February 9, 2023
THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL ANTISEMITISM REPORT
Over the last 10 days, synagogues in Las Vegas (NV), Bloomfield (NJ), and San Francisco (CA) experienced some form of violent threat while a new wave of antisemitic propaganda in the form of leaflets has been appearing in Ohio, Georgia, Florida, and New York. In the UK, a Jewish woman was strangled in the street as she carried her child and in France, a Jewish day school in Toulouse which experienced a devastating shooting attack in 2012, was once again subjected to violent threats. Jewish cemeteries in Australia and Germany were also vandalized.
The Mayor of Barcelona, Spain severed the city’s “twin city” agreement with Tel Aviv after accusing Israel of engaging in apartheid practices. Meanwhile, South Africa’s rugby league disinvited an Israeli team from a scheduled match, a move that was applauded by the African National Congress (ANC).
In the Middle East, Iran displayed ballistic missiles with “Death to Israel” written in Hebrew while Turkey arrested ISIS members allegedly planning attacks on Istanbul synagogues.
Amidst the publication of, International lawmakers are pushed social media platforms for changes on antisemitism policies, just ahead of a new report published by Combat Antisemitism Movement’s (CAM) Antisemitism Research Center in partnership with the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) detailing the relationship between online extremism and real-world incidents of antisemitism. Furthermore, the White House Anti-Bias Working Group met to discuss the rising threat of antisemitism, and decision-makers in both Virginia and Georgia vowed to take legislative action against antisemitism.
This week’s global antisemitism report highlights 46 new media reports of antisemitic incidents. The total includes 16 (34.8%) from the far-right, 6 (13%) from the far-left, 10 (21.7%) with Islamist motivations, and 14 (30.4%) unidentifiable in nature.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
UNITED STATES
SAN FRANCISCO SYNAGOGUE LEADERS URGE HATE CRIMES CHARGES AGAINST SUSPECT IN RECENT SHOOTING INCIDENT
By CAM
The suspect — identified as 51-year-old Dmitri Mishin — entered the synagogue in San Francisco’s Richmond District neighborhood last Wednesday and shot several blank rounds from a pistol as stunned congregants looked on. He reportedly said, “Hello my Jewish friends. I want to show you something,” and claimed he worked for the Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency, before opening fire.
JOE ROGAN: ‘THE IDEA THAT JEWISH PEOPLE ARE NOT INTO MONEY IS RIDICULOUS’
By RON KAMPEAS
Rogan was discussing the 2019 tweet by Rep. Ilhan Omar in which she wrote that pro-Israel votes in Congress were “all about the Benjamins.” But Rogan defended the statement on his podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience.” “She’s talking about money,” Rogan said about Omar. “It’s not an antisemitic statement, I don’t think that is. Benjamins are money. You know, the idea that Jewish people are not into money is ridiculous. That’s like saying Italians aren’t into pizza. It’s f—ing stupid. It’s f—ing stupid.”
WORLD NEWS
UNITED KINGDOM
JEWISH WOMAN ‘STRANGLED IN STREET AS SHE CARRIED HER BABY IN ANTISEMITIC ATTACK
By LIAM COLEMAN
The incident which is believed to be racially motivated, happened at lunchtime yesterday near Seven Sisters Underground station in north London. The mum was walking down the street in broad daylight when the attacker grabbed her by the throat, it is claimed. There were also a number of other assaults on Jewish women within a short period of time, according to witnesses.
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FOUNDER OF ORGANISATION LINKED TO PURCHASE OF WEMBLEY SYNAGOGUE REPORTEDLY CALLED ON MUSLIMS TO AVOID BEHAVING AS “IMITATIONS OF THE JEWS”
By CAMPAIGN AGAINST ANTISEMITISM
The allegations come shortly after Dawat-e-Islami UK, the charity behind the purchase, was forced to issue an apology after it referred to the congregants of the synagogue as “non believers”. The founder of a Pakistani organisation whose UK charity affiliate recently purchased Wembley United Synagogue has previously made inflammatory remarks about Jewish people, according to the Jewish Chronicle.
GERMANY
GERMANY CELEBRATES UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE LISTING FOR SITES KNOWN AS THE BIRTHPLACE OF YIDDISH AND ASHKENAZI CULTURE
By DAVID I. KLEIN
Germany held a ceremony to celebrate the first German-Jewish sites to be given UNESCO’s World Heritage designation on Wednesday. The sites in the upper part of the Rhine River valley are known as the origin point of Ashkenazi culture and where the Yiddish language first began to develop over 1,000 years ago. They were recognized by UNESCO, the United Nations’ education and cultural body, in July 2021, but the coronavirus pandemic delayed Germany’s celebration of the designation.
