THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL ANTISEMITISM REPORT
A total of 1,116 entities worldwide have adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, according to a new report compiled by the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) and the Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University.
This includes 30 U.S states, with 18 adopting the definition in just the past year alone.
Meanwhile, Florida experienced a spate of antisemitic incidents this week, with Nazi symbols projected on prominent buildings in Jacksonville and West Palm Beach, and bigoted flyers were left outside homes in Boca Raton. Also in Boca Raton, students spread antisemitic messages including “Kanye is right” at a Florida Atlantic University activity fair.
In New York City, two Jewish boys were punched in their faces in a random Brooklyn street assault. At the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, student protesters chanted violent antisemitic slogans — including “There is only one solution,” and “Long live the Intifada!” — outside a speaking appearance by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, antisemitic and racist messages were graffitied on the local Republican Party headquarters.
A Jewish comedian in London, England, was verbally accosted and called a “dirty yid” at a bar by a group of soccer fans, and a man entered a synagogue and school in the city’s Stamford Hill neighborhood, screaming, “I am going to blow the place up,” before being arrested.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was widely condemned for comparing Western policies toward Moscow to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s “Final Solution” genocide plan for the Jewish people.
Also this week, members of the U.S. Senate and House Abraham Accords Caucuses signed a bipartisan letter urging the State Department to facilitate initiatives to promote interfaith and intercultural dialogue in the Middle East.
This week’s global antisemitism report highlights 35 new media reports of antisemitic incidents. The total includes 24 (68.6%) from the far-right, 2 (5.7%) from the far-left, 2 (5.7%) with Islamist motivations, and 7 (20.0%) unidentifiable in nature.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
UNITED STATES
TWO LUBAVITCHER BOYS ATTACKED IN CROWN HEIGHTS, NY
By JNS
Two Jewish boys, aged 10 and 12, were assaulted on Albany Avenue in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn on Sunday evening. According to Belaaz.com, the boys were attacked at around 6 p.m. According to CrownHeights.info, the group responsible for the beating consisted of four black males who did not say anything to the boys as the assault was taking place. The two boys, members of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement, “were viciously assaulted and punched in the face.”
ANTISEMITIC MESSAGES, NAZI SYMBOL PROJECTED ON SOUTH FLORIDA OFFICE BUILDING
By NBC 6
Police in West Palm Beach are investigating after several disturbing antisemitic messages were discovered along with a Nazi symbol that was projected on a downtown office building. The images were placed using a projector and a generator around 9 p.m. Saturday, NBC affiliate WPTV-TV reported. West Palm Beach Police said the men who were found near the projector were not cooperative when confronted by officers. “This is a welcoming – this is a diverse – city,” spokesperson Mike Jachles said. “But we have no place for that. We don’t welcome them, those types of messages.” The images come as residents in a Boca Raton neighborhood said packages with disturbing messages and pellets were thrown into their yards over the weekend.
SWASTIKAS FOUND SPRAY-PAINTED INSIDE FOREST PARK IN RICHMOND HILL, NY
WORLD NEWS
UNITED KINGDOM
JEWISH COMEDIAN VIOLENTLY THREATENED, CALLED ‘DIRTY YID’ BY ARSENAL SOCCER FANS IN LONDON BAR
By SHIRYN GHERMEZIAN
A Jewish comedian was repeatedly verbally harassed and threatened on Sunday at a bar in the United Kingdom by fans of Britain’s Arsenal soccer team who were chanting an offensive anti-Jewish slur. Seeing the entire bar join in with the antisemitic chants was “horrendous,” Katie Price, 26, told The Algemeiner. “Having to run a gauntlet of men shouting ‘go home, Yiddo’ is something I’ll never forget,” she added. “I burst into tears immediately outside.” The incident is now being investigated by Metropolitan Police Service officers after Price contacted the Community Security Trust, a non-profit that provides counsel and security services to British Jews.
UK – A MAN THREATENED TO BLOW UP A SYNAGOGUE IN LONDON
By SHOMRIM
A man entered a synagogue and school in Stamford Hill and screamed, ‘I am going to blow the place up.’
GERMANY
GERMANY – A STUMBLING BLOCK WAS MASSIVELY DAMAGED IN BERLIN
By RIAS BERLIN
A stumbling block was massively damaged in Barfusstrasse. The condition of the stumbling block suggests that it was damaged by a drill. Due to the severe damage, the name of the person to whom the stumbling block is intended to commemorate was also made unrecognizable. The stumbling block in question is a memorial to Kiwe Wild, who lived in Barfusstraße at the end of the 1930s. In 1939 he was deported first to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and then to Dachau and Buchenwald, where he was murdered in 1941.
