THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL ANTI-SEMITISM REPORT
In an organized campaign of anti-Jewish hate, the extremist group Goyim Defense League (GDL) launched a nationwide operation in at least nine U.S. states. This dangerous group left flyers and hung virulently antisemitic banners promoting conspiracies such as “Every single aspect of the Covid agenda is Jewish,” in San Diego, Pasadena, Beverly Hills, Austin, Greensboro, Port St. John, Silver Spring, Boise, and elsewhere. GDL was largely responsible for a slew of recent high-profile incidents across the American Southwest.
Also in the U.S., a Los Angeles synagogue fell victim to pandemic Jew-blaming after a poster was found outside with the letters “a” and “v” creating the Star of David with the words “anti-vaxxers.” Swastikas were drawn on the sidewalk of another synagogue in New Jersey.
Third-grade students in Washington, D.C. were traumatized after a school employee instructed the children to reenact scenes from the Holocaust. The staffer told the children that Germans committed the Holocaust because “because the Jews ruined Christmas.” A Jewish student was told to play the role of Adolf Hitler and pretend to commit suicide.
In a heavily-Jewish neighborhood of Brussels, vandals painted “Jews = Nazis” on the sidewalk, and in the latest instance of antisemitism in sport, Algerian soccer players forfeited a match because the opposing coach was of Jewish-Israeli extraction.
Meanwhile, the Organization of American States’ Antisemitism Commissioner Fernando Lottenberg is creating a handbook for Latin American countries to combat antisemitism through application of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism.
Germany’s Antisemitism Commissioner Dr. Felix Klein urged the country’s public broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, to “clarify in detail” allegations of antisemitism among its Arabic service staff, citing “substantial” and violently antisemitic rhetoric. The International Olympic Committee announced that countries banning Israel can not host competitions, following cancellation of the World Squash Championship in Malaysia due the nation’s ban of Israeli athletes.
This week’s global antisemitism report highlights 42 new media reports of antisemitic incidents. The total includes 28 (66.7%) from the far-right, 2 (4.7%) from the far-left, 7 (16.7%) with Islamist motivations, and 5 (11.9%) unidentifiable in nature.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SPECIAL FEATURES
KYIV JEWISH FORUM BRINGS TOGETHER LEADERS OF GLOBAL FIGHT AGAINST ANTISEMITISM
One highlight of the third-annual Kyiv Jewish Forum was a unique panel featuring top officials involved in the global fight against antisemitism. The discussion — titled “Antisemitism and Hate Speech: Today’s Challenges” featured a distinguished lineup of participants including Denys Monastyrsky, Minister of Interior of Ukraine; Dr. Irwin Cotler, Canada’s Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism; Katharina von Schnurbein, European Commission Coordinator on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life; Fernando Lottenberg, Organization of American States Commissioner to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism; and Shuli Davidovich, Head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s Bureau for World Jewish Affairs and World Religions.
THE FIVE MOST POPULAR AND IMPACTFUL VIDEOS OF 2021 IN THE FIGHT AGAINST ANTISEMITISM
The Combat Antisemitism Movement regularly produces videos to educate viewers about antisemitism and inspire people to take meaningful action against this resurgent age-old scourge. As 2021 draws to a close, take the time to watch and share with your family and friends our five most popular and impactful videos from the year:
UNITED STATES
ANTISEMITIC POSTER FOUND OUTSIDE FAIRFAX DISTRICT SYNAGOGUE IN LOS ANGELES
By John Cádiz Klemack
An antisemitic poster has shown up after several others in the Fairfax District. The poster has been taken down but the message of hate lingers. “We’re frustrated,” said Rabbi Yossi Eilfort, who runs the security that patrols the area and first spotted the poster using the letters “a” and “v” to create the Star of David with the words “anti-vaxxers.” The poster had a phone number that goes to the Abbey in West Hollywood. The Abbey says they were inundated with calls warning them about the poster. “It’s deeply troubling to hear about these posters,” said Lauren Meister, the mayor of West Hollywood. “I don’t understand it and I don’t understand how they could possibly make the comparison to Nazism and what happened in the Holocaust.”
