THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL ANTI-SEMITISM REPORT
CAM’s global anti-Semitism report this week includes 46 new anti-Semitic incidents (65% far-right, 15% far-left, 18% Islamist, and 2% unidentifiable).
The distressing rise of incidents of Jew-hatred during Passover included a knife attack on an orthodox Jewish couple and their baby in Brooklyn and a death threat against a famous Romanian-Jewish actress.
In a brazen act of state-sponsored anti-Semitism, the Iran-backed Houthis expelled 13 of Yemen’s last remaining Jews. In Sweden, a far-right group is suspected of hanging bloodied dolls with a hateful Passover message outside of a synagogue. A trend in Holocaust distortion during the pandemic continued as vaccine passport debates are featuring comparisons to the yellow stars that Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of US Senators introduced a new bill to expand the Abraham Accords, with a focus on strengthening efforts to combat anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. As Greece took over the IHRA presidency this week, there were 6 IHRA adoptions including the Canadian province of News Brunswick, and the University of Tirana in Albania.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SPECIAL FEATURE
IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO STOP ANTI-SEMITISM
By GINA ROSS
More than 12,000 guests around the world watched the wonderfully hopeful Mayors Summit Against Anti-Semitism. The incredible display of the diversity of functions revealed the need for an extensive interrelated systemic approach for successful interventions against this lethal bigotry virus. Read Here
JEWISH WORLD LEADERS JOIN MARCH OF THE LIVING GLOBAL MEMORIAL CAMPAIGN AHEAD OF YOM HASHOAH
By INTERNATIONAL MARCH OF THE LIVING
While March of the Living will not take place this year in Poland, due to the pandemic, virtual programs and a global campaign are already activating the Jewish world. The public is invited to participate and have their personal message virtually placed against the backdrop of the infamous train tracks at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. Read Here
CAM CONGRATULATES IHRA FOR GERMAN PRESIDENCY SUCCESSES
By CAM
On April 1st, the yearly chairmanship of IHRA will be handed over from Germany to Greece. CAM would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Chair and Ambassador Michaela Küchler, IHRA President, on her excellent work combating anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination and hatred over the last year. Read Here
ISGAP Seeking Applicants for Oxford Civil Servants Program on Contemporary Anti-Semitism
By CAM
The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) is seeking government civil servants and policy experts to join the upcoming ISGAP-Oxford Civil Servants Program, on May 10-11. The two-day online workshop — focused on issues of contemporary anti-Semitism as it relates to policy. Read Here
UNITED STATES
ORTHODOX JEWISH COUPLE AND BABY VISITING NEW YORK CITY SLASHED IN ‘POSSIBLE BIAS INCIDENT’
By SHIRA HANAU
A young Orthodox Jewish couple and their baby visiting New York City were slashed by a knife-wielding man near a Manhattan park. The father fought off the attacker and suffered injuries to his head that needed 12 stitches. The mother suffered injuries to her lip and the baby to his chin in the incident near Battery Park in downtown Manhattan. Read Here
VACCINE PASSPORTS ARE BEING COMPARED TO YELLOW STARS OF DAVID FROM THE HOLOCAUST
By Ben Sales
Political activists, including Rep. Madison Cawthorn and the ambassador to Germany under Donald Trump, are comparing the idea of “vaccine passports” to Nazi Germany, with many invoking the yellow Stars of David that Nazis forced Jews to wear during the Holocaust. Other opponents of public health restrictions have suggested that opening recreational spaces only to those who aren’t at risk of COVID is similar to the Nazis’ persecution of Europe’s Jews, which culminated in genocide. Read Here
WORLD NEWS
United Kingdom
ASTON VILLA PESACH GREETING SPAMMED BY ANTI-SEMITISM AND 27K ANGRY REACTIONS
By Jewish News reporter
