THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL ANTI-SEMITISM REPORT
This past week, the Poway synagogue shooter received a second life sentence in federal court, and the Biden administration reappointed Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat as the US Special Adviser on Holocaust Issues. A new report found that 70% of Jewish Labour party members in the UK believe the party is again a safe space for Jews, after a year of action against antisemitism by party leader Sir Keir Starmer.
Two young Jewish men in Brooklyn were violently assaulted in an anti-Zionist attack for wearing a sweatshirt with the Israel Defense Forces logo. Police are searching for the perpetrator who also called the victims “dirty Jews.” Pro-Palestine social media users reacted by celebrating the attack.
Across the Atlantic, a Jewish man was also attacked in London by an Arabic-speaking assailant who said he wanted to “find a Jew to kill”. In South America, a joint operation between Brazilian and American authorities thwarted Neo-Nazi new year’s eve attacks on Jewish and Black Brazilians.
In sport, fans of Belgian Soccer club Brugge shouted antisemitic slurs including, “All Jews are homosexuals,” and a West Ham United fan in London verbally assaulted a Jewish woman, shouting “f*** the Jews.” On campus, the Brown University Graduate Labor Union passed a resolution in support of the antisemitic BDS movement.
Antisemitic vandalism by the Goyim Defense League appeared again this week in two California towns and one in Missouri. Synagogues were vandalized in Tucson, Arizona and Sighisoara, Romania. For the second week in a row, vandals painted graffiti equating Jews with Nazis in a Jewish neighborhood in Brussels.
This week’s global antisemitism report highlights 34 new media reports of antisemitic incidents. The total includes 18 (52.9%) from the far-right, 4 (11.8%) from the far-left, 7 (20.6%) with Islamist motivations, and 5 (14.7%) unidentifiable in nature.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SPECIAL FEATURES
THE COMBAT ANTISEMITISM MOVEMENT’S TOP 10 TWEETS FROM 2021
Every day, the Combat Antisemitism Movement creates engaging social media content to teach about antisemitism, expose Jew-haters, and encourage people to stand up to bigotry and effect positive social change in the world. As 2021 draws to a close, let’s look back at our ten most viral and influential tweets from the year.
THE COMBAT ANTISEMITISM MOVEMENT’S TOP FIVE INTERVIEWS OF 2021
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) regularly sits down with leading decisionmakers, influencers, scholars, and activists to discuss the global fight against Jew-hatred. As 2021 comes to an end, let’s take a look at the five most-read interviews published on the CAM website in the past year.
UNITED STATES
NEW YORK CITY POLICE SEEKING SUSPECT WHO ATTACKED JEWISH MAN IN BROOKLYN FOR WEARING IDF SWEATSHIRT
By Benjamin Kerstein
The NYPD is seeking a suspect who assaulted a Jewish man in Brooklyn for wearing an IDF sweatshirt. 21-year-old Blake Zavadsky said he and friend Ilan Kaganovich were approached by two men who called them “dirty Jews,” and demanded that Blake remove his sweatshirt bearing the seal of the Israel Defense Forces. One of the assailants then punched Zavadsky several times and poured coffee on his sweatshirt. The NYPD released video footage of the primary assailant, who they said fled on 86th Street toward 4th Avenue.
GRAFTON THOMAS, ACCUSED IN HANUKKAH MACHETE ATTACK, COULD TRANSFER TO NY FACILITY
WORLD NEWS
United Kingdom
JEWISH MAN VIOLENTLY ASSAULTED BY THUG WHO SAID HE WANTED ‘TO FIND A JEW TO KILL’
By JC REPORTER
A Jewish man was violently attacked in London supermarket by an assailant who said he wanted to “find a Jew to kill”. His alleged attacker was desecrating a public menorah, when he approached his victim and asked: “Are you Jewish?” He added: “I want to find a Jew to kill.” The attacker then repeatedly punched the victim, shouting: “I am not leaving until you are dead.” The victim tried to escape but was followed by the attacker, who shouted in Arabic and appeared to pull a knife, saying: “I will kill you now, you Jew.” He then made a slit-throat gesture before leaving the shop. The assailant was described as being black and possibly of Somali ethnicity.
VIDEO: POLICE SEARCH FOR WEST HAM FAN WHO ALLEGEDLY SHOUTED “F*** THE JEWS’
By Jewish News
Shocking video of a Jewish journalist’s confrontation with a West Ham fan who allegedly shouted “f*** the Jews” has been viewed almost 400,000 times on social media. Police are hunting the suspect after journalist Abbi Summers captured the aftermath of the incident on video. During the video, she films a man who is making obscene gestures on board a train, travelling to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium. She said to the individual in the clip: “Come and say it to my face. Come and say it to my face, what you just said. Are you too p***y to come and call me, and say ‘f*** the Jews’ again”.
GERMANY
GERMAN POLICE FIND NAZI ‘ALTAR’ IN HOME OF DRUNK MAN WHO CALLED FOR HELP
By AP
Police in eastern Germany said that a call from an intoxicated man led them to a stash of weapons and an altar-like collection of Nazi memorabilia including pictures of Adolf Hitler. Officers went to the 53-year-old man’s apartment in Limbach-Oberfrohna after he called police asking for help and leaving a “confused impression.” They found a collection including knives and bullets and an “altar-like decoration” of objects in the living room, with pictures and symbols from the Nazi era. Police said the man was taken to a hospital, and then his apartment searched in the owner’s presence the following day on suspicion of violations of weapons laws. They seized a cartridge belt, brass knuckles and three knives among other things.
