Former Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters asked legendary singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder to reject Israel’s prestigious Wolf Prize. In a video posted on Facebook, a rambling Waters urged Wonder to turn down the award. The Wolf Prize was given to the “Superstition” singer for “his tremendous contribution to music and society enriching the lives of entire generations of music lovers.” Read Here
THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL ANTI-SEMITISM REPORT
In this week’s global anti-Semitism report, CAM covers 39 new anti-Semitic incidents (46% far-right, 23% far-left, 21% Islamist, and 10% unidentifiable).
Under the guise of Palestine activism, Social media star ‘Dulla Mulla’ harassed Jewish Americans at a kosher grocery store in Michigan, broadcasting the episode to his 300,000 followers. Miami Heat player Meyers Leonard referred to Jews using an anti-Semitic slur.
A Singaporean soldier was arrested for a plot to stab Jewish men outside of a synagogue on behalf of Hamas. The student government at UCLA passed a resolution accusing of Israel of ethnic cleansing.
Meanwhile, after Meyers Leonard apologized, NFL star Julian Edelmen invited him to Shabbat dinner and used the incident as a teaching moment.
As we continue to witness anti-Semitic incidents taking place on campus, in sport, and in our local communities, we urge you to register for the historic Mayors Summit Against Anti-Semitism next Tuesday, March 16th!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SPECIAL FEATURE
GLOBAL MAYORS SUMMIT AGAINST ANTI-SEMITISM TO BE HELD MARCH 16
By ALAN ROSENBAUM
“Seventy-six years after the liberation of Auschwitz,” says Uwe Becker, Mayor of Frankfurt am Main, “we have seen a dramatic rise in anti-Semitism all around the world, in Europe, and here in Germany. It takes place in the cities, towns, and councils, all around the world, from the far right to intellectual anti-Semitism, to the hatred against the State of Israel. It’s up to us to fight against this toxic spirit that is poisoning the ground on which our societies are built upon.” Read Here
HEADS OF US CITIES HIT BY ANTI-SEMITIC VIOLENCE TO UNITE AT MAYORS SUMMIT, DISCUSS HOW TO PREVENT FURTHER ATTACKS
By CAM
From the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre and Poway Chabad shooting, to the Hanukkah party stabbing at a Monsey rabbi’s home, American Jews have been brutally murdered by evil-doers motivated by anti-Semitism. On March 16th, the leaders of three of the communities stricken by this violence — Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto, Poway Mayor Steve Vaus, Ramapo (Monsey) Supervisor Michael Specht — will come together for the first time at the 2021 Mayors Summit Against Anti-Semitism. Read Here
UNITED STATES
CAM CONDEMNS ANTI-SEMITIC HARASSMENT OF JEWS AT MICHIGAN KOSHER STORE BY SOCIAL MEDIA STAR ‘DULLA MULLA’
By CAM
A popular social media content creator known as “Dulla Mulla” has posted a video of himself harassing Jews at a kosher store in Detroit, Michigan. In the clip, Dulla Mulla can be seen asking several shoppers to read the words “Free Palestine” from his phone. “The words ‘Free Palestine’ couldn’t even come out of the Zionist Jews mouth,” he wrote on his social media accounts to nearly 300,000 followers. Read Here
HEAT’S MEYERS LEONARD USES ANTI-SEMITIC SLUR DURING CALL OF DUTY LIVE STREAM
By JOSEPH ZUCKER
Miami Heat center Meyers Leonard used an anti-Semitic slur while playing Call of Duty during a live stream. Leonard can be heard calling another player a “f–king k–e b—h”. Leonard issued an apology for the slur Tuesday night: The Heat announced Leonard would “be away from the team indefinitely” while the NBA investigates his conduct. Read Here
WORLD NEWS
United Kingdom
PINK FLOYD’S ROGER WATERS URGES STEVIE WONDER TO TURN DOWN ISRAEL’S WOLF PRIZE
By Shiryn Ghermezian
BRITISH ACTRESS SPEAKS OUT ON RACIST ABUSE SUFFERED BY JEWISH WOMEN: ‘WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED’
By Shiryn Ghermezian