CANADA
OTTAWA SCHOOL BOARD VOTES TO COUNTER ANTISEMITISM WITH NEW EQUITY COACH
By AVANTHIKA ANAND
Ottawa’s largest school board is closer to hiring a Jewish equity coach to help combat antisemitism at schools. A unanimous vote by Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) trustees Tuesday came after students used antisemitic symbols, language and gestures at Sir Robert Borden High School last month. Two students face criminal charges. “[It] is a day I will never forget and one that has changed our family forever,” David Baker said on Tuesday night. He told CBC News last month that his Jewish son was confronted by fellow students in a locker room Dec. 1 with a swastika made of ski poles and a Nazi salute.
OTHER WORLD NEWS
WA MP CAITLIN COLLINS CONDEMNS USE OF NAZI SWASTIKA AFTER DISGUSTING GRAFFITI ATTACK
By CAITLYN RINTOUL
There are growing calls for the WA Government to ban swastikas after a politician’s advertisement was defaced with the nazi symbol. A bus stop featuring political advertising for Hillarys MP Caitlin Collins was vandalized on Friday, with the offenders daubing the nazi symbol in white as well as the word “bitch”. “It was quite confronting to … see that. Really quite shocking,” the Labor MP said. “For people to use the swastika … is never OK.” The offensive graffiti has been removed and reported to the City of Joondalup. Dr Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, has spearheaded a five-year national campaign to criminalize public displays of the nazi swastika and said “this is not just graffiti on a billboard”. “It is a repulsive and vicious assault on our elected representatives and on our core principles, and I never thought I’d say this, but this is becoming the new normal,” Dr Abramovich said.
RUSSIA’S LAVROV SAYS WEST SEEKING HITLER-STYLE ‘FINAL SOLUTION,’ SPARKING PROTESTS
By LAZAR BERMAN
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the US and Europe on Wednesday of seeking a “final solution” to “the Russia question” comparable to Adolf Hitler’s plan to wipe out the Jews in World War II, drawing anger from Israel, Germany and some of Moscow’s other Western adversaries. “Just as Napoleon mobilized practically all of Europe against the Russian Empire, just as Hitler mobilized and captured… the majority of European countries and sent them against the Soviet Union, now the United States has organized a coalition,” Lavrov said at an annual press conference. Western countries, he said, are “by proxy through Ukraine waging war against our country.” “The task is the same: the final solution of the ‘Russian question.’ Just as Hitler wanted to finally solve the Jewish question.” Israel said Lavrov’s remarks were “unacceptable.”
SPANISH JEWISH ORG SLAMS BOYCOTT OF BARCELONA TWINNING WITH TEL AVIV
MIDDLE EAST
IRAN-BACKED CONFERENCE IN DAMASCUS ON THE TOPIC OF ISRAEL’S DEMISE: ISRAEL IS A MALIGNANT TUMOR THAT WILL BE ELIMINATED THANKS TO THE SYRIAN ARMED FORCES, AND THE LEBANESE AND PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE
By MEMRI
A conference recently held in Damascus, Syria, was devoted to the topic of Israel’s demise. Organized by the Al-Quds International Institute, which is affiliated with Hamas, the conference was attended by senior members of this institute and by representatives of Palestinian organizations and factions in Syria, such as Isma’il Al-Sindawi, the coordinator of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in Syria. The conference participants stated that Israel was a temporary phenomenon and that the struggle against it would eventually lead to its collapse. The main lecture, delivered by Syrian researcher Shadi Diab, presented data allegedly indicating that Israel is bound to disappear, and stressed the importance of Palestinian resistance in achieving this objective. Diab called on the Palestinians to take advantage of Syria’s and Iran’s support in order to continue the resistance.
ON CAMPUS
ANTI-ISRAEL DEMONSTRATORS AT UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CALL FOR ‘INTIFADA’ AGAINST JEWISH STATE
By CAM
Anti-Israel demonstrators marching outside a speaking appearance by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor campus this week recited numerous vitriolic antisemitic slogans, including, “Intifada, Intifada! Long live the Intifada.” The word “intifada,” Arabic for “shaking off,” refers to two organized Palestinian terrorist campaigns, the first in the late 1980s and early 1990s and the second in the early 2000s, in which more than 1,000 Israelis, mostly civilians, were killed. Protesting U.S. support for Israel, members of the Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE) campus group gathered near the auditorium where Harris was talking about climate change on Thursday and chanted, “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide, you’re committing genocide.” They also yelled, “There is only one solution! Intifada! Revolution!” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — a clear call for the destruction of the State of Israel.
