THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL ANTISEMITISM REPORT
The Equality and Non-discrimination Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has called on member states to adopt national strategies to combat antisemitism. The UK government suspended all contact with the National Union of Students over antisemitism concerns, and the southern Italian region of Campania adopted the IHRA working definition of antisemitism.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution in a 420-1 vote that condemns all forms of rising antisemitism and celebrates Jewish American Heritage Month. U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Dr. Deborah Lipstadt made her first public appearance during which she described contemporary antisemitism as “ubiquitous,” and coming from across the “political spectrum,” prescient words in light of this week’s antisemitic incidents.
Two Australian Jewish men were violently attacked at a supermarket in Melbourne, and a synagogue and Jewish teenager were shot at with a BB gun in Brooklyn, NY. A Jewish man was choked on a street in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a Miami, Florida man threatened black and Jewish neighbors with kitchen knives.
A Baltimore, Maryland Jewish Community Center was evacuated after receiving a bomb threat, and an online manifesto written by the suspect in the tragic mass shooting in Buffalo, NY vilified and urged violence against Jews, as part of the racist and antisemitic Great Replacement conspiracy.
In Europe, a man set fire to a Jewish cemetery in Cologne, Germany, and a swastika was scratched onto the Mauthausen concentration camp memorial. Meanwhile, a Palestinian Authority leader claimed that Israeli prisons were “identical copies of Auschwitz,” and Nazi “death camps.”
This week’s global antisemitism report highlights 40 new media reports of antisemitic incidents. The total includes 16 (40.0%) from the far-right, 8 (20.0%) from the far-left, 8 (20.0%) with Islamist motivations, and 8 (20.0%) unidentifiable in nature.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
UNITED STATES
ONLINE MANIFESTO ATTRIBUTED TO SUSPECTED BUFFALO SUPERMARKET SHOOTER VILIFIES AND URGES VIOLENCE AGAINST JEWS
By CAM
An manifesto attributed to the 18-year-old white man suspected of killing ten people at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York — contains a slew of hateful antisemitic rhetoric vilifying Jews and calling for violence against them. Referring to Jews, Gendron — a believer in the racist and antisemitic “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory — wrote, “The real war I’m advocating for is the gentiles vs the Jews. We outnumber them 100x, and they are not strong by themselves. But by their Jewish ways, they turn us against each other. When you realize this you will know that the Jews are the biggest problem the Western world has ever had.” “They must be called out and killed, if they are lucky they will be exiled,” he added. “We can not show any sympathy towards them again.”
BALTIMORE, MD JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER REACTS TO BOMB THREAT, ANTISEMITIC EMAIL
By CBS Baltimore Staff
The Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore received an email filled with hateful and antisemitic language, which threatened to bomb their facility, the organization wrote to its members. “The threat we and other JCCs have received are full of antisemitic language and causes frustration and anxiety,” the CEO Barak Hermann and Board Chair Laura Rubenstein wrote jointly to members. As a precaution, police evacuated the Owings Mills campus to do a full sweep of the building. After two hours, law enforcement did not find any evidence of a bomb threat. At the time, there was a children’s dance competition scheduled at the center.
VIDEO: BB GUN SHOOTER FIRES AT SYNAGOGUE, JEWISH TEEN IN BROOKLYN
By Amanda Woods
Video captures the moment a drive-by shooter fired a BB gun at a Brooklyn synagogue – and then at a teen wearing traditional Jewish attire. The suspect fired an airsoft BB pellet gun from inside a black SUV shattering the front window of the Yavoshna Toras Moshe near the Park Avenue intersection in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Moments later, the drive-by shooter fired the pellet gun at an 18-year-old man dressed in traditional Jewish garb and walking on the sidewalk. While the shooter cannot be clearly seen in the video, the victim is shown flinching and then looking behind him, toward the fleeing SUV.
