THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL ANTI-SEMITISM REPORT
CAM’s weekly global anti-Semitism report covers 30 new anti-Semitic incidents (47% far-right, 30% far-left, and 23% unidentifiable).
A U.S. Capitol Police officer was suspended for reading the notorious anti-Semitic tract “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” at his official post. Two Jewish women were attacked in Buenos Aires by an assailant shouting: “You should have died in the Holocaust!”
New York’s Skidmore College denied approval for a club named “Progressive Zionists for Peace.” A new study found that 31% of Austrians held anti-Semitic beliefs – a significant decline from prior years. Meanwhile, following a United Nations meeting on holistic approaches to fighting anti-Semitism, Israel’s UN Ambassador announced a push to have the UN formally adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism.
On Tuesday, CAM and the German city of Frankfurt am Main hosted the first-ever “Mayors Summit Against Anti-Semitism” that brought together leaders from more than 30 cities in 21 countries to explore practical solutions to eradicate hatred and prejudice in local communities.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SPECIAL FEATURE
MORE THAN 30 CITIES PLEDGE TO DEFEAT ANTI-SEMITISM AT FIRST-EVER GLOBAL MAYORS SUMMIT
By CAM
Municipal leaders from more than 32 cities across 21 countries took part today in the first-ever Mayors Summit Against Anti-Semitism, hosted by the Frankfurt am Main municipality in partnership with the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement (CAM). Participants including tens of city mayors pledged to make the summit the first step in establishing a long-term framework working towards defeating anti-Semitism, prejudice, and hatred. Read Here
FROM AMSTERDAM TO TORONTO, WORLD’S MAYORS RALLY TO STOP ANTI-SEMITISM
By ALAN ROSENBAUM
Mayors from some of the world’s major cities met in a virtual forum to discuss ways to stop the spread of anti-Semitism and eradicate prejudice from their municipalities. The first-ever “Mayors Summit Against Anti-Semitism,” sponsored by Frankfurt am Main in partnership with the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement (CAM), brought together 44 leaders from 32 cities around the world who conducted a frank and open discussion about the importance of fighting anti-Semitism in cities worldwide. Read Here
CAM LEADERS SPEAK ON HOLISTIC APPROACHES TO FIGHTING ANTI-SEMITISM AT UN ALLIANCE OF CIVILIZATIONS EVENT
By CAM
CAM Executive Director Sacha Roytman-Dratwa, two CAM Advisory Board members, Lord John Mann and Lord Eric Pickles, and CAM Senior Advisor Robert Singer were among the participants in a special meeting of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC). The online gathering — held under the banner of “Exploring Holistic Approaches to Combating Anti-Semitism” — was hosted by UN High-Representative Miguel Morantinos and featured representatives of entities involved in fighting anti-Semitism. Read Here
NEW UNITED NATIONS REPORT SAYS ISLAMOPHOBIA RISING TO ‘EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS,’ URGES STATES TO ACT
By CAM
A new report issued by United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Ahmed Shaheed, warns that anti-Muslim hatred or Islamophobia is rising to “epidemic proportions” around the world. In the report titled, Report on Countering Islamophobia/Anti-Muslim Hatred to Eliminate Discrimination and Intolerance Based on Religion or Belief, Shaheed urged states to act to curb the rise of anti-Muslim hatred. Read Here
UNITED STATES
CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER SUSPENDED AFTER PROTOCOLS OF ZION FOUND AT SECURITY POST
By Ben Sales
A Capitol Police officer has been suspended after a copy of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” an infamous anti-Semitic document, was found near his work area. The officer, part of the force that was overwhelmed during the January 6 insurrection on the US Capitol, is under investigation “after anti-Semitic reading material was discovered near his work area.” Read Here
HITLER-MUSTACHE MAN CHARGED IN CAPITOL RIOTS SPOKE OF ‘KILLING ALL THE JEWS’
By AP
An Army reservist charged with taking part in the attack on the US Capitol was known as a Nazi sympathizer who wore a Hitler mustache. Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, 30, was employed as a security contractor at a Navy base when he breached the Capitol on Jan. 6. One Navy seaman said that Hale-Cusanelli told him “he would kill all the Jews and eat them…” Read Here
WORLD NEWS
United Kingdom
CORBYN SUPPORTERS THREATEN TO TAKE CARE OF JEWISH ACTIVISTS
By Jake Wallis Simons
A group of UK Labour members, a number of whom have been suspended or expelled from the party, is being investigated by police after it set up an “anti-Zionist action network” to discover the addresses of Jewish Labour activists and “take care of those individuals”, the Jewish Chronicle reported. Read Here
PLAID CYMRU TO PUT ‘HOUSE IN ORDER’ ON ANTI-SEMITISM
By Ione Wells
Plaid Cymru’s complaints procedures to deal with anti-Semitism are “insufficiently robust”, the party’s Westminster leader has said, following Liz Saville Roberts’ review into anti-Semitism. It recommends the party’s definition of anti-Semitism be updated, and the handling of complaints changed. Read Here
GERMANY
A NUMBER OF ANTI-SEMITIC INCIDENTS RELATED TO CORONAVIRUS IN MUNICH
By Eli Nahum
Numerous demonstrations against pandemic-related government restrictions took place again in Bavaria. RIAS Bayern recorded anti-Semitic incidents in Munich, especially those that downplay the Holocaust. A participant was spotted at a rally in front of the Munich Palace of Justice, whose appearance was reminiscent of a stereotyped Jew in concentration camp prison clothes. Read Here
NEW YORK HASIDIC MEN DETAINED IN GERMAN AIRPORT – WAS THERE ANY REASON?