GREENSBORO, NC JEWISH COMMUNITY RECEIVES ‘VILE ANTISEMITIC HATRED’ WITH NEWSPAPER DELIVERY
By Algemeiner Staff
A group of Jewish institutions in Greensboro, North Carolina said that members of the city’s Jewish community had received “a vile piece of antisemitic hatred” connected to the COVID-19 pandemic with their newspaper delivery. The antisemitic materials came in a small packet placed in the newspapers. They did not publish its full contents, but an image showed a flyer titled “Every Single Aspect of the Covid Agenda is Jewish.” The title was bracketed by a Star of David on one side and a pentagram — often used as a symbol of satanism — on the other.
JEWISH GROUPS PAN TRUMP ANTISEMITIC TROPES AFTER REMARKS ON ISRAELI, JEWISH CONTROL
WORLD NEWS
United Kingdom
TORY AIDE REPORTEDLY GRABBED JEWISH JOURNALIST’S FACE TO CHECK HIS NOSE AND “JUDGE HIS JEWISHNESS”
By Campaign Against Antisemitism
An aide working for the Conservative Party reportedly grabbed a Jewish journalist’s face in order to check his nose and “judge his Jewishness”. Alexander Brown, a Westminster Correspondent based in Parliament who writes for The Scotsman, has shared his account of how whilst out for drinks with colleagues, he was grabbed by a Tory aide so that they could view his nose from the side and, as Mr Brown writes, check his “Jewishness”. Mr Brown said: “Going for drinks and desperate to build contacts, a staffer had asked about my background, and I’d shared I studied an MA in Jewish History. Before I’d even finished speaking she had grabbed my jaw, tilted my head to the side to look at my nose and spat out ‘you don’t look Jewish’.”
GERMANY
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO SUPPORT PALESTINIAN ACTIVIST FUELS YOUTH HATRED OF ISRAEL, GERMAN GROUP WARNS
By Sharon Wrobel
A German group warned schools to be cautious about Amnesty International’s “Write for Rights” campaign, accusing it of engaging in “blatant incitement against Israel.” The German-Israel society (DIG) condemned the education campaign by Amnesty International, which encourages schools and youth groups to take action in support of Janna Jihad. Uwe Becker, president of the DIG, said that “Instead of being the impartial guardian of universal human rights, [Amnesty International] takes the side of Hamas and company and uncritically adopts the arguments of terrorists.”
CANADA
‘IT’S TRIVIALIZING THE LIVES WHO SO GREATLY SUFFERED’: OUTRAGE CONTINUES AFTER HOLOCAUST IMAGERY USED IN ANTI-MANDATE RALLY
By CTV News Atlantic Reporter
Reaction and outrage continues after a weekend rally in Fredericton, N.B. where some of the participants wore and held the Star of David. The crowd of a couple hundred were protesting vaccine mandates, and used the symbol to try and make their point. Much of the rally was live-streamed on social media, and sparked condemnation from politicians and the Jewish community.
OTHER WORLD NEWS
ANTISEMITIC GRAFFITI ON FOOTPATHS IN A BRUSSELS NEIGHBORHOOD WHERE A LARGE PART OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY LIVES
By YOSSI LEMPKOWICZ
’This is pure antisemitism. On the streets of an affluent neighbourhood in Brussels today,” said Rabbi Menachem Margolin, head of the European Jewish Association. “…On public footpaths and at a road junction is much more calculated, much more sinister,’’ reacted Margolin, after unknown people painted the words ‘Juif = Nazi’’ (Jew= Nazi) in Uccle, a southern Brussels suburb. ‘’It is no secret that a large part of the Jewish community in Brussels lives in Uccle. And this is a message to them, and indeed to every Jew in Brussels. We are equated to those who murdered 6 million of us. We are not welcome. We are responsible for something unspoken, unnamed.’’
ONLINE SHOP IN UKRAINE REMOVES “HOLOCOSTE” SWEATSHIRT AFTER COMPLAINTS
THE MIDDLE EAST
ALGERIAN PLAYERS BOYCOTT SOCCER GAME BECAUSE OPPOSING COACH, AVRAM GRANT, IS ISRAELI
By TOI STAFF
Three Algerian players withdrew from a “legends” soccer game in Qatar in protest at the opposing team’s Israeli coach, Avram Grant. The FIFA Arab Legends and FIFA World Legends faced off at an exhibition event ahead of the FIFA Arab Cup final. Rabah Madjer, Rafik Saïfi and Rafik Halliche all decided they would not play in the game over Grant’s involvement as coach and player for the World Legends team. Although the World Legends team appeared stronger at the start of the game, the Arab Legends battled back to eventually win in a penalty shootout. There was no mention of the boycott in the report on the game featured on FIFA’s website.
