Activist Toyin Agbetu, an appointee to London mayor Sadiq Khan’s ‘statue diversity’ commission, has been forced to resign after being accused of anti-Semitism. Agbetu claimed there was an “immoral hierarchy of suffering” which had seen victims of the Holocaust “served well by Nazi hunters” compared to African victims of the slave trade. Read Here
THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL ANTI-SEMITISM REPORT
In this week’s global anti-Semitism report, CAM covers 42 new anti-Semitic incidents (50% far-right, 19% far-left, 14% Islamist, and 17% unidentifiable).
NBC came under fire for two anti-Semitic broadcasts – on “Saturday Night Live” and “Nurses” – viewed by millions. A war memorial in Wales was vandalized with Neo-Nazi graffiti. A French-Jewish lawmaker was told to “prepare for the camps.” On campus, a Jewish student leader at Tufts University spoke out about a mounting anti-Semitic pressure campaign. And a Palestinian scholar exhorted Muslims to “get rid of the Jews.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. state of Kentucky and two New York towns adopted the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism. As more local governments work to combat anti-Semitism, we encourage you to register for the Mayors Summit Against Anti-Semitism to learn how you strengthen your community.
Today marks the holiday of Purim, a reminder of the need to take bold action against the age-old societal sickness of anti-Semitism. May we be inspired by the bravery of Queen Esther! Join us on Monday for the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement Annual Summit – featuring the Moroccan UN Ambassador, the President of Israel, former Secretary of State Pompeo, leading Democratic and Republican members of Congress, and other VIPs – to gain inspiration for the year ahead.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SPECIAL FEATURE
JOIN THE 2021 COMBAT ANTI-SEMITISM ANNUAL SUMMIT!
Global leaders at the forefront of international strategies to combat rising anti-Semitism will discuss the need for international cooperation to tackle anti-Jewish bigotry, alongside grassroots activists who are leveraging the collective power of CAM’s international network to combat anti-Semitism in their communities!
This international forum will build upon the last two years and set the agenda for the global fight against anti-Semitism in the year ahead.
UNITED STATES
SNL UNDER FIRE AFTER ACTOR JOKES THAT ISRAEL ONLY VACCINATING JEWS
By JACOB MAGID
Israeli officials and several US Jewish groups accused Saturday Night Live of spreading anti-Semitic tropes after one of its actors joked in a news segment that Israel has only been vaccinating its Jewish citizens. “Israel is reporting that they’ve vaccinated half of their population, and I’m gonna guess it’s the Jewish half,” cracked Michael Che to a chuckling audience. Read Here
FBI ARRESTS CAPITOL RIOTER WHO SAID JEWS AND ISRAEL CONTROL OTHER GOVERNMENTS
By Ben Sales
A Capitol rioter who sat in Mike Pence’s seat in the Senate chamber had a history of making anti-Semitic statements. Christian Secor was arrested by the FBI and has described fascism as “epic,” has celebrated the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and “suggests Jews and the state of Israel control the politics of other governments and attempt to control ‘Westerners.’” Read Here
WORLD NEWS
United Kingdom
LONDON MAYORS APPOINTEE RESIGNS OVER ANTI-SEMITISM CLAIMS
By Josh Salisbury
WAR MEMORIAL IN WELSH CITY OF RHYL DEFACED WITH ANTI-SEMITIC GRAFFITI
By CAM
Swastikas and anti-Semitic slurs were scrawled on a memorial to fallen British soldiers in Welsh city of Rhyl. North Wales Police said an investigation had been opened into the vandalism incident, and that security would be beefed up at the memorial site. Read Here
GERMANY
ASSAILANT WHO BEAT UP KIPPAH WEARING JEWISH MAN IN FRONT OF GERMAN SYNAGOGUE WILL NOT GO TO JAIL
