THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL ANTISEMITISM REPORT
This week’s global antisemitism report highlights 24 new media reports of antisemitic incidents. The total includes 12 (50.0%) from the far-right, 1 (4.2%) from the far-left, 5 (20.8%) with Islamist motivations, and 6 (25.0%) unidentifiable in nature.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
UNITED STATES
‘DEVELOPING THREAT’ TO NEW YORK CITY’S JEWISH COMMUNITY THWARTED WITH ARRESTS OF ARMED MEN AT PENN STATION
By CAM
Law enforcement authorities in New York City detected and thwarted a “developing threat to the Jewish community” over the weekend. “By early Saturday, the NYPD’s exhaustive intelligence-gathering led to the arrest by sharp-eyed MTA police officers of two individuals entering Penn Station, in Manhattan, and the seizures of a large hunting knife, an illegal Glock 17 firearm and 30-round magazine, and several other items,” New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell stated. “As a joint investigation now continues to establish a strong prosecution, Police Department commanders are strategically deploying assets at sensitive locations throughout New York City,” she added.
YE RETURNS TO TWITTER WITH ‘SHALOM’ POST AFTER PREVIOUS RESTRICTION FOR ANTISEMITIC REMARKS
By ARJUN KHARPAL
Kanye West, the rapper who now goes by the name Ye, posted his first tweets after a more than two-week silence. On Sunday, he tweeted to check if his account was working. Ye followed that up with “Shalom,” a greeting in Hebrew. The tweets mark the return of another controversial figure to Twitter following the company’s acquisition by Elon Musk. The billionaire executive said on Saturday that he will reinstate the account of former President Donald Trump. Unlike Trump, Ye never received an outright ban from Twitter. Instead, the company locked his account on Oct. 10 for an unspecified amount of time, after the rapper posted a number of antisemitic remarks which escalated into threatening and hateful comments about Jewish people. Ye did not tweet after Oct. 9 until Nov. 3. It is unclear when Twitter unlocked his account. Musk said in late October that he was not behind Ye’s account being restored.
AS KYRIE IRVING OFFERS ‘DEEP APOLOGIES’ AND RETURNS TO NETS, BLACK HEBREW ISRAELITES RALLY IN BROOKLYN
By JACOB GURVIS
Followers of a group that ascribes to Black Israelite theories gathered at the Grand Army Plaza, a half mile from the Nets’ arena Sunday, chanting “it’s time to wake up. I’ve got good news for you, we are the real Jews.” The group included dozens of people from Israel United in Christ, a New York-based group associated with the Black Hebrew Israelite movement. The movement — not to be confused with the International Israelite Board of Rabbis, which embraces mainstream Jewish beliefs — has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The group then convened directly outside Barclays Center, distributing antisemitic flyers titled “The Truth About Anti-Semitism” and “The Truth about Slavery.”
WORLD NEWS
UNITED KINGDOM
ANTISEMITIC ATTACKS CONTINUE IN LONDON’S STAMFORD HILL: BRICK THROWN THROUGH SYNAGOGUE WINDOW
By ANDREW BERNARD
The spate of antisemitic attacks in London’s Stamford Hill neighborhood continued on Friday with a brick thrown through a synagogue window. According to Shomrim (Stamford Hill), a neighborhood watch group that protects London’s Hasidic Jewish community, an unknown man threw the brick through the synagogue window during evening prayers. In a separate incident three Jewish girls walking home from school on Amhurst Park road, also in Stamford Hill, were confronted by two men seemingly trying to attack them while shouting “Jew,” according to Shomrim. The Algemeiner has reached out to London’s Metropolitan Police for additional information.
BRITISH PROSECUTION DROPS CHARGES AGAINST ‘RAPE THE JEWS’ DAUGHTERS’ CONVOY
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The Crown Prosecution Service of Britain (CPS) has announced that it has dropped charges against two men who were charged with “using threatening, abusive or insulting words, or behavior, with intent, likely to stir up racial hatred” at an antisemitic convoy in London last year, according to The Jewish Chronicle. Mohammed Iftikhar Hanif and Jawaad Hussain were charged, but the CPS has decided that after reviewing the evidence there is “no longer a realistic prospect of either defendant being convicted,” according to the Chronicle. Charges against two other men who were involved in the antisemitic convoy were dropped last July.
