensive against Jews in the context of the Holocaust,  describing Zionists as “zionazis”; contains highly defamatory age-old anti-semitic prejudices  including blood libel and child killings. She is also shown to express denial of Jewish identity against Ashkenazi Jews; and espouses false claims which deny Jewish heritage to Israel and specifically to Temple Mount, and advocates killing Zionists.

One image she shared of the Grand Mufti and Hitler said, regarding the former’s support for the Holocaust, that Netanyahu should “b carful”, implying that another Holocaust is going to happen. She also shared an image which claimed that the “real Holocaust” was happening in Palestine; such a claim borders on Holocaust denial, as the sheer difference in deaths in the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Holocaust, and the fact that the Arab-Israeli conflict has been an armed conflict in which Israel has frequently been called upon to defend itself means that no meaningful comparison can be drawn between them.

Another image she shared was a cartoon of a Nazi beating a creature with a whip. The creature was depicted wearing a kippah, with peyot and with stereotypical “Jewish” features.

She has also shared an image purporting to show a quote from Menechem Begin in which he describes the Jews as the “master race”. Claims that Jews believe they are superior to other have been a common theme in antisemitism throughout the ages, yet are used almost entirely to incite hatred against Jewish people and their beliefs.

One picture she shared shows Haredi Jews searching through large dustbins. She captions it “Zionists searching for their history in Palestine”, clearly showing that when she speaks of “Zionists”, she is really just speaking about Jews.

She has written of “vampire Zionists…drinking Palestinian bloods” – a shameless rehashing of age-old blood libel.

Aussie Dave reports that the Tamimi family include teenager Shirley Temper , whose real name is Ahed Tamimi , renown for her anti-Israeli online videos. He claims that Mamal Tamimi is also involved in the Tamimi Press, which he describes as an anti-Israeli propaganda outlet owned by Ahed Tamimi’s father Bassem Tamimi, and  supported by some sections of the mainstream media, and smaller media like AMZ Productions of Oregon. This content demonstrates how easily anti-Zionist rhetoric can feed into pure, unadulterated antisemitism.

 

 

 

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Berlin Holocaust memorials defaced with references to Jesus

RIAS have reported that a Holocaust memorial in Berlin-mitte has been defaced with graffiti referencing Jesus.

The words “Jesus, love, truth” were painted onto the memorial which commemorates the murdered memers of the Adass Jisroel Synagogue in Berlin.

A few days later, the same words were found on the memorial for Putlitz Bridge, which commemorates a deportation of Jews to Poland. Then a week later another memorial, at levetzowstraße, was found defaced with the same words.

Whilst the words themselves are not antisemitic, any intentional damage to a Holocaust memorial is antisemitic in nature, and attempting to preach about Jesus or Christianity using a Holocaust memorial as one’s platform minimalises Jewish suffering with a subject that many Jews are already sensitive to to begin with. Beyond this, the use of the word “truth” could be a passing reference to Holocaust denial, though this is not entirely clear from the wording or the graffiti.

An individual member of the public has taken it upon him/herself to remove the graffiti.

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Trump supporters blame Jews for perceived debate failure

‘Alt-right’ supporters of Donald Trump have blamed Jews for his perceived lacklustre performance in the Presidential Debate yesterday.

Alt-right supporters of the candidate held a live YouTube stream of the debate, which unsurprisingly featured many antisemitic comments.

Comments included “CUT ALL TAXES…JEWS ALREADY CAN PRINT ALL THE MONEY THEY WANT” and “ALL THESE DEBATES ARE RIGGED…fucking judu”.

One suggested that the moderator of the debate had been somehow controlled by Jewish influence, writing “Anderson cooper eats jew dick”. Trump stated at several times that he believed the debate moderation to be unfair.

Another wrote “Greatest Kike Pussy Grabber of All Time”

The live stream was organised by the publisher of the Daily Stormer, an overtly racist and nationalist publication. Followers of the website often refer to Trump as their “glorious leader”, often complaining that there is a Jewish conspiracy to undermine him. He has previously written of a “Jewish problem” and admitted that white nationalism is central to the alt right movement.

 

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Huge neo-Nazi rally allowed by Cambridgeshire Police

The BBC has reported that a neo-Nazi march was attended by “hundreds” of individuals in Cambridgeshire.

Around 350 people attended the rally held in honour of Ian Stuart Donaldson, a neo-Nazi who founded the group ‘Blood and Honour’, a reference to a Nazi expression. Donaldson was best known as the founder and frontman for the neo-Nazi band Skrewdriver, whose songs include “Hail Victory” (a translation of the Nazi expression “Sieg Heil) and “Free My Land”, which includes the line “Once a nation, and now we’re run by Jews”.

A witness at the event reported seeing “a lot of cars, a big bonfire and a lot of music”, continuing “The one that I heard was a song about white power and this kept going on and on. It was very loud and distinctive”.

Cambridgeshire Police allowed the event to happen, believing it to have been in aid of Help For Heroes, who have denied any connection to it.

Matthew Collins of Hope Not Hate commented that it is disappointing that the event slipped under the radar but, that he was “aware of a number of occasions when the police appear to have been caught short about the activities of the extreme far right”.

Following the event, a police representative told a local news source “We had been in contact with other forces about similar events and were aware of a possible right wing element” but that there was no “crime committed”. However, video of the event shows hundreds of people performing Nazi salutes, people with Swastika flags, tattoos and t-shirts, and songs being performed with antisemitic language.

