Dear Friends,
Nazi symbols were carved into the base of a large public menorah in Beverly Hills, California on the first night of Hanukkah, and an elderly man was hospitalized after being attacked in New York City’s Central Park by an assailant making antisemitic statements invoking the disgraced rapper Kanye West.
This came as new police data showed that the number of antisemitic incidents in New York City in 2022 has nearly doubled from last year.
In Bethesda, Maryland, the words “Jews Not Welcome” were spray-painted outside Walt Whitman High School, while in Raleigh, North Carolina, antisemitic comments were broadcast over a hacked loudspeaker system at Enloe Magnet High School.
An Economist/YouGov poll found that half of American adults felt antisemitism has increased in recent years. Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden spoke out against rising Jew-hatred at the White House Hanukkah party, saying, “In the midst of a rising emboldenment of antisemitism at home, and quite frankly around the world… I recognize your fear…You’re worried that this violent venom is becoming too normal…Silence is complicity. We must not remain silent.”
In London, a man shouted, “I’m Adolf Hitler and I will kill the Jews,” at a 13-year-old Jewish girl on a bus. This week, the British government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, Lord John Mann, called for secondary schools to be required to teach students about contemporary antisemitism in addition to the Holocaust.
Saskatchewan became the sixth Canadian province to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, following the lead of Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Alberta, as well as the federal government in Ottawa. In Ohio, the state legislature passed a law imposing penalties of up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine for “Zoom-bombing” religious services, following a spate of antisemitic instances during the pandemic.
This week’s global antisemitism report highlights 28 new media reports of antisemitic incidents. The total includes 21 (75.0%) from the far-right, 1 (3.6%) from the far-left, 2 (7.1%) with Islamist motivations, and 4 (14.3%) unidentifiable in nature.
