March 2, 2023
THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL ANTISEMITISM REPORT
This past weekend, the Jewish American community was put on high alert as white supremacist groups across the country prepared plans for an antisemitic ‘Day of Hate.’ This follows a wave of targeted attacks against Jewish institutions during the first two months of 2023, which included vandalism, hateful speech and conduct, and acts or threats of violence. In tandem, antisemitic literature and propaganda continues to be dispersed throughout the country making appearances in Ohio, Florida, Texas, Maryland, Michigan, Arkansas, and Oregon.
This week, Virginia and Arkansas became the 30th and 31st states in the US to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. On Tuesday, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) brought antisemitism envoys from a number of European nations to Washington to aid in developing the administration’s whole-government approach to fighting Jew-hatred. Lastly, a bipartisan group of lawmakers wrote to UN leaders demanding that Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, be removed from her position following Albanese’s refusal to condemn recent Palestinian terrorist attacks targeting an Israeli bus stop and a Jerusalem synagogue, and her condemnations of Israel following these incidents.
Two separate terror attacks in the West Bank killed two brothers ages 19 and 21 and a 27-year old Israeli-American citizen. In the United Kingdom, a Jewish woman was verbally assaulted by a man who asked “why didn’t Hitler kill you,” and a man kicked an identifiably Jewish woman and while yelling “f*** you Jewish people.” A new study in Germany found a rise of nearly 40% in the acts of antisemitic violence registered and in Poland, a photographer shared photos of a model posing atop tombstones in the Jewish cemetery in Częstochowa.
This week’s global antisemitism report highlights 35 new media reports of antisemitic incidents. The total includes 23 (65.7%) from the far-right, 1 (2.9%) from the far-left, 4 (11.4%) with Islamist motivations, and 7 (20.0%) unidentifiable in nature.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
UNITED STATES
FEDS ARREST MICHIGAN MAN WHO PLOTTED TO KILL JEWISH ELECTED OFFICIALS IN THE STATE
By ANDREW LAPIN
The FBI coordinated with local authorities in mid-February to arrest a heavily armed man who had threatened to kill all Jewish elected officials in Michigan on social media, according to a recently unsealed criminal case. Jack Eugene Carpenter III, a resident of Tipton, Michigan, had tweeted on Feb. 17 that he was “heading back to Michigan now threatening to carry out the punishment of death to anyone that is jewish in the Michigan govt if they don’t leave, or confess,” according to the FBI’s affidavit. There are several prominent Jewish elected officials in the state, including Attorney General Dana Nessel, U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin and a handful of state senators and representatives.
NEW YORK: CROWN HEIGHTS JEWISH MAN VICIOUSLY BEATEN AFTER MINOR CAR ACCIDENT
By ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS
A Jewish man involved in a minor fender bender accident on Wednesday became the victim of a brutal hate crime assault. The incident occurred near St Johns Place and Brooklyn Ave shortly after 5 PM when the driver of the other vehicle, without any warning or provocation, repeatedly punched the victim in his face and body and put his hands around the victim’s neck attempting to choke him. The perpetrator used antisemitic slurs during the assault.
FARRAKHAN PREDICTS ANOTHER HOLOCAUST, ESPOUSES ANTISEMITISM AND BIGOTRY IN SAVIOURS’ DAY SPEECH
By ADL CENTER ON EXTREMISM
The Nation of Islam (NOI) held its annual Saviours’ Day conference in Chicago the weekend of February 24–26, serving once again as a platform for vitriolic antisemitism and anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry. Farrakhan’s wide-ranging, hours-long address, titled “The War of Armageddon Has Begun,” featured a relentless stream of antisemitic commentary accusing Jews of controlling world governments, the media, and financial institutions. He promoted the false idea that Jews seek to manipulate and exploit Black people, deceive and destroy America, and engage in other nefarious or illicit activities.
MARYLAND: PALM BEACH COUNTY STATE ATTORNEY FILES CHARGES AGAINST MARYLAND MAN WHO ALLEGEDLY DISTRIBUTED ANTISEMITIC MATERIALS
WORLD NEWS
UNITED KINGDOM
MAN ASKS JEWISH WOMAN “WHY DIDN’T HITLER KILL YOU?” IN EAST LONDON
By CAMPAIGN AGAINST ANTISEMITISM
A man has reportedly verbally assaulted a Jewish woman in East London. The suspect, who is reported to have previously attacked Jews in synagogues and shops, allegedly said to the woman: “Why didn’t Hitler kill you? Do you still exist? Shame Hitler didn’t kill you.” The incident occurred on Amhurst Road in East London and was reported by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer neighborhood watch patrol.