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Far Right, antisemitic and anti-Christian band to play in London

A Facebook event has appeared advertising the appearance of the band Graveland initially booked at the London venue ‘the Underworld’ on Saturday February 18th 2017.

Graveland are a Black Metal band, who have often been described as National Socialist. Though the frontman, Rob Darken, denies this, he has a plethora of antisemitic statements to his name.

He has spoken of a “Jewish lobby” and has said that “the Jews have too much power. He has also accused the “pro-Israel lobby” of manipulating the “racialist convictions” of soldiers into fighting for them in Iraq. He has blamed Jews for the promotion of “all kinds of anti-family schism (sic), supporting at the same time homosexuality, negrosemitism….the “culture” produced by these individuals take precedence over traditional national values” – accusing Jews of eroding the identity of nation states is a common theme in contemporary antisemitism. He continues to say “the depraved and plunged in a rot of moral decadence individuals (very often of Jewish descendants) hold the keys to this shady business”.

In another interview, he has said of Jews that “the enemy does not sleep”, blaming a “strong pro-Jewish lobby” for “this bad situation because Jews are afraid of new holocaust so they support all anti-right wing activities”. He has also said “Mass medias ruled by the Jewish lobby manipulate information and spread propaganda against Arabs”, continuing to say that antisemitism is caused by the “activities of international Jewish lobby”.

 

White people are not interested in the world situation. They do not care. This is not good because the enemy does not sleep. Strong pro-Jewish lobby is also responsible for this bad situation because Jews are afraid of new holocaust so they support all anti-right wing activities.” – from another interview on Graveland’s website

He also allegedly said in another interview: “I am not Nazi and I have never been but I support nazi movement and racial ideas in Black Metal. I respect Adolf Hitler for all his great deeds against judeo-christian world”.

Many of his lyrics focus on white “pagan” pride, and involve anti-Christian themes, including slaughtering Christians. However, such attitudes are often linked to antisemitism in the music genre; one popular band in the genre titled its first release “Go F*ck Your Jewish God”. In the eyes of many neo-Nazis, Christianity is merely a Jewish influence that infiltrated a naturally pagan white European culture.

The gig was initially booked for the London Underworld in Camden. However, staff at the venue, who describe the team as “multi-racial” requested that it be cancelled when the nature of the band’s music came to light. The venue is to be applauded for having taken action so quickly and adamantly following these facts coming to light, despite considerable pressure from many of the band’s fans.

The promoter is currently seeking a new venue.

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Posters at U.C. Berkeley accuse “Jewish bullies” of controlling speech

A controversial suspended course at the University of California, Berkeley that emphasized the “decolonization” of Israel, and focused on exploring strategies that could potentially harm Israel’s right to exist, has been reinstated.

Antisemitic posters were posted on the campus as a reaction to the Jewish community’s condemnation of the course, “Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis”.  In an open letter to Chancellor Dirks, 43 Jewish educational and Jewish civil rights organizations protested the course’s content. A Jewish watchdog, The Amcha Initiative–“amcha” is the Hebrew word for “your community”– charged that the course promoted “a classic example of anti-semitic anti-Zionism”.

The antisemitic posters that appeared on the campus charged that the Jewish organizations had censored free speech. One poster said, “Jewish bullies smash free speech at CAL and are pledged $38 billion dollars. Attention Non-Jews: PAY UP and SHUT UP!” The $38 billion dollars refers to American military aid to Israel.

Criticism of Israel is not automatically antisemitism, but a poster that demonizes Jews for pointing out when such criticism becomes disproportionate and non-constructive, is without question antisemitic. Similarly, the idea that Gentiles must “pay up” by honoring Jewish bribes, not only promotes age-old antisemitic Jewish conspiracy theories, but also inflames antisemitism by promoting the idea that Jews are on a quest to rule over non-Jews.

Another poster called out the 43 Jewish organizations for censoring coursework. In addition, the poster wrongfully accused Israeli government officials of being “advocates for a foreign state” who want to take control of UC Berkeley. The poster asked, “Should we allow these outside groups and [Israel] to “control our freedom of speech and academic expression?”

It is both unreasonable and antisemitic to think that the state of Israel and American Jewish organizations have the power to not only censor, but also control public universities, a sentiment which is underlined by the belief of overarching Jewish control of world affairs.

The UC Berkeley administration removed the posters declaring that they “violated our Principles of Community, as well as the Regents’ Principles Against Intolerance”.

However, the course itself was reinstated after Paul Hadweh, the course facilitator, verified that he had made changes to the syllabus. In an interview with the anti-Israel website, The Electronic Intifada, Hadweh admitted that the changes were simply “cosmetic”.

Aviva Slomich, the international campus director of CAMERA on CAMPUS (The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America)  believes that UC Berkeley is offering a class “that is so explicit in undermining the Jews historical ties to the land of Israel and Israel’s right to exist”, [that] the school is perpetuating an antisemitic atmosphere on campus”. This is a clear example of rhetoric that is unhelpful and not even-handed in the way it approaches issues, combined with the whitewashing of alternative opinions, eventually leads to openly antisemitic discourse.

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Armed attacker enters Moscow Synagogue

A man has broken into the Great Synagogue in Moscow during the Shabbat evening prayers on Saturday.

