THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL ANTI-SEMITISM REPORT
Yesterday, as the world paused to remember the six million Jews who were murdered by the Nazis for International Holocaust Remembrance Day, ten U.S. states adopted the IHRA working definition of antisemitism. From the President of the United States, to top European leaders, great attention was paid to utilizing the lessons of the past to combat resurgent antisemitism today.
CAM’s global campaign against Holocaust Trivialization was featured in dozens of leading news outlets including Reuters and Business Insider.
New reports this week showed that one third of Canadian students don’t understand or question the Holocaust, a quarter of Australians are are unaware of the Holocaust, and nearly one in three young Germans hold antisemitic attitudes. Meanwhile, more than 90% of American Jews are concerned about antisemitism, antisemitic incidents in France increased by 75%, and according to the Jewish Agency for Israel, 2021 was the most antisemitic year in the past decade.
Leading up to the synagogue attack in Texas this month, the CAM Information Hub tracked a total of 34 incidents targeting synagogues and Jewish centers in the last few months.
This week, a yeshiva student was punched in the face in an antisemitic attack in Brooklyn, where a machete-wielding man also threatened the Jewish community. In Italy, a young Jewish boy was assaulted by teenage girls who told him that he would “die in the ovens.” Two orthodox Jewish men were also beaten on a London street.
The Goyim Defense League launched another campaign of antisemitic flyers blaming Jews for the COVID-19 pandemic, targeting thousands of homes in multiple cities across California, Florida, Colorado, and Maryland.
Two teachers in Mexico were fired in separate incidents for praising Adolf Hitler and joking about the Holocaust, and in Tennessee school board officials banned the Pulitzer-prize winning graphic novel Maus by second-generation Holocaust survivor Art Spiegelman.
This week’s global antisemitism report highlights 42 new media reports of antisemitic incidents. The total includes 28 (66.7%) from the far-right, 5 (11.9%) from the far-left, 3 (7.1%) with Islamist motivations, and 6 (14.3%) unidentifiable in nature.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
UNITED STATES
YESHIVA STUDENT PUNCHED IN FACE IN LATEST ANTISEMITIC ATTACK ON BROOKLYN STREETS
By Algemeiner Staff
The NYPD is searching for a suspect seen on camera punching a young Jewish man in the face on the streets of Brooklyn. Surveillance tape shows the culprit crossing the street to harass two bystanders in the Crown Heights neighborhood, randomly hitting one of them in the face. The victim was a 21-year-old yeshiva student standing outside his dormitory with a friend. The perpetrator fled the scene, said the NYPD, which circulated footage of the suspect.
MACHETE-WIELDING MAN THREATENS JEWISH COMMUNITY IN BROOKLYN: POLICE
By PIX11
A machete-wielding man was arrested after he made threats against Jewish community members in Brooklyn. Police responded to reports of a man who was running around Borough Park with a machete. He was threatening neighbors and menacing two of the Shmira public safety members. The NYPD identified the suspect as 32-year-old Saul Sosa. He was arrested and transported to the hospital because he was intoxicated. Officers also recovered a machete at the scene. Sosa faces charges of anti-Semitic criminal mischief.
ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS ARRESTED IN FRONT OF ISRAELI EMBASSY IN WASHINGTON, DC
WORLD NEWS
United Kingdom
HORRIFIC MOMENT TWO CHAREDI MEN ARE BEATEN AND KICKED TO THE GROUND IN STAMFORD HILL
By JEWISH NEWS REPORTER
Two strictly-Orthodox men were brutally assaulted and knocked to the floor, apparently by a passer-by. CCTV footage of the incident showed the men emerging from a building into the path of the suspect walking down the pavement towards them. Both men turn as the suspect, a tall man dressed in black, walks around them — moments before he lands the first of multiple punches. One of the victims was left with a fractured wrist and nose, while the other has an eye injury and was badly bruised. In the footage of the assault, which lasts 23 seconds, the attacker is seen pausing for a moment as one of his victims appears to plead with him. But he then resumes his brutal punches, knocking both men to the floor and dragging both along the pavement.
