New Jersey State Senate Bill 4001 “Prohibits anti-Semitism in public schools and institutions of higher education,” but critics including various Palestinian rights groups say the legislation “codifies a widely contested redefinition of anti-Semitism that includes protected speech critical of Israel.” Read Here.

This semester, the Columbia University student body jeopardized the security of Jewish college students by tolerating anti-Semitism on campus. My community betrayed Jewish students by ignoring and delegitimizing cries of anti-Semitism. Frighteningly, many of us do not need to look far to find anti-Semitism around us, including in places like Columbia University that pride themselves on being progressive and liberal. Read Here.

The student parliament of the University of Münster passed a resolution against the BDS campaign. “We clearly position ourselves against any form of anti-Semitism and reject the boycott efforts against Israel.” Read Here.

StandWithUs announced the launch of its new Center for Combating Anti-Semitism that will work to identify, define, and expose anti-Semitism. Read Here.

As a wave of anti-Israel hate spreads from elite college campuses to public high schools, some Massachusetts parents fight back. Read Here.

Ostracizing, marginalizing and excluding pro-Israel Zionists based on their identity is not a “speech” issue. It is racist and unlawful conduct and must be confronted. If we want to ensure that history does not repeat itself, we must recognize that if you isolate and dehumanize Zionists and claim they represent society’s greatest evil, you are branding Jews with a virtual “yellow Star of David.” Read Here.

German Jews don’t feel safe…60 percent of them are worried that they will be victims of a hate crime in 2019. Could teachers more effectively combat anti-Semitism if they taught not only how the Jews were killed, but how Jews live, what they stand for and what they believe in? Read Here.

AJC Chief Policy Officer Jason Isaacson addressed the U.S. Department of Justice Summit on Combating Anti-Semitism. He sat down with AJC Passport to share an inside look on this conference and the U.S. administration’s increased efforts to combat anti-Semitism. Listen Here.

A report released by IMPACT-se found new Palestinian textbooks to be more radical than in the past, containing incitement and rejection of peace with Israel. The new curriculum “deliberately omits any discussion of peace education or reference to any Jewish presence in Palestine before 1948. Most troubling, there is a systematic insertion of violence, martyrdom and jihad across all grades and subjects in a more extensive and sophisticated manner, embracing a full spectrum of extreme nationalist ideas and Islamist ideologies that extend even into the teaching of science and mathematics.” Read Here.

Half of the Jews who live in small towns or rural areas across the Former Soviet Union have experienced anti-Semitic attacks first hand, according to the Institute for Euro-Asian Jewish Studies. Read Here.

Nearly half of young Jewish Europeans have been the victim of at least one anti-Semitic incident in the past year, newly published findings from an unprecedented EU survey reveal. They are also considerably more likely to experience anti-Semitism than older Jews. Read Here.

Despite a significant reduction in the overall tally of hate crimes, Canada’s latest hate crimes report reveals “disturbing trends” for Jews. Statistics show that while incidents targeting Muslims and black Canadians dipped by 50 and 12%, respectively, those against Jews only fell by 4%. Read Here.

A proposed resolution in Ireland’s Belfast City Council to support the BDS movement against Israel, which had been scheduled for debate last week, has been withdrawn. The development was in response to a letter from U.K. Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) to Suzanne Wylie, chief executive of Belfast City Council, pointing out a string of reasons why such a resolution would not be legal, including that European Union and World Trade Organization “public procurement rules require contracting authorities to base the award of public contracts on the most economically advantageous tender.”

UK Lawyers For Israel (UKLFI) is a volunteer organization of lawyers who support Israel using their legal skills. UKLFI uses the law against attempts to undermine, attack and delegitimize Israel, Israeli organizations, Israelis, and supporters of Israel. UK Lawyers for Israel is not aligned with any particular political viewpoint or party in the UK or Israel.

The State Department is offering $7 million for information leading to the arrest of Salman Raouf Salman, a Hezbollah operative who helped engineer the mass killing at a Buenos Aires Jewish community center 25 years ago. Read Here.

A resolution commemorating the 25th anniversary of AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires was introduced in the U.S. Senate. “It is critical that the U.S. recommit to helping the Government of Argentina in their investigation. The Argentinian people have waited long enough for answers.” Read Here.

Following up on our “Take Action” segment last week, the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a resolution that rejects the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. The bill, H.R. 246, also calls for increased security aid to Israel and a two-state solution. Read Here.

Kenneth Marcus is the assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education where his duties include enforcing civil rights laws prohibiting educational institutions from discriminating based on race, color, disability, ethnicity, national origin and age. “I believe I’m the first person ever appointed to my position who comes to it with expertise in anti-Semitism and a background in fighting it. There is now a greater awareness within this department and within this administration of the severity of the problem. I believe there is within this administration a sensitivity to campus anti-Semitism and an awareness that it’s growing.” Read Here.

“Jew-hatred is Jew-hatred, and it’s evil, and it doesn’t matter if it comes from the ethnic supremacist right, from the vicious anti-Zionist left or from radical Islam. Jew-hatred in all its forms needs to be combated, and it’s my job to combat it.” Read this in-depth interview with Special Envoy Carr to learn more about the important work he is doing every day in his role to combat anti-Semitism. Read Here.

U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), U.S. Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism Elan Carr and members of Jewish community groups called for comprehensive support in combating anti-Semitism in New Jersey, the US and abroad. New Jersey ranks third in the nation in anti-Semitic incidents. At the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, Gottheimer and Carr spoke about growing anti-Semitism worldwide, and ways that Congress and the State Department are working together to address it. Read Here.