The attacker entered the Synagogue with a gun, perhaps a taser, and a cylinder of gas, asking to meet Chief Rabbi of Moscow, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis.

When he entered the Synagogue, there were around 150 worshippers present.

Security removed him and attempted to hold him on the other side of the road, but he injured one of the guards, briefly escaping before being arrested by the police.

Chief Rabbi Goldschmidt commented “The evening prayer was conducted as usual, and we will conduct the High Holiday prayers as usual. We work in conjunction with the Moscow police, and I bless the entire Jewish people that they should be ‘signed and sealed’ for a good year”.

Additional security is being arranged for the High Holy Days. Incidents such at these highlight just how vulnerable Jewish communities continue to be to acts of terrorism and violence.

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Labour activist says “the Jews ran slavery”, rants at news reporter

Self-described “Labour activist” Kevine Walcott has subjected a Channel 4 interviewer and the Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust to a tirade on Twitter, claiming that Jews should apologise for the slave trade.

The incident took place as Channel 4’s Cathy Newman interviewed disgraced Corbyn ally Jackie Walker over remarks she had made about Jews and the Holocaust, including that Jews were the “chief financiers” of the slave trade, a proposition described by the Legacies of British Slave Ownership project at University College, London as based on “no evidence whatsoever.”

Walcott assumed that Newman was Jewish and demanded in tweets that Newman personally apologise for the slave trade, writing: “you and jewish community has never apologise for your well documented role in the slave trade and its the greatest holocaust [all sic]”.

Walcott followed up with an unsolicited tweet to the Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, Karen Pollock, calling her a “slave trade denyer [sic]” and “the greatest racist in world” and demanding that she “apologise for the slave trade”.

Various Twitter users said that they would be reporting Walcott to the Labour Party, however the Party now keeps the outcome of its disciplinary process secret, so it is unlikely that we will find out whether Walcott in fact suffers any consequences for her comments.

According to the definition of antisemitism, “accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews” is antisemitic.

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Man pushed onto train tracks in antisemitic attack in Nuremberg

A 49-year-old man is currently on trial after he allegedly pushed another man and shouted antisemitic abuse on the Nuremberg subway.

The man shouted that his victim smelled and that he was Jewish. He pushed him over onto the train tracks and then stamped on his feet to prevent him from getting back onto the platform. Such a vicious attack could easily have led to death by electrocution or by being hit by an oncoming train.

It is not currently known whether or not the victim actually is Jewish. However, the use of Jews as a scapegoat and a go-to target for insults and attacks is obviously an extremely worrying manifestation of resurgent antisemitism.

The Langwasser station was the point at which many Jews from Nuremberg and Franconia started their journey to the extermination camps.

A verdict should come in the following days.

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Corbyn ally criticises Holocaust Memorial Day, suggests Jewish schools don’t need guards

Jackie Walker, an ally of Jeremy Corbyn from the hard left group ‘Momentum’ has sparked outrage after criticising Holocaust Memorial Day at a “training session” at Labour Party Conference on antisemitism.

Walker attracted jeers from others in the room when she said of Holocaust Memorial Day “wouldn’t it be wonderful if Holocaust day was open to all peoples who’ve experienced Holocaust?”

Several in the audience pointed out that HMD does indeed commemorate all genocides, to which she responded “in practice it is not circulated and advertised as such”.

She also stated that she was yet to find a definition of antisemitism she could “work with”.

Finally, she suggested that security measures at Jewish schools are unnecessary:

“I was a bit concerned… at your suggestions that the Jewish community is under such threat that they have to use security in all its buildings”, she said.

“I have a grandson, he is a year old. There is security in his nursery and every school has security now. It’s not because I’m frightened or his parents are frightened that he is going to be attacked.”

Jeremy Newmark, chair of Jewish Labour Movement, reacted to Walker’s comments:

“To denigrate security provision at Jewish schools, make false claims about the universality of National Holocaust Memorial Day and to challenge recognised definitions of anti-Semitism is provocative, offensive and a stark example of the problem facing the Labour party today.”

Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust Karen Pollock also reacted:

“The Holocaust was a defining episode in history where 6 million men women and children were brutally murdered simply for being Jewish, the very epitome of man’s inhumanity to man.

“Whilst Holocaust Memorial Day rightly and proudly commemorates the Holocaust and subsequent genocides, one has to wonder why Ms Walker takes issue with commemorating the mass extermination of Jews in its own right. The deliberate use of term ‘HolocaustS’ – plural – undermines and belittles the distinct nature of the tragedy itself, ignores that genocides are the result of diverse and unique factors, and also deprives the Jewish community of their collective memory.”

Finally, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust have stated that they are “are extremely shocked and saddened that Jackie Walker has questioned the aims and basis of Holocaust Memorial Day, a day when people of all backgrounds come together to remember the Holocaust, all victims of Nazi Persecution and subsequent genocides which have taken place in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. Commemoration of the Holocaust should be a universal responsibility and does not prevent or undermine commemoration of other genocides.

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Anti-Israel Church exhibit attracts virulent antisemitism

The Hinde Street Methodist Church, which is located in central London, received strong condemnation from the local Jewish community for re-creating an Israeli checkpoint in their chapel for a five day exhibit that was entitled, “You cannot pass today: Life through a dividing wall”.