ON CAMPUS
WASHINGTON, D.C., 3RD-GRADERS TOLD TO REENACT SCENES FROM THE HOLOCAUST
By SHIRA HANAU
Students at a Washington, D.C. elementary school were instructed by a staff member to reenact scenes from the Holocaust. When the third-grade students asked why the Germans killed Jews, the staff member said it was “because the Jews ruined Christmas.” The student at Watkins Elementary School were supposed to be working on projects in the library when the staff member told the students to reenact scenes from the Holocaust. The woman reportedly told one student, who is Jewish, to play the role of Adolf Hitler and to pretend to commit suicide. Another student was told to pretend that he was on a train to a concentration camp and then to act as if he were dying in a gas chamber.
ANALYSIS & OP-EDS
STUDIES & STATISTICS
SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS IN KUWAIT RIFE WITH ANTISEMITISM, NEW ADL REPORT REVEALS
By Algemeiner Staff
School textbooks in Kuwait are rife with antisemitic tropes ranging from the ancient slander that Jews are inherently treacherous to the denial of the Holocaust, according to new research by ADL. The ADL analysis of Kuwaiti textbooks noted that Kuwait’s Emir, Nawaf Al Saba, who succeeded to the Gulf state’s throne in Sept. 2020, had called on the Kuwaiti nation to practice “adherence to the teachings of our tolerant religion, which urges us to unify ranks and spread kindness and compassion.” However, the Kuwaiti ministry of education “is continuing to reuse state-published textbooks from past years that teach horrific antisemitism,” the ADL observed.
BELGIUM: THE NUMBER OF ANTISEMITIC CRIMES HAS DOUBLED IN ONE YEAR
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
HANDBOOK FOR LATIN AMERICA IN WORKS TO ESTABLISH ANTISEMITISM PARAMETERS
By JNS
A handbook is being created on how to apply the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism in Latin America. Fernando Lottenberg, the Organization of American States’ commissioner for monitoring and combating antisemitism, and Ariel Gelblung, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Latin America, will work on completing the handbook together. They urge Latin American countries to adopt the tool and “incorporate it into their national legal bodies as a way to identify antisemitism and educate, legislate, prevent and take care of the Jewish citizens of the region and eventually punish the perpetrators,” the Simon Wiesenthal Center said.
ALLEGATIONS OF ANTISEMITISM FACING GERMANY’S PUBLIC BROADCASTER ARE ‘SUBSTANTIAL,’ TOP OFFICIAL SAYS
By Algemeiner Staff
The leading federal official tasked with countering antisemitism in Germany has urged the country’s public broadcaster, Deutsche Welle (DW), to “clarify in detail” recent allegations of antisemitism among its Arabic service staff and its media partners in the Arab world. In an interview with the Judische Allgemeine news outlet, Felix Klein — the German government’s commissioner for combating antisemitism — said that the allegations against DW were “substantial.” Earlier this month, an investigative article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) revealed that several employees of DW’s Arabic department had made antisemitic remarks or had affiliations with antisemitic organizations. Several staff members had posted violently antisemitic messages on social media.
HUMANITY
PITT STUDENT WHO COMMEMORATED ATTACK AT TREE OF LIFE GETS INTERNATIONAL SCHOLARSHIP
By JUSTIN VELLUCCI
A University of Pittsburgh senior who led a student response to the 2018 antisemitic attack at the Tree of Life building has received a special scholarship to study abroad and learn how tragedies are remembered and commemorated globally. Maja Lynn, 23, of Shadyside, recently was named one of the roughly three dozen recipients of the Marshall Scholarship. She plans to relocate to the U.K. in autumn 2022 to study at Queen’s University of Belfast. “As future leaders, with a lasting understanding of British society, Marshall Scholars strengthen the enduring relationship between the British and American peoples, their governments and their institutions,” a statement from the scholarship committee read.
SARAH SILVERMAN EXPRESSES SUPPORT FOR ZIONISM, EXISTENCE OF A ‘JEWISH STATE’ ON PODCAST EPISODE
The Combat Antisemitism Movement is a non-partisan, global grassroots movement of individuals and organizations, across all religions and faiths, united around the goal of ending antisemitism in all its forms. Since its launching in February 2019, 360 organizations and 355,000 individuals have joined the Combat Antisemitism Movement by signing the campaign’s pledge. The CAM Pledge draws upon the IHRA international definition of antisemitism and its list of specific behaviors used to discriminate against the Jewish people and the Jewish State of Israel.