By Jerusalem Post Staff
About 16 Hasidic men, including a group from New York traveling to Vienna, were detained at a German airport for more than 10 hours without actually getting charged, according to the Jewish rights group Americans Against Antisemitism (AAA). Five of the men were apprehended by authorities in Frankfurt already on March 7, and were detained without food and water. Read Here
OTHER WORLD NEWS
BRAZIL: POLICE RAID CHURCH WHOSE PASTOR PRAYED FOR ANOTHER HOLOCAUST
By JTA
Federal police in Brazil raided the church whose pastor had prayed with congregants for another Holocaust. The raid in Rio de Janeiro was part of an operation titled “Shalom” by the federal police against Tupirani da Hora Lores, who heads the Pentecostal Generation Jesus Christ Church. Police confiscated literature there. Read Here
ARGENTINA: TWO JEWISH WOMEN ATTACKED IN BUENOS AIRES BY ASSAILANT SCREAMING “YOU SHOULD HAVE ALL DIED IN THE HOLOCAUST”
By CAM
Two Orthodox Jewish women were assaulted in downtown Buenos Aires by a female assailant screaming, “You should have all died in the Holocaust.” During the incident in the Argentine capital, one of the Jewish women had her sheytl — or wig — torn off before she was thrown to the ground by the attacker. Read Here
THE MIDDLE EAST
OUTRAGE ERUPTS AFTER INTERPOL DROPS INTERNATIONAL WARRANT FOR NOTORIOUS PALESTINIAN TERRORIST BEHIND SBARRO BOMBINGS
By JTA
Outrage erupted after it was revealed that Interpol had dropped its international warrant for Palestinian terrorist Ahlam Tamimi, who was involved in the 2001 suicide bombing at the Sbarro pizza parlor in Jerusalem that killed 15 people, including American citizen Malki Roth. Read Here
ON CAMPUS
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PASSES RESOLUTION TO ADOPT IHRA ANTI-SEMITISM DEFINITION
By Shiryn Ghermezian
The student government at the University of Texas at Austin unanimously passed a resolution urging the school to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism. Resolution A.R. 09 calls on UT’s student government to do three things: commit to better address anti-Jewish sentiments on campus; adopt the IHRA definition for anti-Semitism; and issue “a pledge of support for better Jewish inclusion and protection.” Read Here
SKIDMORE COLLEGE STUDENTS DENIED TRIAL PERIOD FOR ‘PROGRESSIVE ZIONISTS FOR PEACE’ CLUB
By Sharon Wrobel
Two Skidmore College students accused the private university of political bias, after being denied a trial period for their “Progressive Zionists for Peace” student club. Nessa Goldhirsch Brown and another student asked the New York university’s Club Affairs Committee for a trial period after other clubs, including the Social Justice for Palestine club, were granted a trial period. Read Here
ANALYSIS & OP-EDS
STUDIES & STATISTICS
IN AUSTRIAN ANTI-SEMITISM STUDY, 31% OF RESPONDENTS MADE BIASED STATEMENTS. IT’S A HUGE IMPROVEMENT.
By CNAAN LIPHSHIZ
In a survey of anti-Semitic attitudes in Austria, 31% of the 2,000 respondents agreed with statements that the poll’s authors said exemplified anti-Jewish biases — a significant drop in that sentiment from a similar study in 2018. The Austrian government commissioned the survey from the Institute for Empirical Social Studies. Read Here
‘EVOLVING STRAIN’ OF ANTI-SEMITISM IS EMERGING ON LEFT, ARGUES ISRAELI THINK TANK IN NEW REPORT
By Benjamin Kerstein
A new report on progressive anti-Semitism was released by a top Israeli think tank, arguing that a new form of anti-Semitism is becoming increasingly powerful in left-wing ideology and activism. The Reut Group issued the paper on a new form of “erasive anti-Semitism” that is gaining traction in progressive discourse. Read Here
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
ISRAEL TO PUSH FOR UN ADOPTION OF IRHA DEFINITION OF ANTI-SEMITISM
By JNS
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan is promoting an initiative that would see the international body adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism. To enlist the UN to the effort, Erdan recently met with UN Under-Secretary-General Miguel Moratinos, the body’s “point man” on anti-Semitism. Read Here
ANTI-SEMITISM IS ‘GLOBAL PROBLEM,’ SAYS UN OFFICIAL IN VIRTUAL CONFERENCE ON FIGHTING ANTI-JEWISH HATRED
By Sharon Wrobel
A leading United Nations official called for greater international recognition of anti-Semitism and more focus on the role of social media in the spread of online hate. “The majority of anti-Semitic attacks have taken place in Europe or the US, but our outreach efforts should extend beyond those regions,” said Miguel Moratinos, the High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) at the conference, Exploring Holistic Approaches to Combating Anti-Semitism. Read Here
HUMANITY
NETANYAHU SAYS UAE TO INVEST 10 BILLION IN ISRAEL PROJECTS
By Alisa Odenheimer
The United Arab Emirates plans to invest $10 billion in the Israeli economy, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, citing a conversation with the Gulf nation’s de facto ruler, Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed. Netanyahu said the two agreed that the Israeli leader’s first trip to the UAE, which was canceled on Thursday, would take place soon. Read Here
SF-BORN RABBI H. DAVID TEITELBAUM WHO MARCHED IN SELMA DIES AT 94
By Laura Paull
Rabbi H. David Teitelbaum, revered as much for his commitment to his congregants and the Bay Area Jewish community as for his passionate social activism on national and international stages, died at age 94. The next day, about 150 people took part in a memorial service on Zoom in which the native San Franciscan was remembered for his participation in the U.S. civil rights movement, his advocacy on behalf of Soviet Jews and his love for Israel. 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.