Organized by church lay preacher, Katharine Fox, the exhibit is a part of the World Week For Peace in Palestine and Israel that was held from September 19-23. The display was set up to show how the checkpoints negatively impact the lives of Palestinians. Photographs and personal accounts of the Palestinians were included in the exhibit.

The exhibit has stirred antisemitic sentiments, both at the exhibit itself and online. One comment in the guest book reads “IDF soldiers are the scum of the earth! They are disgusting filthy animals and need to be burned alive”. Dehumanising Jews and calling for them to be burned alive is antisemitic, regardless of any political differences one may have with them.

On the Facebook page for the exhibit, antisemitism ran wild. One commenter writes “They are called …”Jews with a conscience” as opposed to the murderous thugs you are defending! You guys make Hitler look lie a saint by comparison!”. Comparing Israel to Nazi Germany is defined as antisemitic in the EUMC definition of antisemitism.

Another writes “Isrealhell kills children. The Zionist owned media rarely shows us. Thank you Hinde St Methodist Church. I hope more churches follow your lead!”. Accusing Israel plainly of killing children, with no qualification, amounts to blood libel. Similarly, speaking of a “Zionist owned media” plays into antisemitic canards of Jewish control over the media.

Other comments attempted to make out Zionists to be “not true Jews”, claiming to one man who said he was embarrassed to be a Methodist that “It sounds like your friends are Zionists, and not true Jews”, linking to a video of Neturei Karta, who make up a tiny minority of Jews worldwide. Manipulating debate to make only those Jews who agree with one’s position out to be the “true Jews” is antisemitic, as it is an attempt to silence dissent from Jews and brand some “good” or “true” and others as ‘false’ or somehow ‘bad’.

One commenter accused a critic of the exhibition of supporting “illegal organ harvesting, genocide, infanticide, holocaust”, claims which also amount to a modern day blood libel.

Yet another ranted “Zionism is simply a Mafia outfit. They hide behind the good name of judaism, the word anti semitic though they are not semitic people. Zionism and israel are the same as the Mafia and Italy. Bullies, tyrant, criminals, thieves, murderers, rapists and sadists but of the very worst type that humanity has ever witnessed. To pledge allegiance to such an evil entity is to spit in the face of every poor innocent jew who died in the holocaust and every poor little arab child who died as a result of such evil peoples actions”. Firstly, using the term “Mafia outfit” makes Zionism sound like a sinister, underground conspiracy, and thus appears to be playing on antisemitic conspiracy theories. Claiming that Zionists are “not semitic people” also attempts to deny Jewish Zioists of their identity. Finally, claiming that it is an insult to the victims of the Holocaust to become a Zionist is an outrageous comment not least for the fact that many Jews would have been justified in believing there could be no future for Jews in Europe after such an event. If anything, the Holocaust demonstrated to many Jews the need for Jews to live freely in an independent state, where they would not be subject to the whims and at the mercy of the ruling population. He later commented “Who are the Jews? Certainly not related to the israelites and with any ancestral claim to that land. At least the Palestines were living there at the time they were evicted amongst the very worst genocide”, this despite the fact that all Jews share more in common with one another than they do with surrounding populations. Once again, such comments are a cynical attempt to deprive Jews of their history, identity and peoplehood. Similarly, one woman writes “look what the world actually means, what a semite actually is. Hint: It’s not Israelis”. She also accused Israel of creating ISIS: “true, I agree with you, Helen. ISIS has nothing to do with Muslim faith and everything to do with your illegal state’s creation”.

Mike Isaacs posted on The Times website, “Perhaps the Methodist church could also have an exhibition of body parts of Jews blown apart by Palestinian terrorists, or failing that, a photo gallery of those knifed in their beds, or rammed at bus stops.”

Rabbi Barry Marcus, of the Central Synagogue told The Times, “Why the hell is a church wasting its resources on fanning the flames of antisemitism?” As put forth by the European Monitoring Centre, a key element of antisemitism is holding Israel to a different standard than other countries.

The display at the Hinde Street Method Church did not shine a spotlight on checkpoints at the borders of France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Hungary or Turkey.

The London Jewish community expressed outrage that a Methodist church would challenge Israel’s right to provide security measures that protect its citizens from being murdered by Palestinian terrorists. Peter Rogol posted on The Times website, “They don’t want [Israeli citizens] to be blown up on their buses, hence the security arrangements.”

After talks with The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the church gave the Zionist Federation permission to pass out booklets which justify Israel’s right to self-defense.

Whilst the potentially one-sided presentation of the exhibit is not antisemitic, and criticism of the state of Israel similar to that levelled at other democratic states is also certainly legitimate, the way in which this exhibit has singled Israel out seems to have played into the hands of those anti-Zionists who routinely allow their rhetoric to slip into unadulterated antisemitism. It is thus indicative in the need for balance and sensitivity to other perspectives when discussing such issues.

All the comments can be viewed here, including many not mentioned in the article.

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More Antisemitic graffiti littered around Germany

Recherche- und Informationsstelle Antisemitismus – RIAS, the Berlin-based organisation that has been instrumental in documenting growing antisemitism in Germany, has uncovered several incidents of antisemitic graffiti in Berlin. 

In the most recent incident, an advert was defaced with references to Germany being controlled by a “Jewish-Islamic dictatorship”.

Claims of Jewish control over politics are a common and old antisemitic trope. The use here also blaming Muslims suggests that this is connected to growing far-right activity in the country, with many maligning both Muslims and Jews.