AWARD-WINNING GERMAN SINGER CAN BE CALLED ‘ANTISEMITIC,’ FEDERAL COURT DECLARES
CANADA
OTHER WORLD NEWS
BRAZILIAN NEO-NAZIS’ NEW YEAR’S EVE PLANS TO ATTACK JEWISH AND BLACK PEOPLE THWARTED BY AUTHORITIES
By Campaign Against Antisemitism
In a joint effort between the Brazilian and United States authorities, four suspects alleged to be members of a neo-Nazi gang have been arrested in Brazil. The individuals had planned to carry out a series of targeted attacks on Jewish and black residents in São Paulo over New Year’s Eve, but after being warned of the plans by Brazil-based Homeland Security Investigations agents, the authorities intercepted the attacks. The neo-Nazi members used websites in the United States to “to call for violence against Jewish and black” residents in Brazil. Authorities produced 31 search warrants which allowed them to discover and seize homemade bombs, weapons and documents containing attack plots and Nazi paraphernalia.
SUPPORTERS OF BELGIAN SOCCER CLUB BRUGGE IN THE SPOTLIGHT AGAIN OVER ANTISEMITIC CHANTS
By Algemeiner Staff
One of Belgium’s top soccer clubs has been sanctioned by the country’s national Football Association after its fans engaged in antisemitic chanting during a recent match. Supporters of Club Brugge sang “Whoever doesn’t jump is a Jew” during a 2-2 tie with rivals Anderlecht. Another chant at the same match combined antisemitism with homophobia, as Anderlecht’s players were regaled with cries of “All Jews are homosexuals.” Like Tottenham Hotspur in the English league and Ajax in the Dutch league, Brussels-based Anderlecht is often derided by opposing fans as a “Jewish” club, with the word “Jew” deployed as an insult in chants and songs.
THE MIDDLE EAST
LIKUD MK OUSTED FROM HEARING FOR COMPARING COVID MEASURES TO ‘CONCENTRATION CAMPS’
By TOI Staff
ON CAMPUS
BROWN UNIVERSITY GRADUATE LABOR UNION APPROVES BDS REFERENDUM
By Dion J. Pierre
The Graduate Labor Organization (GLO) of Brown University announced the passage of a referendum calling on school officials to endorse the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, and give students “oversight of the university’s investments.” GLO said “87 percent of voters called on the Brown Corporation to divest all stocks, funds, endowment and other monetary instruments from companies complicit in human rights abuses in Palestine.” The school’s Hillel rabbi, Joshua Bolton, said that “anti-Israel activism at Brown is reflective of trends we are all familiar with from around the country.”
ANALYSIS & OP-EDS
STUDIES & STATISTICS
70 PERCENT OF JLM MEMBERS POLLED SAY LABOUR NOW ‘A SAFE SPACE’ FOR JEWS
By Lee Harpin
Keir Starmer’s efforts to rid Labour of antisemitism have received the overwhelming support of Jewish Labour Movement members – with nearly three-quarters of respondents to a survey agreeing that the party is “a safe space” for Jews again. 70 percent of respondents said the scourge had “reinforced the importance of Jewish identity” for them. JLM sought the views of its membership on Starmer’s leadership in a poll that was sent out to supporters on the first anniversary of the publication of the damning EHRC report into antisemitism in Labour under Jeremy Corbyn. 91 percent of Jewish JLM members agree with statement: ‘I trust that Keir Starmer is genuinely trying to tackle antisemitism’. Only 2.8% agreed this was the case under Corbyn.
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
US TAPS EIZENSTAT TO RETURN TO GOVERNMENT HOLOCAUST ADVISORY POST
By Amy Spiro
The US State Department has tapped Stuart Eizenstat to return to the role of special adviser on Holocaust issues. Eizenstat, an attorney and veteran US diplomat, previously held the same post in the Trump and Obama administrations. “Ambassador Eizenstat brings with him extensive experience in resolving Holocaust claims and related disputes,” the State Department said. In his past roles, “he negotiated landmark agreements with the Swiss, Germans, Austrians, French, and others covering the restitution of property, compensation payments to slave and forced laborers, recovery of looted art and bank accounts, and payment of insurance policies.”
HUMANITY
IN LA, AUSTRIA HONORS JEWS WHO FLED WWII DARKNESS TO FORGE HOLLYWOOD’S GOLDEN AGE
By SHARON ROSEN LEIB
When the Austrian government co-sponsored Vienna in Hollywood, a first-of-its-kind symposium recognizing the large number of Jewish artists and professionals who helped shape Hollywood’s Golden Age, I had good reason to attend: My great-grandfather Sol Wurtzel was a pioneer Hollywood producer and worked with many of these emigres. The Academy Museum also launched a similarly named six-week film series in conjunction with the symposium, titled “Vienna in Hollywood: Émigrés and Exiles in the Studio System.” The series explores the work of Austrian-born Jewish film artists who fled Nazi persecution in Europe to seek refuge in Hollywood.
NEW NONPROFIT OFFERS SECURITY TRAINING FOR JEWISH INSTITUTIONS
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.