British Jewish actress Tracy-Ann Oberman wrote about the “sexual, fetishist, personal and brutal” abuse experienced by Jewish women in an article published which marked International Women’s Day. “I have discovered that Jewish women have long held a special place in the heart of Jew haters and misogynists,” Oberman wrote. Read Here
GERMANY
GERMAN MUSLIM LEADER RESIGNS AFTER SOCIALIST GROUP EXPOSES HIS ONLINE ANTI-SEMITIC CAMPAIGN
By Ben Cohen
The head of an influential Turkish Muslim association in Germany resigned from his position after his anti-Semitic social media postings were exposed by a left-wing group, vowing at the same time to clear his name. Mustafa Keskin — the chairman of the branch of DITIB, a Turkish religious group, in the university city of Göttingen — tendered his resignation after his posts on various social media platforms were brought to light by Die Falken (The Falcons), a socialist youth organization. Read Here
COURT SAYS EX-NAZI CAMP GUARD, 96, UNFIT TO STAND TRIAL
By AFP
A German court halts proceedings against a 96-year-old former Nazi camp guard deemed unfit to stand trial, but rules that he must pay his own legal fees. The man named as Harry S. is accused of aiding and abetting murder in several hundred cases while working as a guard at the Stutthof camp in then Nazi-occupied Poland between June 1944 and May 1945. He was charged in 2017 along with another former Stutthof guard whose trial was discontinued in March 2019, also for health reasons. Read Here
OTHER WORLD NEWS
SOUTH AFRICA: FURY AS CHIEF JUSTICE IS ORDERED TO APOLOGIZE FOR PRO-ISRAEL COMMENTS
By Ben Cohen
South Africa’s chief justice has been ordered by a judicial oversight committee to apologize publicly for criticisms he made of his government’s hostile stance toward the State of Israel. South Africa’s Judicial Service Commission (JSC) — which investigates complaints made against judges — found Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng guilty of misconduct for comments made at an online seminar in June 2020, in which he appeared alongside South Africa’s Chief Rabbi, Warren Goldstein. Read Here
SINGAPORE: MUSLIM MAN ARRESTED FOR PLANNING STABBING SPREE OUTSIDE SYNAGOGUE
By AFP
A radicalized Singaporean Muslim soldier has been arrested for planning a deadly stabbing spree against Jews. Such cases are rare in multi-ethnic Singapore, where different religious and ethnic groups generally live peacefully side by side. Amirull Ali, 20, planned to ambush and kill at least three Jewish men as they left a synagogue after prayers, security officials said. Read Here
THE MIDDLE EAST
PA: JEWS ARE “DEFILING JERUSALEM,” “INVADING THE AL-AQSA MOSQUE” WHEN THEY VISIT THE TEMPLE MOUNT
By Nan Jacques Zilberdik
In a broadcast on official PA TV, PA shows footage of Jews at the Temple Mount while text on the screen warns viewers: “The occupation’s forces and its settlers invade the Al-Aqsa Mosque Jerusalem will not be defiled.” Palestinian Media Watch has exposed this anti-Semitic broadcast previously, as well as similar expressions, claiming that hordes of Jews are “invading” and “defiling” Muslim and Christian holy sites. Read Here
IRAQI GOVERNMENT ACCUSED OF PREVENTING JEWS FROM ATTENDING POPE’S VISIT
By Seth J. Frantzman
The Iraqi government ignored the history of Iraqi Jews during the visit of Pope Francis. The Vatican hoped that Jews would be part of the events attended by Pope Francis in Iraq, with Vatican News even noting that the pope met “representatives of the three Abrahamic religions at Ur of the Chaldeans in Iraq and urges Christians, Muslims and Jews to journey along a path of peace under the stars of the promise God made to Abraham.” However, a public delegation of Jews was not able to attend the event. Read Here
ON CAMPUS
UK EDUCATION WEBSITE APOLOGIZES FOR HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT THAT BLAMED JEWS FOR DEATH OF JESUS
By CAM