In another incident, this time in Gießen (State of Hessen) a small statue of a frog was branded with the Star of David and the colours of the Israeli flag. RIAS states that the frog was often an animal which antisemites had traditionally associated with Jewish women, claiming that they bestowed the women with some sort of magical powers. Beyond this, the use of animal imagery in portraying Jews has a long history in antisemitic discourse.

In yet another incident, someone simply wrote the word “lie” in German in a Star of David.

Finally, early in the month someone wrote “Israel Kill$” on a bin. While such simplistic claims often verge on blood libel, the use of the dollar sign clearly plays on antisemitic canards of Jews controlling, or being overly preoccupied with, money and finance.

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Sweden: Jewish woman beaten, hospitalised by female Muslim gang

CORRECTION: the following incident has not just happened, but in fact occurred in August 2016. We have decided to keep the article up as it was not as widely publicised as an incident this severe should have been.

 

A Swedish mother of four has allegedly been attacked by a Muslim gang for wearing a Star of David necklace.

TLV Faces, a Jewish news outlet, has reported that Anna Sjogren was attacked while walking through a neighbourhood with a high Muslim population.

Sjoren told the WZO Centre for Countering Antisemitism:

“A Muslim girl saw that I was wearing the Star of David on my neck and she started swearing at me and spat in my face. I got very upset and pushed her off”

 “There were at least ten witnesses to the attack. All ten of them were wearing hijabs or scarfs in the colors of the PLO.  Some surrounding witnesses claim that I ‘tripped’ and fell and that no one hurt me. It’s just unbelievable.”

“Before we got to the hospital, one of the attackers gave me threatened me saying, ‘shut up or we’ll kill you.’”

She was apparently hit with a sharp object by another girl in the crowd. When she arrived at hospital she had been beaten so badly she could not talk or see.

Sjoren was initially afraid to go to the police, saying “I cannot go to the police. The worst thing is that they will get my name and address. They’ll know where to find me and know and know I am the Jew who reported it.”

Writing on her Facebook page, Sjoren said “The Star of David is extremely meaningful and significant. I will never take it down no matter what happens. When other Facebook users show support I will stand up proudly for Israel, I will never let any one silence me. Am Yisrael Chai. We will never forget and never forgive”.

Sjoren is due to speak to the Security Organisation of the Jewish Community on Monday.

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Facebook allows vile “How to pick up Jewish chicks” Holocaust meme

Facebook has drawn criticism for “enabling vicious Jew hatred” after failing to remove a disgusting post titled “how to pick up Jewish chicks”.

The post featured an image of a shovel and a pile of ashes, a reference to the systematic extermination of the European Jewry during the Holocaust, along with the line. Such ‘jokes’ normalise the Holocaust and turn the most traumatic point in Jewish history, and in the estimation of many the single lowest point in human history, into something to be consumer and laughed at on social media.

The post was ‘liked’ by over 21,000 people and had over 32,000 comments. It was also shared by many.

Despite Facebook claiming that it is committed to “removing hate speech” in its community standards, when the post was reported, Facebook allowed it.

Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission called the image “disturbing” and said that “Facebook should not be a hot-house and a cesspool of racism, xenophobia and bigotry, and should not allow its platform to be used by bigots to disseminate and propagate their toxic and hateful invective”.

If the thousands of comments, many were reportedly antisemitic in nature.

We recently covered a story in which Facebook allowed a post that called explicitly for the genocide of Jews.

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Flyers at Labour Conference demand expulsion of Jewish Labour Movement

Flyers distributed at the Labour Party Conference have called for the expulsion of the Jewish Labour Movement from the Party. The flyers charge that the Jewish affiliate of the Labour Party is using trumped up accusations of antisemitism as a cynical ploy to attack Jeremy Corbyn, motivated by an overriding loyalty to “a foreign power, Israel.” The flyers end a call for the Jewish Labour Movement to be expelled from the Party.

According to the definition of antisemitism, it is antisemitic to allege that Jews are engaged in a conspiracy to subvert political processes, and to accuse Jews of an overriding loyalty to Israel which causes them to act against the interests of their countrymen.

The flyer was circulated by a group calling itself the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, whose UK chapter is primarily engaged in trying to stop the UK Jewish Film Festival from taking place, according to its website.

The Jewish Labour Movement has also held an event against antisemitism in a pub next to the Labour Party Conference at which Baroness Shami Chakrabarti was invited to speak.

 

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Labour Party Conference delegate rants about “Jewish plot” against Corbyn

A delegate to the Labour Party Conference has allegedly ranted about a “Jewish plot” to oust Jeremy Corbyn.

“Delegates” are sent to represent each constituency Labour party at the party’s annual conference, which is in Liverpool this year.

The man approached the Labour Friends of Israel stand at the conference, spoke for two minutes and then asked “but wasn’t there a Jewish plot to oust Jeremy Corbyn?”

He then continued “But it was organised by Jewish MPs, wasn’t it? And that Jewish millionaire took Corbyn to court”

He went on to speculate “But Kezia Dugdale in Scotland. She organised it and she’s Jewish”, before going on to say “That Eagle, Angela, who ran against Corbyn. Her husband is Jewish, isn’t he?”

