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As Hanukkah came to a close, CAM tracked a surge in antisemitic incidents, owing to the public visibility of the holiday. This week’s global antisemitism report highlights 67 new media reports of antisemitic incidents – a 39.6% increase over last week. The total includes 35 (52.2%) from the far-right, 10 (14.9%) from the far-left, 11 (16.4%) with Islamist motivations, and 11 (16.4%) unidentifiable in nature.
In particular, at least 17 reports of antisemitic incidents were specifically tied to public menorah displays and Hanukkah celebrations. Vandals destroyed the interior of a Chabad center in Kansas City, Missouri, and synagogues in Miami, Florida and Mount Laurel, New Jersey were vandalized with swastikas. A Jewish family’s home in Pittsburgh was spray painted with a large white swastika, and antisemitic graffiti was painted near an Anne Frank Memorial in Idaho.
An official from the Council on American-Islamic Relations gave a speech in which she called “Zionist synagogues,” the Jewish Federation, the ADL, and Hillel chapters, “enemies,” blaming them for Islamophobia. An elderly French Jewish man was attacked and robbed at gunpoint by antisemitic assailants in his Paris apartment.
On campus, Hitler stickers were found at the Dickinson College Jewish Center, and pro-Palestinian students chalked “Happy Hanukkah & happy day of int’l solidarity with the Palestinian people,” with an image of the Palestinian flag outside the University of Wisconsin-Madison Hillel. Antisemitic graffiti was also found at Vanderbilt University, University of Buffalo, Syracuse University and Indiana University.
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