A rookie Met Police officer from north London has been found guilty of belonging to the banned neo-Nazi group National Action. PC Benjamin Hannam, 22, who is suspended from duty, is scheduled to be sentenced on 23 April. National Action was proscribed in 2016. Being a member of, or promoting, the group established in 2013 is a criminal offence punishable by up to 10 years behind bars. Read Here
THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL ANTI-SEMITISM REPORT
CAM’s global anti-Semitism report this week includes 34 new anti-Semitic incidents (47% far-right, 18% far-left, 12% Islamist, and 23% unidentifiable). Tel Aviv University’s Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry released its annual anti-Semitism report, which highlights an explosion in online anti-Semitism in 2020, with potentially dangerous implications for the post-pandemic future.
Jews in Paris thwarted a Pakistani man from carrying out a knife attack. Neo-Nazis vandalized a Jewish cemetery in Denmark with bloodied dolls and anti-Semitic leaflets, mimicking a similar incident in Sweden. Meanwhile, Australian Neo-Nazis called on their followers to seduce Jewish women to “breed out the Jewish race.” In the U.S., anti-Semitic propaganda was left on the doors of Jewish faculty offices at the University of North Florida.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of U.S. Congressmen reintroduced the Peace and Tolerance in Palestinian Education Act, intended to combat violent anti-Semitic incitement in Palestinian education. CAM tracked 5 IHRA adoptions this week including the French region of Alsace and Sharon, Massachusetts.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Yesterday, communities around the world paused to commemorate Yom HaShoah. CAM remembers the victims of the Holocaust and honors the resilience of the survivors.
With fewer and fewer survivors left to bear witness to the atrocities of the Holocaust, and as anti-Semitism is once again on the march, committing to the ethos of never again is paramount. Our coalition is committed to ensuring that the horrors of the past are not forgotten – or repeated.
We remember, and vow Never Again!
SPECIAL FEATURE
HEADS OF THREE MAJOR GREEK CITIES TAKE PART IN MAYORS SUMMIT AGAINST ANTI-SEMITISM AS COUNTRY ASSUMES IHRA PRESIDENCY
By CAM
Leaders of three major Greek cities were featured speakers at the first-ever Mayors Summit Against Anti-Semitism last month. Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis, Thessaloniki Mayor Konstantinos Zervas, and Ioannina Mayor Moses Elisaf were among the heads of 32 cities who came together for a common mission — the eradication of religious hatred and prejudice at the local level. The event was held just two weeks before Greece assumed the Presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Read Here
ON YOM HASHOAH, LEARN ABOUT HOLOCAUST WITH THESE TOP ONLINE RESOURCES
By CAM
One meaningful way to commemorate Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day, is to engage in reflective self-education about the Nazi genocide of the Jews. With all of the virtual resources available online, information on the Holocaust has never been more accessible. Yet, even with survivors of the Nazi atrocities still among us, studies have found a shocking lack of knowledge about the Holocaust around the world today. Take time on this Yom HaShoah to do your part in ensuring never again means never again! Read Here
WITH ANTI-SEMITISM SURGING, NEW EDUCATIONAL VIDEO LOOKS AT HISTORY OF WORLD’S OLDEST HATRED
By CAM
With anti-Semitism on the rise across the US, and Jewish students being particularly affected, the Antisemitism Education Initiative at UC-Berkeley has produced a new video funded by the Academic Engagement Network (AEN) charting the history of Jew-hatred from its origins until today and tackling the hard questions about the age-old phenomenon’s different and changing manifestations. Read Here
UNITED STATES
US NEO-NAZI PLEADS GUILTY TO THREATENING JEWISH ACTIVISTS, JOURNALISTS
By AP