Accusing Jews of operating a “plot” to oust Corbyn is antisemitic in two key ways. Firstly, it plays on the antisemitic canard of Jews manipulating political events for their own benefit. Secondly, it attempts to deny Jews of the ability of stand up for themselves by portraying their attempts to do so as political manipulation. The Campaign Against Antisemitism’s disciplinary complaint to the Labour Party about Jeremy Corbyn’s recent ad which appears discusses the issues surrounding this in greater detail.

https://twitter.com/AaronPSimons/status/780024370802597888

 

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Protesters promote antisemitic former KKK-head at anti-Israel rally

Individuals attending a rally for “Al Quds Day”, an anti-Israel rally, have been photographed with banners promoting David Duke, a prolific white supremacist author who was once the Imperial Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.

Al Quds Day takes place every year, on the final Friday of Ramadan, and was initiated by the Iranian regime. It aims to protest against Israel, in particularly Israeli presence in Jerusalem. The photographs were taken in July.

Several protesters were pictured with the signs which read “Learn the truth about the Zionists!”, with a link to David Duke’s website.

David Duke has written books on “The Jewish Question”, directly borrowing terminology from the Third Reich. He espouses various antisemitic conspiracy theories, believing that America is controlled by “Jewish extremist neocons” and that Jews promote homosexuality. He is a Holocaust denier and has said, whilst addressing officials of the Iranian regime, “The Holocaust is the device used as the pillar of Zionist imperialism, Zionist aggression, Zionist terror and Zionist murder”.

The use of Duke to promote an ‘anti-Zionist’ message is a clear example of how opposition to Zionism can easily creep into antisemitism. Anti-Zionist Muslims and White Supremacists would previously have been thought of as unlikely allies, yet the two groups are becoming united by a hatred of Jews.

 

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Labour refuses to discipline councillor who shared antisemitic video

Birmingham Councillor Zafar Iqbal Said apologised for sharing an antisemitic video produced by Klu Klux Klan leader, David Duke on his Facebook account;  reports Jonathan Walker in the online Birmingham Mail on 21 September 2016. Said is reported to have denied any acknowledgment of how the video got posted and shared on his Facebook page. Walker states that the video entitled “CNN , Goldman Sachs and the Zio Matrix”,  was accompanied by the posting; ..”this video reveals how the Zionist Matrix of Power controls Media, Politics and Banking” , which may have appeared automatically with the video posting.

The term “Zio” has caused much controversy, after having been branded as antisemitic following its routine use against Jewish students. Its use here in a video espousing a classical example of a “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”-type conspiracy theory, which is blatantly antisemitic in its suggestion of Jewish or “Zionist” control over banking, demonstrates unambigiously that the term is used to defame and humiliate Jews. According to the EUMC definition of antisemitism, it is antisemitic to use conspiracy theories previously targeted towards Jews and instead simply shift the blame onto Israel, or in this case “Zionism”.

Said was reportedly appointed Justice of Peace in Solihull Magistrates Court in 2007 and awarded  an MBE in 2008 for services to education and  the community. He  is quoted as saying there is no place for anti-semitism in Labour or society and that he will continue to work with groups in Birmingham of different faiths against racism and prejudice. The  article cites a West Midlands Labour spokesman who said Labour takes all allegations of antisemitism seriously and will investigate any such evidence and take relevant action.

However, the Jewish Chronicle has reported that no action will be taken by the Labour Party against Said. A spokesmen said:

“Councillor Iqbal has apologised, we accept his explanation of what happened and we have reminded him of his responsibilities as a Labour councillor.”

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UK: antisemitic, white supremacist slogans at Exeter University party

972 has reported that antisemitic and white supremacist slogans were visible on students’ t-shirts at an off-campus event in Exeter, attended by University of Exeter students. The University of Exeter is one of the UK’s top institutions.

A social event of the Snow Sports society at the Timepiece nightclub on Tuesday night saw various students with white t-shirts, which they and other students wrote on.

One slogan written on a t-shirt read “The Holocaust was a good time”. Another read “Don’t speak to me if you’re not white”.

There were also two students with Swastikas on their t-shirts.

Lauren Fry, head of the Snow Sports Society commented:

“Comments like these are not tolerated within our club,” she said. “Unfortunately, as only eight committee members, we can not be responsible for everything written by other students, especially when there is over 1,000 people. Timepiece were asking people to leave or change if they were seen in the venue with any abusive slogans on their t- shirts. As far as I’m aware no complaints were made. We apologise if we offended any one and we feel appropriate action was taken on the night to deal with these type of slogans if they were seen on anyone at our social. Snowsports has a zero tolerance policy for these actions and we will be contacting our members in due course to express this”

And a University of Exeter spokesman added:

“The university does not tolerate racist or bigoted behaviour in any form. This is the first we knew of this and shall be launching a full investigation”.

The prolific Jewish issues blogger “Elder of Ziyon” criticised 972’s coverage of this story, which lamented not simply the fact that a clear-cut antisemitic incident had occurred, but instead felt the need to emphasise that they “directly affect national conversation on racism, anti-Semitism and Israel-Palestine”. Antisemitic incidents are not bad because they make pro-Palestinian discourse look bad, or because they may make people more receptive to the concerns of Zionists. They are bad in their own right and need no further qualification of this fact.

Elder of Ziyon writes:

“But Reimer apparently is upset about antisemites who also hate Israel, because they make all Israel-haters look like antisemites.