MARIANNE WILLIAMSON COMES UNDER FIRE FOR BLAMING PRO-ISRAEL GROUPS FOR RISE IN ANTISEMITISM: ‘OUTSTANDINGLY IRRESPONSIBLE’
WORLD NEWS
United Kingdom
ANTISEMITISM ON DISPLAY AT THOUSANDS-STRONG ANTI-ISRAEL MARCH THROUGH LONDON, BUT SUPPORT DROPS TO LOW EBB
By Campaign Against Antisemitism
A slew of controversial and antisemitic signs and chants were present on the streets of London during an anti-Israel rally that was organised by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC), but numbers seem to have declined considerably since the last large-scale mobilisation of protesters. There was evidence of numerous antisemitic placards, with a significant proportion equating Israel with Nazi Germany. One placard read: “Well done Isr*el [sic] Hitler would be proud”, “Say no to fascism say no to Zionism”, and “If genocide wasn’t tolerated in 1945 why do we allow it in 2022?”. Other signs read: “In Palestine 86% of Jews have no legitimate rights to be there. Palestine From the river to the sea” and “Zionism is racism.” The rally also featured disturbing chants, including “Victory to the intifada” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
HECKLER THROWN OUT OF GREAT DUNMOW COMEDY CLUB AFTER ANTI-SEMITIC REMARK TOWARDS COMEDIAN MARK MAIER
GERMANY
ARSON ATTEMPTED AT THE JEWISH CEMETERY IN COLOGNE
By Antisemitism.org.il
An unknown person started a fire on the outer wall of a Jewish cemetery in Cologne. State security is investigating arson. According to the police and public prosecutor’s office, “a politically motivated background cannot be ruled out”. The unknown set the fire in the outside area of the washroom at the Bocklemünd Jewish Cemetery in Cologne-Vogelsang. The fire was quickly discovered by several witnesses, who were able to put out the erupting fire with a bucket of water before any major damage was done.
BERLIN POLICE BANS DEMONSTRATIONS ON NAKBA DAY
CANADA
SCHOOLKIDS CLEAN UP ANTISEMITIC, OTHER OFFENSIVE GRAFFITI THEY FOUND AT ONTARIO PARK
By Kate Dubinski
Police are investigating after a group of youngsters out for a morning play session happened upon slides, swings and other equipment covered in antisemitic symbols and other offensive graffiti in a northeast park in London, Ont. The graffiti, which included the N-word and swastikas, was found at Stephens Farm Park, just off Sunningdale Road east of Adelaide Street north, by children from Adventures in the Woods, an independent day school.
MAPLE LEAF OFFERS $25K REWARD AFTER ‘RACIST’ OBJECT, GRAFFITI FOUND AT LONDON, ONT., POULTRY PLANT SITE
OTHER WORLD NEWS
AUSTRALIAN POLICE INVESTIGATING ANTISEMITIC ATTACK ON JEWISH MEN IN MELBOURNE
By Algemeiner Staff
Australian police are investigating an attack on two Jewish men in the city of Melbourne that left one of them requiring hospital treatment for severe bruising and lacerations. One of the victims, 50-year-old Yacov Gozlan, said he had been leaving a supermarket in the city when he saw an Orthodox Jewish man being attacked. “He was holding the religious man’s hat behind his back and pushing him back with the other hand towards a transit van,” Gozlan saidt. “I said to him ‘I’m Jewish, he’s Jewish, leave us alone’, and he started bashing me straight away.” Gozlan said he ran inside the supermarket, where the assault continued. He alleged that he was gouged in both eyes during the altercation.
MIDDLE EAST
PA LEADER: ISRAELI PRISONS ARE ‘IDENTICAL COPY OF AUSCHWITZ AND THE DEATH CAMPS’
By Nan Jacques Zilberdik
When Israeli soldiers tried to restore order at the Temple Mount during the violent Palestinian riots during Ramadan, official Palestinian Authority (PA) TV’s “Israeli affairs expert” Fayez Abbas presented it as an expression of Israeli Nazi-like ideology. The alleged expert on Israel continued to say that “Israeli leaders are prized students of Goebbels, the minister of propaganda in the period of Nazi Germany:” Known to be fond of the comparison of Israelis to the Nazis, senior PA official and Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub recently claimed that Israeli prisons are “an identical copy of Auschwitz and the death camps:”
ON CAMPUS
CUNY LAW COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER ALLEGES BEING TARGETED BY ‘WELL-FUNDED ORGANIZATIONS WITH TIES TO THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT’
By Melissa Weiss
A commencement speaker at the City University of New York’s law school used her speaking time to allege that she had “been facing a campaign of Zionist harassment by well-funded organizations with ties to the Israeli government and military.” Nerdeen Kiswani also characterized a Jewish community-led trip to Israel taken by CUNY administrators as “an affront to everyone at CUNY fighting for liberation.” Kiswani called the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York’s “Scholars as Bridge-buildings” trip an effort that “normalizes Israel’s colonization and murder of the Palestinian people.”