Watch the Full Remarks from Rep. Gottheimer and Special Envoy Carr Below:

According to Lord Eric Jack Pickles, Britain’s Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues, “Mr. Corbyn has always been on friendly terms with what most people would call terrorists. He has a long record of supporting extreme Palestinian causes, which may have led him to conflate Israel with people of Jewish heritage. Among the left this is a common problem. Add to this mix an instinctive pull towards conspiracy theories and you have the perfect conditions for anti-Semitism. Read Here.

Outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May has appointed Labour MP John Mann as an independent adviser on anti-Semitism. Mann, who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group Against Anti-Semitism, will be responsible for providing the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government with independent advice on the most effective methods to tackle anti-Semitism and will also collaborate with Lord Pickles, the UK’s Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues, and Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, the Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion and Belief. Read Here.

“It should not be for the Jewish community to have to lead the fight against anti-Jewish racism. It is vital that non-Jewish allies call out anti-Semitism and show others how to combat it.” Read Here.

European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Věra Jourová recently held the first meeting of the bloc’s working group on anti-Semitism, a special body that will look specifically into attacks against Jews. Designed to bolster the EU’s stated goal of curbing the rise of anti-Semitism across the bloc, the working group will aid each of the 28 members of the EU to uphold their commitments to adopting tough national strategies that will help combat hate crimes and discrimination that target Jews. Part of the plan is to create a common security approach to protect Jewish communities from violent extremism and various forms of discrimination by the end of next year. Read Here.

Felix Klein, Germany’s federal anti-Semitism commissioner, voiced support for a probe into Christian Clages after it was revealed that Clages, Germany’s representative to the Palestinian Authority, had “liked” several anti-Semitic posts on Twitter from his verified account. Read Here.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Europeans to confront populism, nationalism, racism and anti-Semitism as she paid tribute to the Nazi resistance in her own country. Amid evidence of rising anti-Semitism in Germany, Mrs. Merkel said people need to draw inspiration from the civil courage shown by those who resisted the Nazis and make their voices heard. Read Here.

Police-reported hate crimes are on the rise in Vancouver and city councilor, Sarah Kirby-Yung is bringing a motion forward that she hopes will allow the city to fight back against a rising tide of anti-Semitism. The motion asks the city to formalize a definition of anti-Semitism so hate crimes can be identified and combated. Read Here.

Material promoting Nazi ideology and denying the Holocaust will no longer appear in Spain’s Google search results, after our partner organization the Lawfare Project, filed several take-down notices with Google. Google’s lawyers examined the complaints and subsequently, various examples of anti-Semitic content are now blocked from appearing in Google searches in Spain. Read Here.

Her audience is non-Jews who’ve seen claims of anti-Semitism in the Labour party repeatedly hit the headlines and she aims to explain what anti-Semitism really is. “This matters to society as a whole because it smells, it rots the body politic, it leads to worse, and renders rational thought incapable in the face of an ineluctable, active theory of why ‘they’ are to blame. It destroys normal, rational, evidence-based thought. It matters — to Jews and non-Jews alike. Read Here.

Israeli director Guy Nattiv decided to make a movie about a reformed neo-Nazi only after receiving the blessing of his grandfather who survived the Holocaust. “Skin,” which opens in the U.S. on July 26, is dedicated to Ruben Monowitz, who died two years ago at age 96, “because he taught us as grandkids how to accept and forgive.” Mr. Nattiv wrote the screenplay for “Skin” after persuading Bryon Widner, a former skinhead who co-founded a violent white-power group in Indiana in 2003, to sign over the rights to his life story. Read Here.

Watch the Trailor for Skin Below:

Three years ago, Rabbi Michael Mark was killed in a drive-by Palestinian terrorist attack. As Mark bled to death in front of his family, a Palestinian Authority civil servant who happened by the scene of what he thought was a car accident rushed to assist the family. For his swift and humane action, the young man from Hebron was thanked profusely by the Mark family however, the Palestinian Authority promptly penalized him for rescuing wounded Jews and dismissed him from his job. He is now living with his wife and son in a donor-supported apartment and is in the process of obtaining permanent-residency in Israel. Read Here.

As long as there have been Jews, there have been two unwavering constants: anti-Semitism and Jewish jokes about anti-Semitism. “Comedians talk about what bothers them, and [anti-Semitism] really bothers me. It’s like what Mel Brooks said about his ‘Springtime for Hitler’: Humor is my greatest weapon. Our revenge is with jokes, and not just against the Nazis of old, but sadly current-day neo-Nazis. The only way I can fight them is by mocking them and exposing the ignorance of their bigotry.” Read Here.

This week we ask you to take action by educating yourself about the Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act of 2019, which provides tools for a comprehensive U.S. strategy in the Eastern Mediterranean region by strengthening energy partnerships between the US, Cyprus, Greece and Israel, ending the arms embargo on Cyprus, and holding Turkey accountable for its aggression in the region. The bills were introduced by Representatives Ted Deutch (D-FL), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), and David Cicilline (D-RI) and Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ). Energy diplomacy has the power to replace conflict in the region with cooperation and coexistence. Help raise awareness about the issue by sharing the bill and the resources below within your community.

To learn more about the Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act please view the language of the bills below:

H.R. 2913

S. 1102

Growing cooperation on counter-terrorism, search-and-rescue, and maritime security among these Mediterranean countries makes the whole region safer. Cyprus, Greece, and Israel provide important assets for Western security interests and have already made substantial contributions. The US needs reliable allies, and for the first time in the region’s history can look primarily to those who share both interests and values. Greece, Cyprus, and Israel are strong partners that can check malign influences in this region. Both the administration and Congress should explore transforming the trilateral cooperation into a quadrilateral partnership. A more stable, energy independent and integrated Eastern Mediterranean will be a game-changer in this vital part of the world. Read Here.