CANADA
TORONTO POLICE OUTLINED HOW THEY ARE COMBATTING HATE CRIMES AT A SYNAGOGUE TOWN HALL MEETING
By SAMANTHA GOODMAN
Police in Toronto say they are doubling down on efforts to combat hate crimes that target the Jewish community. The details were revealed at townhall meeting on public safety, Feb. 5 at Adath Israel Congregation. Members of Parliament and representatives from the Toronto Police Service (TPS) were present. “We recognize that the Jewish community continues to be targeted for hate-related crimes, so this year we’ve decided to add investigators to our hate crime unit. One of them is here,” said Deputy Chief Lauren Pogue, a 34-year veteran of the TPS.
FRANCE
MAN CHARGED WITH MAKING THREATS AGAINST TOULOUSE JEWISH SCHOOL THAT WAS SITE OF 2012 SHOOTING
By DAVID I. KLEIN
French authorities have placed under judicial supervision a man who allegedly made threatening phone calls last month to a Jewish school in Toulouse that was the site of a deadly terror attack in 2012. The attack was often cited as one of the manifestations of a rise in antisemitism in France that drove a surge in French-Jewish immigration to Israel throughout the 2010s. In 2019, the shooter’s brother was sentenced to 30 years in prison as an accomplice in the attack.
OTHER WORLD NEWS
BARCELONA MAYOR NIXES ‘TWIN CITY’ TIES WITH TEL AVIV, ACCUSES ISRAEL OF ‘APARTHEID’
By CAM
Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau announced on Wednesday that the Catalan capital was severing its “twin city” agreement with Tel Aviv, accusing the State of Israel of practicing “apartheid” against the Palestinians. Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) CEO Sacha Roytman Dratwa stated, “Mayor Colau has put Barcelona on the wrong side of history, undermining the chances for peace by encouraging Palestinian rejectionism. At a time when the Abraham Accords have opened new paradigms for reconciliation and engagement across the Middle East, Mayor Colau remains stuck in the past, refusing to recognize the long-proven futility of boycotts and isolation.”
AUSTRALIA: JEWISH HEADSTONES VANDALIZED
By CARLY ADNO
Police are appealing for information after the headstones at the Hunter region cemetery in NSW were spray-painted with stencilled Nazi swastikas in what is a suspected hate crime. NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) CEO Darren Bark said: “Vandalised Jewish gravestones were occurrences we witnessed in the Nazi era. To see these vile displays on headstones and commemorations of loved ones that have passed is deeply distressing and concerning.
UN OFFICIAL CALLS ON EU TO REVIEW DEFINITION OF ANTISEMITISM
By SUNNIVA ROSE
A UN human rights official has criticised a definition of antisemitism supported by the European Union for shielding Israel from stronger international condemnation of its discriminatory policies against the Palestinians. Nearly 40 countries, including 18 EU members, have endorsed the IHRA’s non-legally binding working definition of antisemitism since 2016, its website says. The European Commission views the definition as an “essential tool” to tackle antisemitism and has invited other EU countries to adopt it.
LEFT-WING DUTCH PARTY CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE ISRAELI ‘APARTHEID’
By ALGEMEINER STAFF
The main far-left party in the Netherlands has called for an international commission to determine whether the State of Israel practices apartheid towards Palestinians. At their conference in the city of Den Bosch on Saturday, supporters of the GroenLinks (“Green Left”) Party — a fusion of the Dutch Communist Party with various left-wing environmental groups — overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling for an international investigation into Israeli policies.
IRAN RUNS SERIES ON STATE TV FEATURING HOLOCAUST DENIERS, ANTISEMITES
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
The Iranian regime-controlled Channel 4 ran a series of broadcasts with British and American Holocaust deniers in January shortly before International Holocaust Remembrance Day. British Holocaust denier Nicholas Kollerstrom told the Iranian regime outlet it is time to put the “nightmare hallucination narrative” of the Holocaust “to bed,” and that the aim of “this holo-hoax tale” was to crush Germany’s spirit, according to a translation by The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
TURKEY ARRESTS ISIS MEMBERS ALLEGEDLY TARGETTING ISTANBUL SYNAGOGUES
By DAVID I. KLEIN
Istanbul police arrested 15 suspects connected to the Islamic State terror group who were allegedly plotting to target synagogues and churches here. The potential attacks were believed to be retaliation for the public burning of a Quran by a far-right Danish politician outside of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, in late January. The Quran burning sparked an outcry in Turkey and across the Islamic world, and a Muslim man threatened to burn a Torah scroll outside of Stockholm’s Israeli embassy.