OFCOM ANNOUNCE INVESTIGATION INTO THE BBC OVER CHANUKAH BUS REPORTING STATEMENT
By Josh Kaplan
Media regulator Ofcom have said that they’re launching an investigation into the BBC after the corporation released a statement partially apologising for their coverage of the Oxford street Chanukah bus attack. Ofcom said: “We have reviewed the BBC’s final response to complaints about this news programme. We consider it raises issues under our due accuracy rules and have launched an investigation.” Earlier today, the BBC issued a qualified apology for their reporting of the incident saying: “We apologise for not doing more to highlight that these details were contested – we should have reflected this and acted sooner.”
CANADA
COMMENTS ON POPULAR QUEBEC TALK SHOW DENOUNCED AS ANTISEMITIC
By Dan Spector
Comments from a guest on a popular Quebec talk show are being denounced by members of the province’s Jewish community. Stéphanie was invited on Radio-Canada’s Tout le monde en parle to discuss her controversial decision to open the dining room of her pastry shop Vite des Péchés in Jonquière. She chose to break public health rules as a protest. “I don’t want to need to dress up as a Hasidic Jew to have rights,” she said to the host of the show in French.
TORONTO CARIBBEAN NEWSPAPER MUST APOLOGIZE FOR PUBLISHING ANTISEMITIC CONSPIRACY THEORY
FRANCE
ANTISEMITIC GRAFFITI FOUND ON A FOUR-LANE BRIDGE IN ILLE-ET-VILAINE
By France Bleu
Antisemitic graffiti was discovered by motorists traveling on the four-lane departmental road 137, near the Pleugueneuc interchange (Ille-et-Vilaine), in both directions. The inscriptions in white paint on a bridge of the departmental road target the Jewish and Pakistani communities.
OTHER WORLD NEWS
ITALIAN POLICE APPREHEND TEENAGE GIRLS BEHIND BRUTAL ANTISEMITIC ATTACK ON 12-YEAR-OLD JEWISH BOY
By Algemeiner Staff
A 12-year-old Italian Jewish boy has been the target of a vicious antisemitic attack in a municipal park by two older teenagers who subjected him to a stream of insults. The boy, named as “Marco,” was chatting with friends in the park in the town of Campiglia Marittima, near Livorno, where he lives. Two 15-year-old girls approached him and told him to be quiet, before calling him a “dirty Jew.” The assailants then spat at the boy and proceeded to assault him with punches and kicks. They also told him that he would “die in the ovens”. Local police have since apprehended the two teenagers, dubbed “antisemitic bullies” in the local press, who will now face charges in the Juvenile Court in Florence.
THE MIDDLE EAST
TURKEY: DOZENS OF GRAVESTONES SMASHED AT JEWISH CEMETERY IN IZMIR
By Israel National News
On a recent visit to the ancient Jewish cemetery in Izmir, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Gabbai was alarmed to see many gravestones smashed and destruction throughout the entire area. Rabbi Gabbai’s visit was made in honor of the Rabbi Chaim Palagi, one of the greatest Torah leaders of Turkey, who is buried in the cemetery in Izmir.
ON CAMPUS
MEXICAN HISTORY TEACHER DISMISSED FOR ASSIGNING NAZI SALUTES IN CLASS, DRESSING UP AS HITLER
By Dion J. Pierre
A history teacher at a preparatory school in Mexico is no longer with the institution after she dressed up as Adolf Hitler in the classroom and reenacted shootings of Jews with a water gun. StopAntisemitism.org posted images and video of the conduct of Tec de Monterrey- Ciudad Juárez teacher Ana Luisa Nevárez, which it claimed also included assigning students to make a doll of Hitler and directing them to pose for a class photo in which they pantomimed a Nazi salute.
UCL STUDENT LEADER HEARD TELLING RALLY THAT ‘PLOTTING ZIONISTS’ WOULD BE BOOTED FROM MIDDLE EAST
By JC REPORTER
A student leader at University College London told hundreds of protesters at a pro-Palestinian demonstration that “plotting” Zionists would be kicked out of the Middle East as students chanted the Hamas rallying cry “From the river to the sea”. Saleem Nusseibeh, president of UCL’s Students for Justice in Palestine Society, talked at an event about “Zionist manoeuvring and plotting” and said they would be “removed, their presence will be gone”.