OHIO HIGH SCHOOL LACROSSE MATCH MARRED BY SWASTIKA DISPLAY, ANTISEMITIC SLUR
By Dion J. Pierre
A Cleveland, Ohio-area high school lacrosse player joined a match with a swastika drawn on his calf, while a parent supporting his team called a rival player a “k*ke.” “Administrators at Lake Catholic High School have been made aware of the very serious allegations of antisemitism involving a player on the school’s varsity lacrosse team as well as a Lake Catholic fan during the game against Orange High School yesterday evening,” the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland said. “The behaviors alleged are reprehensible and contrary to the Gospel values that Lake Catholic works so hard to promote.” Images taken by a student photographer for Lake Catholic’s opponent and winner of Monday’s match, Orange High School, appeared to confirm the allegations.
ANALYSIS & OP-EDS
STUDIES & STATISTICS
ANTISEMITIC INCIDENTS IN AUSTRIA HIT ALL-TIME RECORDED HIGH IN 2021, NEW DATA SHOWS
By CAM
A total of 965 antisemitic incidents were recorded in Austria in 2021, an average of more than 18 weekly, marking an all-time high since the compilation of such data began two decades ago. The statistics — detailed in a report published by the Jewish Community of Vienna’s Reporting Office for Antisemitism, which can be read in full here — showed a 65% increase in antisemitic incidents from the 585 that were recorded in 2020. Of the 965 recorded antisemitic incidents last year, a majority (nearly 60%) involved incidents of “abusive behavior” — including in-person and online comments and messages, while 27% involved literature and mass mailings containing antisemitic messages and stereotypes.
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
DURING JEWISH AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH, US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONDEMNS RISING ANTISEMITISM
By CAM
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning rising antisemitism. The resolution was approved by a 420-1 margin, with the only “no” vote coming from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky). The measure — advanced during Jewish American Heritage Month — was co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of lawmakers). It called on elected officials, faith leaders and civil society leaders to “use their bully pulpit to condemn and combat any and all manifestations of antisemitism,” and also urged elected officials to “condemn and combat any and all denials and distortions of the Holocaust and to promote Holocaust and antisemitism education.” The resolution implored social media platforms to “institute stronger and more significant efforts to measure and address online antisemitism while protecting free speech concerns.” It also vowed the House of Representatives would take “all possible steps to improve the physical security of Jewish institutions and organizations.
COUNCIL OF EUROPE COMMITTEE CALLS FOR NATIONAL ACTION PLANS AGAINST ANTISEMITISM
By WJC
The Equality and Non-discrimination Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe called on member States to adopt strategies or national action plans to prevent and combat antisemitism, and to allocate sufficient financing to put them into effect. States should “criminalise the negation, the banalisation, or denial of the Holocaust”, if this is not already the case, and ensure that the desecration of Jewish property and monuments is outlawed. Political parties, for their part, should take strong measures against all forms of antisemitism or hate speech within their ranks, whilst national parliaments should “publicly and resolutely condemn” expressions of antisemitism and other forms of hatred by parliamentarians.
U.S. HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER HOYER: LET US HONOR JEWISH AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH AND CONFRONT DANGEROUS ANTISEMITISM
HUMANITY
RETURNING FROM ISRAEL, YOUNG MOROCCANS HOPE TO ‘CHANGE MINDS’ BACK HOME
By Sharon Wrobel
Thirty-year-old Oumaima Mhijir from Morocco took her 6-month-old daughter Amber with her to visit Israel for the first time this month, despite the objections of her family back home. Mhijir is part of a group of 40 young people — 20 Israelis and 20 Moroccans — who took part in the Leaders of Tomorrow program, which seeks to build on the long-standing historical and cultural roots between the two countries. The initiative, focused on forging personal connections and expanding tech cooperation among young Israelis and Moroccans, comes after the two countries signed a normalization agreement in 2020 as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords with Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
ISRAEL TO AIRLIFT INJURED UKRAINIANS FOR MEDICAL TREATMENT, SEND MORE MEDICINE
By Sharon Wrobel
Israel will fly injured Ukrainians to its country for medical treatment and allocate millions of shekels to send more medicine directly to the war-torn country, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz announced. Horowitz discussed the humanitarian aid plans over a Zoom meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Liashko. Ukrainian Ambassador in Israel Yevgen Korniychuk and Israeli Ambassador in Ukraine Michael Brodsky were also in attendance.
DORTMUND’S STATEMENT OF ISRAELI FRIENDSHIP
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.