An organizer of a neo-Nazi campaign to threaten journalists and Jewish activists in three states has pleaded guilty in federal court in Seattle. Cameron Shea was one of four members of the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division charged earlier this year with having cyberstalked and sent Swastika-laden posters to journalists and an employee of the Anti-Defamation League. Read Here
FEDS SAY HATE-CRIME SUSPECT GRAFTON THOMAS UNFIT TO STAND TRIAL IN CHANUKAH MACHETE ATTACK ON ROCKLAND COUNTY JEWISH CONGREGATION
By Stephen Rex Brown
The mentally ill man accused of a horrific 2019 machete attack on Jewish people celebrating Chanukah in Rockland County is unfit to stand trial and faces indefinite confinement at a mental institution, court filings revealed. The government conceded in a Manhattan Federal Court letter that eight months of mental health evaluations and treatment of Grafton Thomas had been unsuccessful. Read Here
WORLD NEWS
United Kingdom
MET POLICE OFFICER FOUND GUILTY OF NEO-NAZI GROUP MEMBERSHIP
By Mathilde Frot
MARGARET HODGE RECEIVED DISGUSTING HOLOCAUST EMAIL OVER COVID PASSPORTS
By UK News
Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge said she has received “disgusting” emails comparing vaccine passports with the Holocaust. The veteran former frontbencher, who is Jewish and had relatives killed in the Holocaust, accused those who sought to draw similarities between plans for individual Covid status certification and victims of Nazi persecution of “fearmongering”. Read Here
GERMANY
POLICEMAN IN FRANKFURT ASKED FOR A JEWISH ID
By Eli Nahum
The incident came as a shock to Thomas Daniel Kalman. On Good Friday at 19:00, he crossed the Opernplatz square, talking on the phone and removing his mask. “Suddenly someone hit me hard on my left shoulder from behind, grabbed and turned me around,” the 33-year-old told BILD. “I explained to him that I was a Jew. Then he asked: “Where is your Jewish identity card?” and laughed sarcastically. Read Here
OTHER WORLD NEWS
AUSTRALIA: NEO NAZIS CALL TO “BREED OUT JEWISH RACE”
By Australian Jewish News
Victoria Police are investigating a threat by the National Socialist Network (NSN) calling on people to engage in group sex with Jewish women in Melbourne in a bid to “breed out the Jewish race”. In so-called “Operation Ashkenazi Strange”, the neo-Nazi group urges “every honourable White man, National Socialist, klansman, skinhead, racist” to “go out clubbing in Jew area, “seduce sexy Jewesses” and “breed out the Jewish race with Alpha Aryan Australian power”. Read Here
DENMARK: JEWISH CEMETERY IN DENMARK VANDALIZED WITH RED-PAINTED DOLLS AND ANTI-SEMITIC LEAFLETS
By CAM
A Jewish cemetery in the northern Danish city of Aalborg was vandalized. In the incident, two dolls splashed with red paint were left next to a wall of the burial ground. Leaflets were also scattered nearby that described the Passover holiday as a “Jewish celebration of carnage.” The leaflets included a link to a neo-Nazi website called “Nordfront” that promotes the Nordic Resistance Movement. Read Here
THE MIDDLE EAST
THE LAST KNOWN JEW IN AFGHANISTAN IS LEAVING
By JTA
The man who has been known as the last Jew in Afghanistan for well over a decade is leaving for Israel, fearing that the U.S. military’s promise to leave the country will leave a vacuum to be filled with radical groups such as the Taliban. “I will watch on TV in Israel to find out what will happen in Afghanistan,” Zabulon Simantov told Arab News. Read Here
YOUTUBER TAMER HAWAS RECOUNTS 19TH CENTURY DAMASCUS BLOOD LIBEL
By MEMRI
Egyptian YouTuber Tamer Hawas posted a video, in which he recounted the story of the 1840 blood libel in Damascus. Hawas repeated accusations against the local rabbis who were claimed to have murdered a priest, in order to use his blood to prepare Passover matzos. Hawas said that Sultan Abdülhamid II succumbed to international pressure and absolved the Jews from this affair. He said that “This is how it got to be that no one can say anything about those Jews.” Read Here
ON CAMPUS
NOTRE DAME STUDENT SENATE PASSES RESOLUTION TO DEFINE ANTI-SEMITISM IN FINAL MEETING OF 2020-2021 TERM