ANALYSIS & OP-EDS
STUDIES & STATISTICS
MINISTRY REPORT HIGHLIGHTS BACKLASH AGAINST WORLD JEWRY OVER 2021 GAZA CONFLICT
By STUART WINER
A Diaspora Affairs Ministry annual report on global antisemitism has spotlighted a sharp spike in online hate posts against Jews during Israel’s May 2021 conflict with the Gaza Strip. The coronavirus pandemic also provided fertile ground for antisemitic outbursts, as some touted it as a Jewish conspiracy. The report prompted Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai to urge the government to take greater responsibility for Jewish communities around the world. Last year the ministry detected 3.5 million social media posts with antisemitic content that were posted by some 430,000 users.
2021 WAS MOST ANTISEMITIC YEAR IN PAST DECADE, NEW STUDY FINDS
By CAM
2021 was the most antisemitic year in the past decade globally, with at least 10 incidents per day, according to a new report published by the World Zionist Organization and Jewish Agency for Israel. The annual study found that nearly 50% of last year’s incidents took place in Europe, while around 30% occurred in the United States. The report also noted sharp rises in Jew-hatred incidents in Canada and Australia, leading to them being added to the “List of Red Countries” for antisemitism. Correlations were detected between antisemitism surges and certain events, such as the flare-up of Israel-Gaza violence in May and the lifting of Covid-19 pandemic-related lockdowns.
SURVEY FINDS QUARTER OF AUSTRALIANS UNAWARE OF THE HOLOCAUST
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
10 US STATES ADOPT IHRA DEFINITION OF ANTISEMITISM ON HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY
By OMRI NAHMIAS
Ten US states announced that they are adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. The announcement came as the world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming all issued proclamations on Wednesday. The Commonwealth of Virginia issued an executive order.
BIDEN WARNS OF ‘RESURGENCE OF ANTISEMITISM’ IN HOLOCAUST COMMEMORATION
By JACOB MAGID
Marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, US President Joe Biden decried continued manifestations of antisemitism and hatred in the United States, including at a synagogue hostage standoff earlier this month. “From the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, to a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, we are continually and painfully reminded that hate doesn’t go away; it only hides. And it falls to each of us to speak out against the resurgence of antisemitism and ensure that bigotry and hate receive no safe harbor, at home and around the world,” he said in a statement from the White House. Biden called for better education to counter efforts to distort and deny the Holocaust, noting an Israel-led resolution on the matter that was approved by the UN General Assembly.
EUROPEAN LEADERS PLEDGE TO TARGET PANDEMIC-FUELED ANTISEMITISM
By AP
European Union leaders pledged to confront the rise of antisemitism and Holocaust denial witnessed during the coronavirus pandemic, on the eve of the annual commemorations of Auschwitz’s liberation. European Council President Charles Michel said the lessons of the Holocaust are now “more relevant than ever.” “First, because Jewish people feel threatened, and they are threatened,” he said. “They are even attacked in Europe. Just because they are Jewish. We do not accept this. We will never accept it.”
NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR MURPHY SIGNS LEGISLATION ESTABLISHING THE NEW JERSEY NONPROFIT SECURITY GRANT PROGRAM
HUMANITY
IN ‘CAPTIVES OF HOPE’ SERMON, RABBI ANGELA BUCHDAHL DESCRIBES CALL WITH TEXAS GUNMAN
By PHILISSA CRAMER
The New York City rabbi who spoke twice to the man who held Jews hostage in their Texas synagogue detailed the experience in a sermon. Rabbi Angela Buchdahl of Central Synagogue also outlined her anxiety as an American Jew and exhorted her congregants to heed a prayer that the Reform movement has made part of its liturgy on Tisha B’Av, the Jewish day mourning the destruction of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem and other traumatic events in Jewish history: “Blessed are you, Adonai, who makes us captives of hope.”
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.