As a result, a story about antisemitism must be contextualized to say ‘hey, we Israel bashers are against antisemitism too! Not only because it is deplorable, but also because it makes us look bad!'”

This news comes amidst concerns of rising antisemitism on University campuses, particularly following the election of Malia Bouattia as head of the National Union of Students (NUS) and the subsequent decision to strip Jewish students of the right to elect their own representatives. There have been several high profile cases of antisemitism and intimidation of Jewish students on UK campuses, including the resignation of the head of Oxford University Labour Club amidst concerns of a culture of antisemitism both there and on other campuses and the disruption of a pro-Israel event, involving the assault of a Jewish student at King’s College London. Recently, a Jewish student was awarded over a thousand pounds in compensation after being subjected to two years of antisemitic abuse at the University of York. A report by Lesley Klaff at Sheffield Hallam University states that Jewish students “frequently complain of anti-Semitic harassment”, which is subsequently only handled by the Student Unions, with University officials often unwilling to take solid action.

Last year it was reported that Jewish students were selecting their University choices not based upon where they felt they would have the best education, or find the courses that interested them the most, but instead were making these important choices on the grounds of where they are least likely to encounter antisemitism. In light of this, and in light of the myriad of other worrying events that have affected Jewish students in the UK, incidents such as this only cement the fact that antisemitism is becoming increasingly normalised and Jewish students are becoming increasingly marginalised on University campuses.

 

 

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London gang tells Jewish schoolboy to remove skullcap or face beating

An 11-year-old Jewish boy has escaped shaken but unhurt after a gang of teenagers surrounded him on a London street and forced him to remove his kippah (Jewish skullcap). According to Shomrim, the Jewish neighbourhood watch patrol, the boy was approached by at least four black teenagers who told him that unless he removed the kippah, they would beat him. The boy refused to comply and instead managed to escape and run home.

The incident occurred on Leaside Road in Hackney. Any witnesses should call the Metropolitan Police Service on 101 or Shomrim on 0300 999 0123.

 

 

 

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Jewish Cemeteries Desecrated In Poland and Moldova

According to local authorities, swastikas were sprayed on a number of graves that are located in a Jewish cemetery in Minsk Mazowiecki (Novominsk) Poland. The perpetrators are unknown. Since the cemetery is closed for most of the day, it is considered a break-in. The graves also appear to have Nazi slogans such as “Juden raus” painted on them.

The desecrated graves were discovered by local residents, who, in turn, notified members of the local Jewish community. After being notified by the Jewish community, the police opened up an investigation.

Novominsk, which had its named changed to Minsk Mazowiecki in 1916, is located in central Poland, near Warsaw. The city has a population of approximately 40,000 people.

Before World War Two, thousands of Polish Jews lived in the surrounding area.  But when Hitler invaded Poland, the Jewish community of Minsk Mazowiecki (Novominsk) was rounded up, and forced to live in the Nazi-created Minsk Ghetto. 

In one of the first episodes of the Holocaust, the Minsk Jews, who had not been shot to death by the SS in the streets of Minsk Mazowiecki, were sent to the gas chambers of Treblinka.

In addition, a Jewish cemetery located in Balti (Belts), Moldova, formerly Bessarabia, USSR, was desecrated  with graffiti and vandalized. The enormous cemetery has 25,000 Jewish graves. Six gravestones were smashed and toppled. Despite an investigation by the Balti police, the vandals have not been identified 

The cemetery caretaker, Nina Korlotyan, told Channel BTV that she believes that a group of young people may have gone into the cemetery at night. Korlotyan became suspicious when she discovered empty liquor bottles around cemetery benches 

Balti (Belts) which is the third largest city in Moldova, originally had a large Jewish population. Before the start of World War Two, 20,000 Jews lived in Balti,  But 15,000 Balti Jews perished in the Holocaust. They either died in death camps, were shot to death by Romanian soldiers, who were allies of Nazi Germany, or died of starvation.

The desecration of the Polish and Moldovan cemeteries are part of a wave of cemetery desecrations that have recently occurred in Europe.

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Swastikas painted on Ioannina synagogue

A Synagogue in Ioannina, Greece has been vandalized with Swastika graffiti.

Members of the local community found the graffiti, which has been reported to the authorities.

Vandals painted the swastikas on the exterior wall of the historic Synagogue, which is located in the old part of the city.

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece produced the following statement:

“Vandal racists defaced with swastikas the exterior of the surrounding wall of the historic Synagogue of Ioannina, situated in the old walled city, the Kastro (Castle). Vandals drew swastikas also in some houses of the surrounding area.”

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece expressed the Greek Jewry’s repudiation for this hideous act and urged the competent authorities to work for the arrest of the perpetrators as well as for the adequate protection of the Synagogue so as to contain such incidents that stain the image of the city of Ioannina.”  

During the Holocaust, many of the Jews of Ioannina, as well as those in surrounding areas, were deported to Auschwitz.

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Antisemitic police officer assigned to protect French Jewish communal leader

Le Pointe has reported that an allegedly antisemitic French Muslim police officer, who protected an official of the Consistoire Israelite (CRIF)  has been removed as the Jewish leader’s guard. The unnamed police officer, who is a convert to Islam, has been accused of proselytising while on duty.

CRIF, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions, filed a complaint with the Directorate General of Internal Security. The police officer is an employee of The Protection Service, a government agency that provides security for government officials and individuals whose jobs are subject to risk.