A British educational website has removed and apologized for a homework assignment in which Jews were blamed for the killing of Jesus. The move by Topmarks followed a complaint by Joanne Bell, the mother of a seven-year-old boy, whose assignment from his school’s religious studies teacher included a slide titled “The Trial of Jesus.” The text of the slide claimed “Jewish leaders wanted Jesus to be guilty” and “paid people to lie about him.” Read Here
UCLA STUDENT GOV’T PASSES RESOLUTION ACCUSING ISRAEL OF “ETHNIC CLEANSING”
By Aaron Bandler
The UCLA student government passed a resolution alleging that the Israeli government is committing “ethnic cleansing” against the Palestinians. The resolution called for the University of California system to divest from “the war industry” and for “the university to sever itself from companies that engage or aid in the oppression of any people.” Read Here
CITY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS REFERENDUM AGAINST DEFINITION OF ANTI-SEMITISM IS A SHAMEFUL ABANDONMENT OF JEWISH STUDENTS
By Campaign Against Antisemitism
UCL PRESIDENT SAYS SCHOOL WOULD DEFEND RIGHT TO INVITE A HOLOCAUST DENIER WHLE ENSURING THAT JEWISH STUDENTS WERE ‘LOOKED AFTER’
By Algemeiner
ANALYSIS & OP-EDS
THE FIRST STEP TO FIGHTING ANTI-SEMITISM: WHY THE IHRA DEFINITION MATTERS
By ROBERT WILLIAMS, MARK WEITZMAN
STUDIES & STATISTICS
‘ANNIHILATION’ OF POLAND’S JEWISH CEMETERIES DOCUMENTED IN PROVOCATIVE BOOK
By MATT LEBOVIC
Most people assume that Poland’s destroyed Jewish burial grounds were desecrated by the Nazis. An expert on Jewish cemeteries in Poland, however, said Polish citizens likely did more damage after the war than the country’s German occupiers. Called “The Annihilation of Jewish Cemeteries,” author Krzysztof Bielawski’s book — available in Polish — examines the erasure of Poland’s Jewish cemeteries since World War II. Read Here
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
U.S. SENATOR ROSEN NAMED GLOBAL CHAIR OF REVIVED INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF JEWISH PARLIAMENTARIANS
By Marc Rod
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) was named the chair of the newly reestablished International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians (ICJP), in a move announced by the World Jewish Congress, which convenes the council. Rosen, a founder of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism and the first former synagogue president to serve in the Senate, will lead the body, which was previously also supported by the Knesset and Israel’s Foreign Ministry. Read Here
100 BRITISH MPS AND PEERS WRITE TO BRISTOL UNIVERSITY OVER PROFESSOR DAVID MILLER
By Jewish News
More than 100 MPs and Peers have signed a letter accusing Bristol University professor David Miller of “inciting hatred against Jewish students”. The All Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism (APPGAA) raised concerns over sociology lecturer David Miller after Miller accused Jewish students of running a “campaign of censorship” on behalf of the Israeli government. Read Here
HUMANITY
STORY OF FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN ISRAELI-IRANIAN JUDO CHAMPS TO BE MADE INTO TV SHOW
By JTA
The stories of Israeli champion judoka Sagi Muki and his friend Saeid Mollaei, who fled his native Iran after refusing an order not to fight Muki in international competition, are being turned into a TV series. The project is being jointly produced by MGM/UA Television and Israel’s Tadmor Entertainment, with help from the International Judo Federation. Read Here
JULIAN EDELMAN INVITES MEYERS LEONARD TO SHABBAT DINNER AFTER THE NBA PLAYER APOLOGIZES FOR ANTI-SEMITIC SLUR
By JTA
Jewish NFL star Julian Edelman is offering Meyers Leonard an open hand after the NBA player apologized for saying the word “kike” during a video game livestream. Edelman posted what he called a short open letter to Leonard on his social media pages, saying he did not want to add to the criticism Leonard was facing but instead “offer some perspective.” “I’m down in Miami fairly often. Let’s do a Shabbat dinner with some friends[,] I’ll show you a fun time,” he wrote. 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.
