THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL ANTISEMITISM REPORT
Germany’s Interior Minister signed a cooperation agreement with Yad Vashem to train German police on antisemitism – a critical law enforcement step to recognize, prosecute, and prevent antisemitic hate crimes, which have reached record highs in Germany.
In Boston, Massachusetts, The Mapping Project – a pro-BDS activist collective – released an interactive map listing “Zionist leaders and NGOs” (including addresses and names) to draw links between dozens of local synagogues, Jewish organizations and schools, universities, foundations, and police departments to demonstrate that “support for the colonization of Palestine is structurally tied to policing and systemic white supremacy.” The organization wrote, “Every entity has an address, every network can be disrupted.”
U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), who represents a heavily Jewish district in the map, fiercely condemned the effort saying, “This is just chilling…It is tapping into millennia-old antisemitic tropes about nefarious Jewish wealth, control, conspiracy, media connections and political string-pulling,” explaining further that efforts to “keep lists” of Jews “can incite violence” and “inflame the deranged among us to take the next step from contemplating to acting upon violence.”
A Jewish community center in Denver, Colorado received a bomb threat, and a suspicious man made threats after entering a Las Vegas, Nevada synagogue during Shabbat. Antisemitic flyers were distributed at homes this week in Pennsylvania, California, Massachusetts, Florida, Maryland, Illinois, and Virginia.
Antisemitic violence was reported in France, where a Strasbourg Jewish man was beaten unconscious by a group yelling “Dirty Jew,” as he hung campaign posters for his wife. Nearby, four Neo-Nazis were arrested for a plot to “hunt Jews” during a soccer match. Authorities found 43 guns, 120,000 bullets, and neo-Nazi literature in their possession.
In a speech to the Islamic world, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei said “Zionism is an obvious plague for the world of Islam…The Zionists have always been a plague, even before establishing the fraudulent Zionist regime. Even then, Zionist capitalists were a plague for the whole world.” Calling out this state sponsored antisemitism, US Antisemitism Envoy Deborah Lipstadt said, “Let us make no mistake, the use of ‘Zionist’ here is nothing but a foil for “Jewish.”
This week’s global antisemitism report highlights 33 new media reports of antisemitic incidents. The total includes 18 (54.5%) from the far-right, 6 (18.2%) from the far-left, 3 (9.1%) with Islamist motivations, and 6 (18.2%) unidentifiable in nature.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
UNITED STATES
BOSTON JEWS SAY A PRO-PALESTINIAN GROUP’S MAP OF LOCAL ‘ZIONIST LEADERS AND POWERHOUSE NGOS’ IS A GUIDE TO ANTISEMITISM
By ANDREW LAPIN
A Jewish arts group. A Jewish high school. A Jewish newspaper. A synagogue network. A major Jewish philanthropy that directs funds to mental health, homelessness prevention and refugee resettlement initiatives. These are a few of the locations on a dense interactive map of “Zionist leaders and powerhouse NGOs” in Massachusetts created by an activist group that says it aims to expose “local institutional support for the colonization of Palestine” and reveal how support for Zionist causes is a nexus point for various “other harms” in society, ranging from gentrification to the prison-industrial complex to ableism. The Mapping Project, a Boston-area pro-Palestinian activist collective aligned with the local BDS movement, is using its map (which includes addresses of the organizations and names of their staffers) to draw literal links between dozens of area Jewish groups, universities, foundations, police departments and other organizations. The group says its goal is to demonstrate that “institutional support for the colonization of Palestine is structurally tied to policing and systemic white supremacy here where we live, and to US imperialist projects in other countries.” Jewish groups in the state say The Mapping Project’s efforts amount to little more than an attempt to catalog and intimidate area Jews.
POLICE SEEKING INFORMATION ABOUT MALE WHO CAUSED DISTURBANCE AT LAS VEGAS SYNAGOGUE
By KTNV
On Saturday, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said patrol officers responded to a synagogue located in the 9000 block of Hillpointe Road for a report of a suspicious person. Upon arriving, LVMPD said security advised officers that an unidentified male entered and caused a disturbance and made threatening comments. The subject is described by police as a black male adult, 5’9, muscular build, with dreadlocks in a bun. He has multiple tattoos on the face, to include the temple area. He was last seen wearing a gray tank top, black jeans, and brown boots.
CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO POLICE INVESTIGATE SERIES OF CAR VANDALISMS WITH ANTISEMITIC SIGNS
WORLD NEWS
United Kingdom
BOOT THEM OUT, KEIR: LABOUR COUNCIL EXTREMISM EXPOSED
By DAVID ROSE
A Labour council leader said “many would remember what justification Hitler had for what he did to the Jews” as he implied that Israel was comparable to the Nazis in a public meeting. The shocking remarks by Mohammed Iqbal were made in Pendle, Lancashire in an inflammatory speech in which he called for the Palestinian flag to be raised over the town hall. It was later flown over the Jubilee period, causing outrage. At an earlier meeting, a fellow Labour councillor in Pendle and the town’s mayor, Yasser Iqbal, cited Pastor Niemoller’s famous anti-Nazi poem denouncing those who did not “speak out”, saying those who failed to speak out against Israel were culpable.
LONDON: HARINGEY LABOUR LEADER TELLS LOCAL PARTY SHE ‘WILL NOT TOLERATE ANTISEMITISM’
GERMANY
ENGLAND FOOTBALL FANS DISPLAYING NAZI SALUTE ARRESTED IN MUNICH
By Alistair Walsh
Eight English football fans were arrested in Munich ahead of a Nations League game against Germany, city police confirmed. Three fans were arrested for performing the Nazi salute, police said. It is a crime in Germany to perform the Nazi salute, punishable with up to three years in prison, although tourists are often just fined for the offensive gesture. Unconfirmed images posted on social media showed the neo-Nazi and antisemitic “Millwall Berserkers” hooligan group was in the city, displaying their banners in various points around the city.
JEWS IN GERMANY ‘UNDER MASSIVE THREAT,’ COMMUNITY LEADER WARNS
FRANCE
JEWISH MAN BEATEN AND ALLEGEDLY CALLED ‘DIRTY JEW’ WHILE CAMPAIGNING FOR HIS POLITICAL CANDIDATE WIFE IN FRANCE
By CNAAN LIPHSHIZ
A group of men violently assaulted a Jewish man while he was putting up campaign posters for his wife, who is running for a legislative seat in Strasbourg, France. Initially, two men who approached Liron Rozenhaft, 41, called him a “dirty Jew” after reading the name of his wife, Audrey Rozenhaft, on the posters. She is running as a candidate for the center-right Republicans party in the 1st constituency of Bas-Rhin. Liron Rozenhaft said that the two men pulled down the posters and followed him elsewhere on a scooter. Several other men followed in pursuit. He said he told the men that France “is still a democracy.” Audrey Rozenhaft wrote that he was left unconscious, and said that authorities have allowed for “an explosion of crime and violence” in the area. Rozenhaft was left with minor injuries, including a concussion.
FRANCE: FOUR NEO-NAZIS ARRESTED FOR PLANNING ‘JEW HUNT’ DURING SOCCER MATCH
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Four neo-Nazi men in France’s Alsace region were indicted for possessing and trafficking an “impressive” amount of weapons that were intended for use against Jews, prosecutor Edwige Roux-Morizot said. The men, aged between 45-53, were affiliated with far-right neo-Nazi groups and had intended on “hunting Jews” during a soccer match in Strasbourg, she said. During the arrest, French police seized 18 legal and 23 illegal guns and some 120,000 bullets, as well as neo-Nazi literature, the prosecutor said. The men were “well integrated into society,” Roux-Morizot said, according to the BBC. They were arrested before they managed to carry out the attack.
FRANCE: ANTISEMITIC AND PRO-RUSSIA TAGS DISCOVERED BEFORE A FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT FOR UKRAINE
OTHER WORLD NEWS
UN PROBE BLAMES ISRAEL FOR PERPETUATING CONFLICT WITH PALESTINIANS
By LAZAR BERMAN
A report released by a United Nations Commission of Inquiry blamed Israel’s “persistent discrimination against Palestinians” for violence between the two sides. “Forced displacement, threats of forced displacement, demolitions, settlement construction and expansion, settler violence, and the blockade of Gaza” were identified as “contributing factors to recurring cycles of violence” by the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. In a statement, the US State Department called the commission “a one-sided, biased approach that does nothing to advance the prospects for peace.” “The report of the Commission, released today, does nothing to alleviate our concerns,” the statement added, calling it “a continuation of a longstanding pattern of unfairly singling out Israel.”