Premier League club Aston Villa’s Passover greeting was spammed by 27,000 ‘angry’ reactions and thousands of anti-Semitic comments. The Midlands side said it “deplores religious intolerance” after a wave of anti-Israel responses were shared on its Pesach message, which featured a Star of David. One commenter, a verified Facebook user called Mahmoud Nashwan, a Palestinian from Gaza who lives in Belgium, responded with a Palestine flag, which was ‘liked’ more than 4,400 times. Read Here
OFFICIAL IN SEAT OF SHADOW EQUALITIES CHIEF LABELLED ISRAEL A RACIST STATE
By Jake Wallis Simons
A Labour official from the Shadow Equalities Secretary’s seat branded Israel a “racist” state and called the party’s anti-Semitism crisis “politically motivated”. Momentum-backed activist Rob Lugg is the vice-chairman of Battersea’s Constituency Labour party and is responsible for heading its campaigns. When Labour adopted the full definition of anti-semitism, Mr Lugg posted: “Israel is and always has been a racist, settler-colonial apartheid state built on stolen land through ethnic cleansing and violence.” Read Here
GERMANY
FORMER CELEBRITY CHEF TURNED ANTI-SEMITIC AGITATOR FLEES TO TURKEY TO ESCAPE GERMAN ARREST WARRANT
By Ben Cohen
A former celebrity chef who turned into one of Germany’s most vocal anti-Semitic agitators fled to Turkey to escape an arrest warrant. Attila Hildmann — a self-described “ultra right-winger” — has used his channel on Telegram to spread claims about the global extent of “Jewish” and “Zionist” power. He regularly deployed Nazi terms like “parasites” and “subhumans” to say that the pandemic is a symptom of wider global conspiracy run by prominent Jews. Read Here
A SWASTIKA, ‘MADE IN THE GERMAN REICH’ SENT TO A JEWISH PERSON
By Eli Nahum
A Jewish woman from Halle reports that her husband was added to a WhatsApp group unasked and unintentionally. One person in the group then “made a swastika on his child’s workbench to post it to the group with the signature“ Made in the German Reich ”so that everyone would be amused,” she explains. “All because they knew we were Jews.” Read Here
OTHER WORLD NEWS
SWEDEN: DOLLS HANGED OUTSIDE SWEDISH SYNAGOGUE ON PASSOVER
By JNS AND ILH
Police in Norrkoping, Sweden, are investigating after someone left a hate-filled message and a group of dolls hanging outside a synagogue there on the first day of Passover. The note referred to Passover being a “Jewish celebration of killing thousands of Egyptian children.” A photo of some of the hanging dolls appeared to have red paint or markers on them. Read Here
ROMANIA: PROBE OF DEATH THREATS AGAINST JEWISH THEATRE DIRECTOR
By AFP
Romanian authorities are investigating death threats received by Maia Morgenstern, the director of a Jewish theater in Bucharest. It was said to be “from the AUR formation” (Alliance for the Unity of Romanians) and came at the start of the Passover holiday. The letter “promised to set fire to [your] idiotic Yiddish theater,” according to a screenshot seen by AFP. Read Here
THE MIDDLE EAST
SOME OF YEMEN’S LAST REMAINING JEWS SAID EXPELLED BY IRAN-BACKED HOUTHIS
By TOI Staff
Some of the very last Jews in Yemen were recently driven out of their homes by Houthi rebels and were to be taken to another country. Thirteen members of three different families left their homes in Sana’a, a region of the country held by the Iran-backed Houthi forces, and went to a UN refugee agency. Read Here
TURKSIH THEOLOGIAN MUSTAFA OZTURK: JEWS ARE THE DESCENDENTS VIPERS, DESERVE DAMNATION, MAY ALLAH CURSE THEM
By MEMRI
During a 2014 broadcast on Turkish TV, Turkish theologian Mustafa Öztürk called Jews “the descendants of vipers.” He said that he is not saying “anything anti-Semitic here,” and added: “They […] deserve damnation. May Allah curse them.” On March 15, 2021, it was reported that Öztürk had set out for Münster Willhelm University in Münster, Germany, which had invited him to come to the university to continue his academic work. Read Here
ON CAMPUS
UNIVERSITY OF TIRANA, ALBANIA’S LARGEST SCHOOL, ADOPTS IHRA ANTI-SEMITISM DEFINITION
By CAM
The Academic Senate at the University of Tirana — Albania’s largest and top-ranked higher education institution — adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism. The move drew praise from Combat Anti-Semitism Movement (CAM) Advisory Board member Valentina Leskaj. Read Here
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA STUDENTS VOTE TO ADOPT LEADING DEFINITION OF ANTI-SEMITISM AFTER CONTENTIOUS DEBATE
By Sharon Wrobel