Investigators discovered the police officer’s name on a private list of Egalite et Reconciliation, a website run by Alain Sorel,  Sorel has been publically accused of alleged antisemitism, due to his past ties to the National Front, and his friendship with the French comedian, Dieudonne, who has been convicted of antisemitism by the courts.

The police officer is also a known admirer of both Leon Degrelle, the Walloon Belgian politician  turned Nazi collaborator, and Julius Evola, the Italian writer whose work influenced many neo-Nazi supporters.

And while the numbers are small, there have been other incidents of French Muslim police officers promoting Islam while on patrol. Le Parisien leaked a Department of Public Security confidential memo that revealed that, between 2012-2015, there were 17 cases of French Muslim police officers who were charged with broadcasting religious chants while on duty.

In addition, an unspecified number of French Muslim police officers have refused to guard synagogues, or observe moments of silence in honor of Jewish victims of terror.

 

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Corbynite “Momentum” activists targeted Jewish MP for deselection

Louise Ellman has called for “immediate action” after it was revealed that Momentum activists had specifically targeted the MP for deselection.

Momentum is a faction on the hard left of the party who were instrumental in Corbyn’s election.

Ellman, who is Jewish, has been critical of Corbyn’s treatment of the antisemitism scandal and has spoken on television on the issue frequently.

One activist wrote “Louise Ellman is ready for it to come up at every CLP and has that martyred/victim look on her face whenever it’s mentioned”, continuing “I think it’s suiting her, shoring up her strategy to displace the Left”. Accusing Jews of using antisemitism as a political strategy is inherently antisemitic, as it plays upon antisemitic canards of Jews manipulating politics, whilst simultaneously denying legitimacy to the Jewish experience of oppression.

Another said of Ellman’s view on Israel and Palestine that “it doesn’t require too much empathy to understand why a Jewish woman born in 1945 might have a major blind spot on this issue”.

Speaking to the Jewish Chronicle, Ellman said:

“The antisemitic remarks that have come to light in this report on Momentum in Liverpool Riverside CLP are disturbing – but sadly unsurprising given the nature of recent party meetings”

“In the past year the Israel-Palestine conflict has been raised at meetings with increasing regularity with the intention of stoking up divisions within the CLP. It is clear in this report that figures within Liverpool Momentum have an almost obsessive focus on the state of Israel.”

“Several party members, under investigation by Labour for their remarks at a recent CLP meeting, far from showing remorse for their appalling statements, have privately reinforced their views.”

“The Labour Party should have a zero-tolerance approach to such appalling behaviour.”

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Newsweek Middle East Editor’s antisemitic Twitter rant

An Editor of Newsweek Middle East has gone on an antisemitic rant on Twitter after her channel screened a documentary about the Israel-Palestine conflict littered with factual inaccuracies.

Leila Hatoum, the channels deputy senior editor, took to Twitter to dismiss those who had questioned the documentary, calling the critics “Zionist trolls”.

She also said that Jews are not semites, denying Jewish people their history and historical ties to both their own religion and their ancestral homeland. She references the Khazarian hypothesis, the discredited idea that Ashkenazi Jews (whom she falsely describes as the majority of the Israeli Jewry) have no ancient near eastern ancestry, writing “Something u should know, eastern-european are originally khazar tribes which converted to judaism. They do NOT have an israelite blood” and “Most jews in israel are not semits. They are descendants of europe’s khazar tribes, mixed hybrids, Ary etc. Whose ancestors adopted Judaism”.

She also wrote “hitler’s mom was jewish. prostitute who gave him an STD was jewish,his gf was jewish &his dr was jewish”.

 

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New York girl forced out of high school by antisemitic abuse

A Father in New York has described how his daughter was forced out of her school by antisemitic abuse, stemming from political disagreements.

Marco Greenberg says that his daughter faced abuse after saying that “Religion in the extreme can cause violence and war. Just look at radical Islam”.

One student allegedly replied to this statement by saying “I’m going to rearrange your face”.

However, many comments focused on the girl’s Jewish identity, with her receiving comments like You white privileged Jewish bitch”, “Zionism is racism”, and “we’re not your Arab slaves”.

Greenberg said that the school failed to take his daughter’s complaints seriously, claiming that the principal simply “admonished our daughter for being ‘very opinionated’ and refused to take any concrete action…meaning free ad hominem attacks or threats of physical assault”.

The situation escalated even when the girl tried to contextualise her remarks by pointing out that radical Islam targets peaceful Muslims more than non-Muslims. Eventually, she was forced to move school following the harassment.

 

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Eight-year-old jewish boy assaulted in London

Shomrim, the Jewish community watch organisation, has reported than an eight-year-old Jewish boy has been assaulted in London.

A male called the boy a “stupid Jew” and assaulted him on Elm Park Road in South Tottenham, which contains a significant Jewish community.

The Police have been alerted, but further information is not yet forthcoming.

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Car with cylinders of gas discovered outside Marseille Synagogue

A suspect vehicle filled with canisters of gas was found parked outside a Synagogue in Marseille on Saturday.

Police found the car outside the Bar Yohaye Jewish Community Centre.

Police had recently apprehended three individuals in connection to a planned attack outside the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, which was to involve a car filled with canisters of explosive gas. However, there seems to be no indication that the two incidents are linked.

The police are searching for the owner of the car.