By JTA
A Kazakhstan man who assaulted a Jewish man wearing a kippah in front of a synagogue in Hamburg will not go to prison because he has psychiatric issues, a German judge ruled. The 29-year-old assailant, identified in the German media only as Grigory K., pummeled the Jewish man with a folding shovel so severely on Oct. 4 that the victim had life-threatening injuries. Read Here
‘WE ARE HITLER’S PEOPLE THEN AND NOW’: VIOLENT HATRED OF JEWS EXPOSED AMONG STUDENTS AT ELITE GERMAN UNIVERSITY
By Ben Cohen
Students at an elite German university fraternity regularly greeted each other with the words “Heil Hitler” and used the word “Jew” as a pejorative, according to one of its former members in explosive revelations published by the German newsmagazine Spiegel. The fraternity in question — Normannia — has been under German police investigation following an outrage at a party held by its Heidelberg University members last August. Read Here
OTHER WORLD NEWS
FRANCE: HATE MAIL TO FRENCH-JEWISH LAWMAKER TELLS HER TO ‘PREPARE FOR THE CAMPS’
By JTA
A Jewish lawmaker in France received hate mail telling her to “get ready for the camps.” Yaël Braun-Pivet, a Jewish lawmaker of the LREM centrist party of President Emmanuel Macron, shared on Twitter an anti-Semitic hate mail that she received. The author also wrote “This time, it’s the Muslims who will deal with you.” Also, “Jews can no longer come into some neighborhoods. Within two generations it will be whole cities. Demography determines laws.” Read Here
ITALY: HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS PLUG FOR VACCINE SPARKS WAVE OF ANTI-SEMITISM
By AP and ILH
An Italian Holocaust survivor’s attempt to encourage other older adults to receive the COVID-19 vaccine has triggered a wave of anti-Semitic comments and other invective on social media. Liliana Segre, 90, received the first of the two-shot vaccine series in Milan and urged people who reach her age “to not be afraid and to take the vaccine.” Read Here
THE MIDDLE EAST
PALESTINIAN ISLAMIC SCHOLAR: ‘IF MUSLIMS WANT PEACE, THEY MUST GET RID OF THE JEWS’
By JNS
The world must be “cleansed” of Jews before Muslims can have true peace, said Palestinian Islamic scholar Mraweh Nassar in a recent interview. In remarks aired on Turkey’s Channel 9 Nassar, secretary-general of the Jerusalem committee of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, said that the Jews were “the most dangerous enemies.” Read Here
ALGERIA RESORTS TO ANTI-SEMITISM ATTACK MOROCCO-ISRAEL RAPPROCHEMENT
By Safaa Kasraoui
The past weeks have shown that most Algerian public figures, including senior officials, still conflate Judaism and Zionism. Equating Jewishness with Zionism, Algiers lashed out at Morocco’s deal with Israel by promoting anti-Semitism at a time when collective campaigns seek to push for more efforts to counter hatred and hostility toward Jews worldwide. Read Here
ON CAMPUS
STUDENT AT DICKINSON COLLEGE UNDER INVESTIGATION AFTER VIDEO SURFACES GLORIFYING THE HOLOCAUST
By Faygie Holt
With an unseen cameraman heard laughing in the background, the student, identified as junior Shane Shuma, said “96 percent of Germans said that it made their lives much more positive … the other 4 percent said it only moderately improved their lives … it protected the German minorities; you know, they were being oppressed by the Jews out in Poland…you can’t have racism when your state only has one race.” Read Here
TUFTS STUDENT ALLEGES ANTI-SEMITISM AND HARASSMENT AT UNIVERSITY
By Melissa Weiss
A Tufts University student leader has accused the school of failing to protect him during “a months-long campaign of intimidation, harassment and discrimination” spearheaded by student government leaders and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Max Price, a junior at Tufts, was tasked with removing biased and misleading information from a controversial anti-Israel referendum. Read Here