University of Minnesota students voted in favor of adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism, after a heated debate among student groups and in the wake of a series of anti-Semitic incidents on campus in recent years. At the campus-wide referendum — submitted by Minnesota Hillel and Students Supporting Israel (SSI) — more than 1,700 students, or 58%, voted to adopt the IHRA definition. Read Here
ANALYSIS & OP-EDS
STUDIES & STATISTICS
NEW ADL STUDY REVEALS 63 PERCENT OF US JEWS HAVE EXPERIENCED OR WITNESSED ANTI-SEMITIC INCIDENT
By Algemeiner Staff
Nearly two-thirds of American Jews have either experienced or witnessed an anti-Ssemitic incident in the last five years, according to a new study published by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The ADL’s 2021 poll found that 63 percent of respondents had either experienced or heard anti-Semitic comments, slurs or threats targeting others — an increase from 54 percent on the same survey in 2020. Read Here
CANADIAN JEWS REMAIN MOST TARGETED FOR RELIGIOUS HATE CRIMES, REPORT FINDS
By JNS
Jews remained by far the most targeted religious group for hate crimes in Canada, according to the Canadian government’s annual survey of police-reported hate crimes. According to the report, Jewish Canadians were targeted 296 times in 2019—a 20 percent decrease from 372 in 2018. Despite the decrease, attacks on Jewish Canadians still occurred on average five times per week during 2019 with Jews comprising some 50 percent of overall religious hate crimes. Read Here
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
PRESIDENCY OF INTERNATIONAL HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE ALLIANCE PASSES TO GREECE
By Benjamin Kerstein
The chairmanship of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance officially passed to Greece, with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis saying the country’s focus would be assuring that the Holocaust will not be forgotten as it begins to pass out of living memory. In a video released by the IHRA, Mitsotakis said that “to remember is to be human; to educate on events past, the responsibility of the present.” Read Here
BIPARTISAN US SENATORS INTRODUCE BILL TO EXPAND ABRAHAM ACCORDS
By OMRI NAHMIAS
A group of 18 senators introduced a new bill, “Israel Relations Normalization Act of 2021,” that aims to strengthen and expand the Abraham Accords. The bill also seeks to improve coordination between the Special Envoy to Monitor Anti-Semitism and the Ambassador for International Religious Freedom to combat racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism, “which hinder the improvement of relations between Israel and Arab states. Read Here
HUMANITY
OLDEST SURVIVING ‘RIGHTEOUS AMONG NATIONS,’ WHO SAVED JEWISH BOY, DIES AGED 101
By TOI Staff
The oldest surviving person to bear the title of Righteous Among the Nations, Anna Kozminska, died at the age of 101, Poland’s Institute for Remembrance has said. Last year presidents Reuven Rivlin of Israel and Andrzej Duda of Poland sent birthday greetings to Kozminska, praising her in separate letters for her courage in risking her own life to help Jews during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Read Here
CAM PARTNER LADY LAWYER FOUNDATION ADOPTS IHRA ANTI-SEMITISM DEFINITION
By CAM
The Lady Lawyer Foundation (LLF) — a partner organization of CAM — and the Lady Lawyer Village as a whole recently adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism. The LLF is an NGO that was established with the aim “to put human rights standards at the heart of global governance and policy-making and to ensure that the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable are addressed worldwide.” Read Here
The Combat Anti-Semitism Movement is a non-partisan, global grassroots movement of individuals and organizations, across all religions and faiths, united around the goal of ending anti-Semitism in all its forms. Since its launching in February 2019, 294 organizations and 299,000 individuals have joined the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement by signing the campaign’s pledge. The CAM Pledge draws upon the IHRA international definition of anti- Semitism and its list of specific behaviors used to discriminate against the Jewish people and the Jewish State of Israel.
