Dear Friends,
The White House announced the establishment this week of an inter-agency task force to “develop a national strategy to counter antisemitism,” with U.S. President Joe Biden declaring that Jew-hatred had “no place in America.”
Meanwhile, New York Governor Kathy Hochul unveiled a new Hate and Bias Prevention Unit to address the rising number of antisemitic and other hate crimes in her state.
The past week saw a group of Jewish boys being chased by assailants firing a taser gun and shouting “Run Jews! Get out of here!” in Brooklyn. Students at Colgate University in upstate New York dedicated a new Hanukkah menorah after the campus’ original menorah was vandalized.
In Ottawa, Canada, police and local school officials launched an investigation after a swastika was found at Sir Robert Borden High School, while in London, England, an Orthodox Jewish woman was stalked and assaulted by an unknown perpetrator who called her a “dirty Jew” and stole her shopping bag.
In Helsinki, Finland, more than 200 artists pledged to boycott the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art over its ties with a Finnish-Israeli philanthropist. The Bishop of Helsinki, among other public figures, denounced the boycott as antisemitic. An antisemitic cartoon circulated on Iranian social media depicted Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev with a huge nose, sidelocks, and wearing a kippah.
A review of past social media posts by Francesca Albanese, the Italian lawyer heading the UN Human Rights Council’s investigation into Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, revealed a history of antisemitic rhetoric, and U.S. lawmakers are pressing the FBI over gaps in its 2021 hate crimes report.
According to new data published by the Los Angeles County Commission this week, Jews were the most-targeted religious group for hate crimes in the county, America’s most populous, in 2021.
This week’s global antisemitism report highlights 31 new media reports of antisemitic incidents. The total includes 10 (32.3%) from the far-right, 7 (22.6%) from the far-left, 4 (12.9%) with Islamist motivations, and 10 (32.3%) unidentifiable in nature.