MAN KICKS IDENTIFIABLY JEWISH WOMAN AND YELLS “FUCK YOU JEWISH PEOPLE” IN STAMFORD HILL
By CAMPAIGN AGAINST ANTISEMITISM
In London, a man has reportedly kicked an identifiably Jewish woman’s legs and yelled “f**k you Jewish people”. The alleged incident occurred on Windus Road in Stamford Hill and was reported by Stamford Hill Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer
neighborhood watch patrol.
GERMANY
GERMANY – UNKNOWN PEOPLE SMEARED STUMBLING BLOCKS IN WEIMAR
By THUERINGER-ALLGEMEINE
Stumbling blocks have again been daubed in Weimar in the past few days. Strangers had tried to make the stones unrecognizable with glue and sand. The citizens’ alliance against right-wing extremism and the associations for learning in Weimar and Achava are now drawing attention to this in a statement: “Unknown people made them unrecognizable with glue and sand and tried to remove the victims from our lives a second time,” it says. “The Nazis and their accomplices all too often robbed the victims of their names and individual traits before they were murdered in the camps. Stumbling blocks give the dead their names back.”
FORMER WINDSOR MUNICIPAL CANDIDATE UTTERS ANTISEMITIC TROPES ON SOCIAL MEDIA
By RICK FIRTH
Helmi Charif, a former Windsor municipal candidate who lost Ward 3 during the most recent provincial election in October 2022, has been previously exposed by HonestReporting Canada for his hateful and venomous statements on his personal Facebook page, including a bizarre theory in Arabic that “Zionists” are somehow “orchestrating events taking place in Ukraine” and that “Western media is controlled by the Zionists.”
BULGARIA BANS NEO-NAZI EVENT AFTER PUBLIC OUTCRY
By AP NEWS
Authorities in Bulgaria on Saturday banned an annual torch-lit march in downtown Sofia in honor of a late general who led the pro-Nazi Union of Bulgarian National Legions during World War II. The event has been condemned by human rights groups, political parties, and foreign embassies, which criticized the march organizers for promoting racism, xenophobia, and antisemitism. Nationalists gathered in front of the prosecutor’s office to protest the restrictive measures.
PROMINENT PERUVIAN-JEWISH JOURNALIST HIT WITH ANTISEMITIC HARASSMENT AFTER INVESTIGATING PROTESTER
By JACOB KESSLER
Right-wing extremist protesters have targeted Gustavo Gorriti, a prominent Peruvian-Jewish journalist, harassing him with antisemitic chants and posters outside of his home over his website’s investigations into police violence stemming from the country’s ongoing unrest. Jewish and non-Jewish organizations have defended Gorriti since around 30 people protested in front of his home in Lima last Tuesday, holding signs depicting him and one other non-Jewish journalist as rats holding bags of money. Videos posted to social media also show some of the protesters shouting antisemitic slogans, such as: “We will continue visiting this Jew, his days are numbered.” Others shouted “Gorriti isn’t Peruvian, he’s Jewish.”
MIDDLE EAST
BROTHERS AGED 19 AND 21 NAMED AS VICTIMS OF DEADLY WEST BANK TERROR ATTACK
By i24 NEWS
Hillel Menachem and Yigal Yaakov Yaniv, aged 21 and 19, were named as the victims of Sunday’s deadly terrorist attack in the West Bank. They were sat in their vehicle when a Palestinian terrorist ran toward them and shot them from close range. Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) team that arrived at the scene provided the victims with medical treatment before they were evacuated to Belinson hospital.
ISRAELI-AMERICAN CITIZEN KILLED IN WEST BANK TERROR ATTACK AS SECURITY SITUATION UNRAVELS
By ANDREW BERNARD
The security situation across Israel and the West Bank continued to deteriorate on Monday as American officials announced the death of an American-Israeli dual citizen in a terrorist attack, the latest in a slew of such attacks that have sparked reprisal violence and prompted Israel to deploy hundreds of additional troops to the West Bank. The fatality was named as Elan Ganeles, an Israel Defense Forces veteran originally from West Hartford, Connecticut.
IRAN: THE HOLOCAUST HAS BEEN A PRETEXT TO FIGHT AGAINST ISLAM AND THE HIJAB FOR 70 YEARS
ON CAMPUS
CUNY SCHOOL OF LAW FACES STATE PROBE OVER ANTI-JEWISH BIAS AFTER BDS SUPPORT
By CARL CAMPANILE
The State Division of Human Rights has opened a bombshell probe into whether CUNY’s School of Law discriminated against Jews when its faculty council passed a resolution last year supporting the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel. S.A.F.E CUNY sent a letter to the human rights agency on July 5 of last year, alleging that the CUNY Law School Faculty Council’s BDS resolution, approved that May, constituted a “discriminatory boycott” against Jewish students and faculty — as well as of Israelis — under the state’s human rights law.