INVESTIGATION FINDS ‘SHOCKING’ ANTISEMITISM IN UK’S STUDENT UNION
By ASH OBEL
An independent investigation has found that the UK’s National Union of Students failed to protect Jewish members from “numerous instances” of antisemitism over the past decade. The investigation published on Thursday reported that Jewish students were bullied and ostracized in the union because of their religion and views on Israel. In May 2022, the union appointed law expert Rebecca Tuck to lead the investigation after 20 former presidents of the union raised concerns over antisemitism within the organization. The National Union of Students is a confederate association of around 600 students’ unions, representing more than seven million students. Tuck’s report is based on interviews with 46 groups and individuals. According to the findings, discrimination against Jewish students included “the employing of ancient antisemitic tropes, from blood libels to Rothschild conspiracies,” as well as holding Jewish members responsible for Israeli actions.
FAU STUDENT CLUB FAIR INTERRUPTED BY GROUP DISPLAYING BANNER WITH ANTISEMITIC MESSAGE
ANALYSIS & OP-EDS
STUDIES & STATISTICS
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY 2023: UMASS AMHERST POLL FINDS RACISM, ANTISEMITISM REMAIN DANGERS
By DAVE CANTON
Questions about attitudes toward African-American and Jewish citizens were asked by the Political Science Department at the university with polling conducted during the first week of January. The survey polled the attitudes of 1,000 people in the United States with a political, racial and age cross section approximately equal to current American demographics. The UMass polling also included questions about antisemitism. Ye, the artist formerly knowns as Kanye West, and NBA player Kyrie Irving both made national headlines and suffered significant financial setbacks after they made statements many considered antisemitic. On Oct. 27, 2018, a 46-year-old man entered the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh and shot and killed 11 people. “This follows years of increases in antisemitic incidents that included vandalism, harassment and assaults in both blues and red states,” Nteta said. “While many thought antisemitism was a thing of the past, our polling shows that a surprising number of Americans — on average about 2 in 10 (20%) — still hold negative and stereotypic views of Jewish Americans.” The UMass poll indicates that respondents ages 18 to 29 show higher levels of antisemitism than older Americans, and African-Americans expressed even more antisemitism than all other racial classes.
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
ABRAHAM ACCORDS CAUCUS URGES STATE DEPT. TO BACK INTERFAITH DIALOGUE AMONG SIGNATORIES
By MARC ROD
Members of the Congressional Abraham Accords Caucus are urging the State Department to launch new programming to facilitate interfaith dialogue among countries party to the Abraham Accords, potential signatories and the United States. The lawmakers — Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and James Lankford (R-OK), as well as Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Brad Schneider (D-IL), David Trone (D-MD) and Ann Wagner (R-MO) — note in a letter to U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom Rashad Husain that the September 2020 agreements between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which Morocco and Sudan later joined, include language encouraging interfaith and intercultural dialogue. The letter was sent yesterday. “We applaud the efforts initiated by a number of U.S. partners in the Middle East who are pursuing religious freedom initiatives and which are seeking cultural understanding across faith traditions. However, persecution and discrimination of religious groups persist throughout the region,” the letter reads. “The Abraham Accords have the potential to anchor Middle Eastern security cooperation, economic prosperity, and cultural exchange grounded in mutual understanding.”
US SENATORS ON REGIONAL TOUR AIM TO EXPAND ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ SUCCESSES OF ABRAHAM ACCORDS
By JNS
A bipartisan group of US lawmakers is currently touring Abraham Accords signatory countries, having already visited Morocco and Bahrain ahead of stops in the United Arab Emirates and Israel. The Trump administration-brokered agreements normalized relations between the Jewish state and those three Arab countries, in addition to Sudan. The delegation, led by Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.), also includes Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Dan Sullivan (R-Ark.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), and Ted Budd (R-N.C.).
WHITE HOUSE BLASTS RUSSIA’S LAVROV FOR HOLOCAUST COMPARISON
HUMANITY
JEWS 500% MORE LIKELY TO SUFFER HATE CRIMES, NEW UK BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN SAYS
By ZVIKA KLEIN
The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) will launch Britain’s first-ever national billboard campaign seeking the public’s support against antisemitism on Tuesday after the most recent Home Office figures showed that Jews are 500% more likely to suffer hate crime than any other faith group per capita. Running for two weeks, including over Holocaust Memorial Day next week, the striking digital billboards will be seen right across the country, including in prominent locations in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow and other major cities. The billboards call on people to stand with the Jewish community by using the #StandWithJews hashtag on social media. Members of the Jewish community will highlight their own experiences of antisemitism using the #BecauseImJewish hashtag.
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The Combat Antisemitism Movement is a global coalition engaging more than 375,000 people and 550 organizations from a diverse array of religious, political, and cultural backgrounds in the common mission of fighting the world’s oldest hatred. We act collaboratively to build a better future, free of bigotry, for Jews and all humanity.