ON CAMPUS
STUDENTS CALL FOR INTIFADA AT LONDON PROTEST AGAINST PRO-ISRAEL SPEAKER
By BEN BLOCH
Some Pro-Palestinian students were heard calling for an “intifada” at a protest against a pro-Israel speaker at University College London (UCL). While demonstrating against Yoseph Haddad’s speech to the Israel society at UCL, some students chanted “there is only one solution – intifada, revolution” in reference to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Short speeches were given in the quad before the students marched to Tottenham Court Road a few minutes away, where Haddad’s talk was taking place. One of the speakers told the crowd: “This man is a war criminal who served in an army full of war criminals defending an apartheid state.
CUNY ANNOUNCES NEW PORTAL FOR STUDENTS AND STAFF TO REPORT DISCRIMINATION AND HATE
ANALYSIS & OP-EDS
STUDIES & STATISTICS
Analysis: Partisan Discourse on Antisemitism Harms Efforts to Fight It Effectively
By CAM AND NCRI
Shortly after the Omar vote last Thursday, the number of discussions pertaining to antisemitism on Twitter was significantly higher than during the days surrounding International Holocaust Remembrance Day the previous week. On the whole, these recent events were indicative of a partisan competition in which elements on both sides of the aisle in the U.S. try to pin the blame on the other for antisemitic rhetoric.
THE MINISTRY OF DIASPORA AFFAIRS SPECIAL REPORT – THE PALESTINIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM PRAISES THE TERROR ATTACK IN NEVE YAAKOV
By THE ISRAELI MINISTRY OF DIASPORA AFFAIRS
On January 27th, Friday night, there was a terror attack in Jerusalem (Neve Yaacov) in which seven people were murdered and three injured. The terrorist, Alkam Hayri, was a 21-year-old Palestinian from East Jerusalem. He drove to the neighborhood, and after the Sabbath Eve services at Ateret Avraham synagogue he opened fire at the people outside the synagogue and those nearby. Following this attack, the Palestinian schools across the Palestinian Authority and the Gaza Strip, conducted special “educational” activities glorifying the terrorist and his actions. This is a regular reaction, seen in Palestinian schools after terror attack against Jews in Israel.
IS THE ARAB WORLD BEGINNING TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE HOLOCAUST? – REPORT
By LEE HARPIN
A new report on antisemitism worldwide highlighted a growing recognition of the Holocaust in the Arab world, alongside renewed cultivation of Jewish heritage. According to the report, an encouraging trend was observed this year in several Arab countries, with rising recognition of the history of antisemitism and the crimes of the Nazis. For example, in January 2022, Egypt took part in a session of the UN General Assembly that adopted a resolution condemning Holocaust denial.
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
INTERNATIONAL LAWMAKERS PUSH SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS FOR CHANGES ON ANTISEMITISM POLICIES
By JEWISH INSIDER
Members of the International Interparliamentary Task Force to Combat Online Antisemitism wrote to officials at major social media companies on Monday morning asking them to agree to a raft of commitments and policy changes aimed at combating antisemitism on their sites. The letters, from Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Canadian Member of Parliament Anthony Housefather and former Member of the Knesset Michal Cotler-Wunsh, who lead the group, are addressed to officials at Twitter, Youtube, Meta and Tik Tok.
WHITE HOUSE ANTI-BIAS WORKING GROUP MEETS ON ANTISEMITISM
By JNS
Officials from dozens of federal agencies and White House offices met Monday to discuss efforts to counter antisemitism. Attorney Douglas Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, convened the meeting with Susan Rice and Liz Sherwood-Randall, advisers to the White House on domestic policy and homeland security, respectively. Emhoff shared his findings from a recent trip to Poland and Germany where he participated in Holocaust remembrance events and attended an international meeting on combating antisemitism.
‘HATE HAS NO PLACE IN OUR STATE’: ANTISEMITIC FLYERS IN SUBURBS OF ATLANTA, GEORGIA DRAW CONDEMNATION
By CAM
Police were investigating the distribution of antisemitic flyers in two suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, last weekend, as state and local leaders voiced their condemnation of the act of hate. The flyers — contained in plastic bags weighed down by rocks — were thrown in the yards and driveways of homes in predominantly Jewish areas of the Sandy Springs and Dunwoody municipalities, just north of Atlanta.
HUMANITY
‘REQUEST WAS RECEIVED’: ISRAEL TO SEND EARTHQUAKE RELIEF TO SYRIA AS WELL AS TURKEY
By LAZAR BERMAN AND AMY SPIRO
Israel is sending aid to Syria as well as Turkey as they grapple with the aftermath of a devastating earthquake that killed over a thousand people in the region, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday. Netanyahu said that Israel had received requests through diplomatic channels to assist in Syria, and that aid would be provided there. In addition, a senior political official said that Israel would receive wounded Syrians for medical treatment if a request was made.
DON’T MISS UNVEILING OF LOS ANGELES STREET MURAL HONORING POLISH ‘RIGHTEOUS AMONG THE NATIONS’ HERO IRENE GUT OPDYKE
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