CALIFORNIA: HAYWARD TEACHER PLACED ON LEAVE AFTER TEACHING ANTISEMITIC CONSPIRACIES
By J. STAFF
A teacher at Mt. Eden High School has been placed on administrative leave following two months of complaints that he taught antisemitic conspiracy theories to students. Myldret Vazquez, a sophomore in Bens’s class, said students were given a pamphlet containing an excerpt from the book “The Hidden Tyranny” in December. Students were asked to read and make annotations of the material. Vazquez said prior to the introduction of the material, Bens performed a Nazi salute.
ANALYSIS & OP-EDS
STUDIES & STATISTICS
TIKTOK ISRAEL REMOVES SOME 700,000 VIDEOS DUE TO ‘HATEFUL CONTENT’
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Content moderators of the popular social media app TikTok had to remove 688,579 videos from the platform in the third quarter of 2022 alone, Spokespersons of the Knesset’s Committee on Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora announced on Monday. Of the videos that were removed – 80.1% were removed before even viewing the entire video, while 89.8% were removed within 24 hours. 2% of the videos removed worldwide were deleted due to hateful content – while the amount of videos removed in Israel for falling under TikTok’s hateful content guidelines is unclear.
‘A DISGRACE:’ ANTISEMITIC VIOLENCE IN GERMANY INCREASED IN 2022, GOVERNMENT STATISTICS SHOW
By BEN COHEN
The year on year increase in antisemitic outrages in Germany continued in 2022, with a rise of nearly 40 percent in the acts of violence registered, according to statistics released on Tuesday by the Federal Criminal Police Office. Overall, a total of 2,639 antisemitic offenses were recorded throughout the year. While this marked a slight decrease on the 3,028 recorded in 2021, officials emphasized that the 2022 total was likely to increase, as some of the statistics gathered at the end of the year had still to be included in the final count. Germany’s Jewish community bemoaned the new data as a sign that “antisemitism is becoming more violent.”
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
BARCELONA CITY COUNCIL REJECTS MAYOR’S SEVERING OF ‘TWIN CITY’ TIES WITH TEL AVIV, CALLS FOR ‘IMMEDIATE’ RESTORATION
By CAM
The Barcelona City Council approved a resolution on Friday calling for the “urgent and immediate” restoration the “twin city” agreement with Tel Aviv that was unilaterally severed earlier this month by Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau, who accused the State of Israel of practicing “apartheid” against the Palestinians. Despite its passage, the resolution was largely symbolic in nature, and the prospects for the ultimate restoration of “twin city” ties with Tel Aviv appear to depend on the results of the upcoming Barcelona municipal elections in May, in which Colau is seeking a third term in office.
IN UNUSUAL REVERSAL, EUROPEAN ENVOYS BRIEF WASHINGTON ON HOW TO HANDLE RAMPANT ANTISEMITISM
By MIKE WAGENHEIM
In very recent memory, American Jewry had to urge Europe to take antisemitism more seriously. European nations eventually heeded that call and appointed special envoys focused on antisemitism across the continent. On Tuesday, the wheel came full circle, as several European antisemitism envoys came to Washington to brief the Biden administration on how to combat rampant Jew-hatred in America. Douglas Emhoff, the Jewish husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, welcomed the envoys, who came from the E.U., the Organization of American States, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Norway.
AMID RISE IN ANTISEMITISM, VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE ADOPTS IHRA WORKING DEFINITION OF ANTISEMITISM
By CAM
On Thursday, the Virginia legislature passed a measure, HB 1606, to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism and its 11 contemporary examples. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin is expected to sign the bill following his executive order acknowledging the definition in January 2022.
SENATE REPUBLICANS CREATE ANTISEMITISM WORKING GROUP
HUMANITY
DIRECTOR LUC BERNARD’S NEW HOLOCAUST EDUCATION VIDEO GAME ‘THE LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS’ NOW AVAILABLE FOR PC DOWNLOAD
By ANDREW BERNARD
A new educational video game about the Holocaust — “The Light in the Darkness” — is now available for free PC download on Epic Games. The plot of the game is based on the story of a fictional family of Polish Jews — Moses, Bluma, and their son Samuel — who moved to France before World War II seeking a better life. Players will experience events from before the Nazi occupation of France up to the infamous July 1942 Vel D’Hiv Roundup — the mass arrest of Jews in Paris and their subsequent deportation to concentration and extermination camps.
PLANNED ANTISEMITIC ‘DAY OF HATE’ INSTEAD BECOMES DAY OF UNITY, DEFIANCE FOR US JEW
More than 2 million INDIVIDUALS AND 600 ORGANIZATIONS HAVE JOINED OUR MOVEMENT. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) is a global coalition engaging more than 600 partner organizations and nearly two million people from a diverse array of religious, political, and cultural backgrounds in the common mission of fighting the world’s oldest hatred. CAM acts collaboratively to build a better future, free of bigotry, for Jews and all humanity.