ANALYSIS & OP-EDS
STUDIES & STATISTICS
POLL: 74% OF FRENCH PUBLIC BELIEVES ANTI-SEMITISM WIDESPREAD PROBLEM INSIDE COUNTRY
By i24News
At least 74 percent of French citizens believe that anti-Semitism is a widespread phenomenon in France, according to a new poll by the umbrella organization CRIF, which represents the interest of the Jewish community in France. The polls also found 56 percent also believe that anti-Semitism is more severe today than a decade ago. In addition, more than 88 percent believe that the fight against anti-Semitism in France should be a priority for public authorities. Read Here
ANTI-SEMITIC INCIDENTS ROSE IN SWITZERLAND AMID COVID-19 PANDEMIC, NEW REPORTS SHOW
By Algemeiner
Fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-Semitic incidents rose during 2020 in both the German and French-speaking parts of Switzerland. In the German-speaking part, 47 incidents of anti-Semitic harassment were reported, involving vandalism of Jewish buildings and verbal insults directed at individual Jews, said the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (FSCI) and the Foundation against Racism and Antisemitism (GRA) in their annual report. Read Here
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
STATE OF KENTUCKY SET TO TO ADOPT IHRA DEFINITION
By FAYGIE HOLT
Kentucky is expected to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism after the measure was included in a state resolution condemning anti-Semitism. It passed the Kentucky State House with no objections and the state Senate with every member present signing on. Gov. Andy Beshear is expected to sign the measure on Friday. Read Here
GERMANY’S STEINMEIER WARNS AGAINST GROWING ANTI-SEMITISM
By DW
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier lauded the contribution of Jews to German culture at a ceremony marking 1,700 years of Jewish life in Germany at a synagogue in Cologne. The president said that Judaism has made a decisive contribution to Germany and admitted that Jewish life is threatened in the face of open anti-Semitism. Read Here
U.S. CONGRESSMAN GOTTHEIMER ANNOUNCES NEW STEPS TO COMBAT VIOLENT EXTREMIST GROUPS,
NEWLY ELECTED JEWISH DEMOCRAT WANTS BIDEN TO TAKE TOUGHER LINE ON IRAN NUKE DEAL
CHENEY: ‘WE’VE SEEN ANTI-SEMITISM, WHITE SUPREMACY, HOLOCAUST DENIAL’ IN BOTH PARTIES
NEW YORK: TOWN OF OYSTER BAY TAKES STAND AGAINST ANTI-SEMITISM
TOP US LAWMAKER LINKS PALESTINIANS TO ANTISEMITISM AND HATE CRIMES
NY GOV. CUOMO DIRECTS HATE-CRIMES TASK FORCE TO INVESTIGATE GRAFFITI AT JEWISH CENTER
POLAND DROPS HOLOCAUST SPEECH CASE AGAINST JOURNALIST
RIVLIN TRIES TO PERSUADE NEW AMBASSADORS TO MOVE EMBASSIES TO JERUSALEM
CANADA DEEPENS PROBE INTO UNRWA’S ANTI-ISRAEL SCHOOL TEXTBOOK MATERIALS
IN FIRST US TOUR, ISRAEL ENVOY EMBARKS ON ‘PERSONAL JOURNEY’ ALONG CIVIL-RIGHTS TRAIL
HUMANITY
BRITAIN JEWS LEAD FIGHT AGAINST THE OPPRESSION OF CHINA’S UIGHUR MUSLIMS
By Cnaan Lipshiz
As the leader of British Jewry’s main human rights group, Mia Hasenson-Gross regularly hears personal stories of loss, grief and helplessness. The director of the London-based Rene Cassin charity, she decided she had to spread the word about what was happening to the Uighurs. Hasenson-Gross’s efforts added to an unusual mobilization that has turned British Jews into some of the most vocal advocates for the Chinese Muslim minority. Read Here
HOW JEWS ARE RESPONDING TO LOCAL SURGE IN ATTACKS ON ASIAN AMERICANS
By Gabriel Greschler
Slosberg, who is the program manager at JYCA, a youth-led Jewish activist organization in the Bay Area, most recently spearheaded a video series and online community called Lunar, which highlights the experiences of Asian American Jewish young adults. (Members of JYCA are considering taking part in the patrols in Oakland’s Chinatown, the organization’s executive director said.) 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.