MIDDLE EAST
IRAN: ‘ZIONIST CAPITALISTS’ PLAGUE FOR WORLD EVEN BEFORE ISRAEL – KHAMENEI
By TZVI JOFFRE
Zionism is a plague for the world of Islam and “Zionist capitalists” were a plague for the whole world, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said during a speech. “Today, Zionism is an obvious plague for the world of Islam,” said Khamenei, according to a transcript on his English-language website. “The Zionists have always been a plague, even before establishing the fraudulent Zionist regime. Even then, Zionist capitalists were a plague for the whole world. Now they’re a plague especially for the world of Islam.” The Iranian supreme leader called for “the plague of Zionism” to be “exposed” in any way possible.
IRAN: ‘UNCONSTRUCTIVE’ IAEA RESOLUTION BASED ON ‘FALSE ZIONIST’ INFORMATION
ON CAMPUS
UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY: ‘THIS MOTION IS AWASH WITH LIES’
By MIA GARDINER
The supporters of a new University of Sydney Students’ Representative Council (USYD SRC) motion “patronisingly assert that they know better than Jews what antisemitism is”, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry said. The June 1 motion entitled “From the River to the Sea” refers to Israel as an apartheid state and condemns “major institutions in Australia” and both the Liberal and Labor parties for remaining “complicit in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land”, saying that in doing so they “defend apartheid”.
ANALYSIS & OP-EDS
STUDIES & STATISTICS
2021 SAW 24% JUMP IN ANTISEMITIC INCIDENTS IN NEW YORK STATE, NEW DATA SHOWS
By CAM
The number of antisemitic incidents in New York State increased by 24% — from 336 to 416 — in 2021, compared to 2020, according to a joint report published by the Anti-Defamation League and the Community Security Initiative. The incidents included an all-time recorded-high 51 assaults motivated by anti-Jewish bias. In New York City, Jews — who comprise 13% of the population — were the victims in 40% of all hate crimes in 2020-21, making them the most-targeted demographic group.
MAJORITY OF ANTISEMITIC CONTENT ON SPOTIFY YET TO BE REMOVED
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
COLOMBIA JOINS THE MORE THAN THREE DOZEN COUNTRIES WORLDWIDE THAT HAVE ADOPTED IHRA ANTISEMITISM DEFINITION
By CAM
Colombia has become the latest country to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, in a move announced by President Iván Duque. “We reaffirm the values of rejecting any form of discrimination,” President Duque tweeted. Thursday’s signing ceremony was attended by Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary-General Luis Almagro, who has urged all OAS member states to adopt the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism and fight Jew-hatred in all its contemporary manifestations.
GERMANY TO RECEIVE LAW-ENFORCEMENT TRAINING ON ANTISEMITISM FROM YAD VASHEM
By JNS
Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperating with Yad Vashem to train German police about antisemitism during her visit to the Holocaust museum and memorial in Jerusalem. She signed the MOU with Yad Vashem director-general Tzvika Fayirizen. As part of the combined effort, “we are strengthening and supplementing existing measures to raise awareness of antisemitism as part of the basic and advanced training of federal police authorities,” said Faeser. She added that “for us, and also for me personally, it is very important to preserve the memory of the Shoah.”
HUMANITY
A MUSLIM HIGH SCHOOL CLASS STUDIED THE HOLOCAUST. HERE’S WHAT THEY LEARNED.
By Ruben Brosbe
While teaching about the Holocaust at the Brooklyn Amity High School this year, one of Mehnaz Afridi’s favorite stories to tell came from a country not usually associated with the Nazi genocide: Albania. While most countries either colluded with the Nazis or surrendered to their demands, she told her students, the Muslims of Albania fought to protect their Jewish neighbors and even provided refuge to Jews from other countries. The story may feel apt at a moment of rising antisemitism, but it was especially resonant for Afridi’s students — all but one of whom were Muslim. The yearlong class at Amity, a private, pre-K-to-12 school whose student body is largely Turkish-American and almost entirely Muslim, was designed to teach the history of the Holocaust, as well as its lessons, to young Muslims who may have had little previous exposure to Jews.
The Combat Antisemitism Movement is a global coalition engaging more than 360,000 people and 450 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.