By Katie Werner
Sophomore and secretary of the Jewish Club Blake Ziegler authored and presented the resolution to represent the Jewish Club. He advised the senate to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism. “To fight anti-Semitism, you have to define it,” Ziegler said. The resolution passed unanimously. If the Notre Dame administration officially adopts the definition, it would be the first Catholic university in the U.S. to do so. Read Here
UNIVERISTY OF NORTH FLORIDA CONFIRMS ANTI-SEMITIC INCIDENT HAPPENED ON CAMPUS DURING PASSOVER
By Emily Bloch
After anti-Semitic messaging was posted on the doors of Jewish professors’ classrooms and offices at the University of North Florida, the school says it knows who was behind it and is investigating. According to student Jules Gerstein, flyers with QR codes that linked to an anti-Semitic radio station were found posted to the doors of Jewish faculty and staff members throughout the school’s social science building. Read Here
ANALYSIS & OP-EDS
STUDIES & STATISTICS
PANDEMIC FUELED ANTI-SEMITISM, WITH VACCINE FIRM HEADS LIKENED TO NAZIS
By AGENCIES and TOI STAFF
Coronavirus lockdowns shifted some anti-Semitic hatred online, where conspiracy theories blaming Jews for the pandemic’s medical and economic devastation abounded, Israeli researchers reported. That has raised concerns about a rise in anti-Semitism in the post-pandemic world. The findings, which came in an annual report by Tel Aviv University’s researchers, show that the pandemic meant that Jews weren’t generally in close physical proximity to people who wished to harm them. Read Here
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
BIDEN: WE MUST ENSURE THE HOLOCAUST CAN NEVER BE ERASED FROM OUR MEMORIES
By OMRI NAHMIAS
The United States “stand(s) in solidarity with the Jewish people in America, Israel, and around the world to remember and reflect on the horrors of the Holocaust,” US President Joe Biden said in a proclamation ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day. “We honor the memories of precious lives lost, contemplate the incomprehensible wound to our humanity, mourn for the communities broken and scattered, and embrace those who survived the Holocaust…” Read Here
BIPARTISAN HOUSE MEMBERS REINTRODUCE PALESTINIAN EDUCATION BILL
By Marc Rod
A bipartisan group of House legislators reintroduced a bill calling for a State Department assessment of lesson plans created by the Palestinian Authority and United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The legislation comes as UNRWA faces criticism for including material that encourages violence and intolerance in its curricula. The Peace and Tolerance in Palestinian Education Act was reintroduced this week by Reps. Brad Sherman (D-CA), Lee Zeldin (R-NY), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Brian Mast (R-FL) and David Trone (D-MD). Read Here
HUMANITY
CANADIAN CITY HIT BY ANTI-SEMITISM RESPONDS WITH NOAH’S ARK INITATIVE TO TEACH CHILDREN TOLERANCE
By CAM
A small city in western Canada is setting an example for how communities can constructively respond to hate incidents. Last month, several anti-Semitic posters were found in the British Columbia municipality of Kelowna, prompting a police investigation and a strong condemnation from the mayor. Now, two local institutions — Chabad Okanagan and the Balsam School — have launched a new initiative to fight bigotry and teach tolerance to children. Read Here
TRIO OF MUSLIM, JEWISH EMTS, SAVE DISABLED WOMAN’S LIFE
By ILH Staff
The life of a resident of Kibbutz Ma’ale HaHamisha in central Israel was saved by United Hatzalah Muslim and Jewish paramedics. The 42-year-old woman, who is disabled, suffered a heart attack and received life-saving care from three EMTs from United Hatzalah’s Mevaseret region. Volunteer EMT Murad Barhomm, arrived at the scene within three minutes and was joined by fellow paramedics Ofir Yitzchak and Boaz Armuza moments later. They were able to resuscitate the woman, who was then rushed to a local hospital. 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.
