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Dear Friends,
In a step closer to justice, the Poway, California synagogue shooter pled guilty to the deadly 2019 attack in which 61-year old mother Lori Gilbert Kaye was murdered. The shooter will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. The case of the shooter, who was radicalized online, is a reminder that antisemitic rhetoric leads to antisemitic violence.
This week, the head of Human Rights Watch blamed the surge in antisemitic attacks against British Jews on Israel, and an identifiably Jewish man was physically attacked and robbed by two assailants while on his way to synagogue in Brooklyn.
Vermont-based ice cream maker Ben & Jerrys caved to pressure from the antisemitic BDS movement, announcing an end to sales in Israel. Far-right demonstrators in Poland chanted slurs blaming Jews for the pandemic – the latest high-profile display of hate in the country as it debates a controversial anti-restitution bill for Holocaust victims.
In an effort to stamp out Jew-hatred in the party, Britain’s Labour party banned four far-left factions with a history of antisemitism, potentially leading to the expulsion of thousands of party activists. During Canada’s landmark National Summit on Antisemitism, Prime Minister Trudeau declared “Antisemitism isn’t a problem for Jews to solve alone” and pledged support and resources for Jewish Canadians, who are facing record-breaking levels of Jew-hatred.
In a gesture of interfaith solidarity, Pope Francis reimposed restrictions on the Church’s use of the Latin Mass, a liturgy that calls for the conversion of Jews. In Porto, the Jewish and Catholic communities have teamed up to fight antisemitism with creative inter-communal projects.
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