SWASTIKAS AND ANTISEMITIC GRAFFITI APPEAR IN CULLERCOATS PARK FOR THE SECOND TIME THIS MONTH
GERMANY
BULLET HOLES DISCOVERED AT RABBI’S HOME NEXT TO SYNAGOGUE IN ESSEN, GERMANY
By CAM
Four bullet holes were discovered at the rabbi’s residence next to the Old Synagogue in Essen, Germany, on Friday, prompting a large-scale police response and investigation. No one was injured in the incident. German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said he was “shocked by this latest attack on Jewish life in Germany.” “Antisemitism must have no place,” Buschmann declared. “It is our duty to protect Jewish life.” It was reported that the shooting was recorded by security cameras, but no suspect has been identified or arrested as of yet. U.S. Ambassador to Germany Amy Gutmann tweeted, “We strongly condemn the reported attack on the Alte Synagogue in Essen. We stand with our German partners and the Jewish community against antisemitism, hate, and violence.”
MUNICH THEATER CANCELS ‘ANTISEMITIC’ PLAY
By DION J. PIERRE
Following protests by German Jewish student groups, the Metropol-Theater in Munich, Germany has cancelled the production of “Birds of a Kind,” a play which critics allege teems with antisemitic tropes and Holocaust trivialization. The cancellation comes less than a week after the Jewish Student Union in Germany and the Association of Jewish Students in Bavaria issued an open letter expressing dismay about “the extent of the antisemitism displayed in it” and calling for the theater to be defunded.
CANADA
CANADIAN MPP APOLOGIZES FOR HOLDING JEWISH ONTARIANS ‘ACCOUNTABLE’ FOR ISRAELI VIOLENCE
By MICHAEL STARR
After a wave of condemnation of Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament Joel Harden for what critics said were comments holding Canadian Jews accountable for their tolerance of supposed Israeli violence, the The New Democratic Party (NDP) member issued an apology on Sunday. In footage from a 2021 interview of Harden by the Ottawa Forum on Israel Palestine (OFIP) that recently surfaced and gained prominence, Harden stated that he has “asked many questions of Jewish neighbors here about how much longer we should put up with this, because if I were to name… the single greatest threat – the single greatest origin of violence in the Middle East – is unquestionably the State of Israel and the way in which they feel absolutely no shame in defying international law doing whatever they want.”
ANTISEMITIC ATTACK LEAVES CALGARIANS SHAKEN; RABBI ENCOURAGES PEOPLE TO SPEAK OUT
By CAROLYN KURY DE CASTILLO
A Calgary man who was the victim of an anti-Semitic verbal assault is speaking out about the disturbing incident. Gary Broom was walking a client’s dog home in the southwest community of Woodbine on Nov. 12. The professional dog walker said he was verbally attacked by a man who started swearing at him, shouting antisemitic language. Broom’s clients heard the commotion and came out of their house “He started yelling: ‘The Holocaust never happened. It was a hoax,’” Broom said. “He hurled so many disgusting antisemitic insults and threats of violence that I called the police.”
POINTE-CLAIRE MAYOR APOLOGIZES FOR ANTISEMITIC REMARK
OTHER WORLD NEWS
RUSSIAN EMBASSY IN UK TWEETS SIMPSONS-STYLE CARTOON OF ZELENSKY WITH BIG NOSE
By JN REPORTER
The Russian embassy in the UK has tweeted a cartoon of Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky with a giant nose. The Ukrainian leader is pictured as a character in the cartoon series The Simpsons writing: “I will not fire missiles at Poland anymore” repeatedly on a blackboard, a reference to the missiles that landed in Poland last week. Russia has previously accused Ukraine of being “ruled by Nazis” which justified its invasion to “de-Nazify” the country, offering no evidence of Zelensky’s government being run by Nazis. Zelensky lashed out at Russia on Monday, saying Moscow’s disinformation campaign has had a powerful impact on countries like Israel and Germany, but that Ukraine was overall succeeding in rallying the world against Russia.
MIDDLE EAST
QATAR REPORTEDLY BANS PUBLIC JEWISH PRAYER AND REFUSES TO SERVE COOKED KOSHER FOOD, DESPITE EARLIER PROMISES
By CAA
Qatar has banned public Jewish prayer and refused to serve cooked kosher food, it has been reported. This news, which was announced as the FIFA World Cup begins in Qatar, arrives despite earlier promises that both public Jewish prayer and cooked kosher food would be available, according to The Jerusalem Post. A representative of a Jewish organization said: “We were promised to be allowed to create prayer spaces in order for religious Jews who came to see the games to have a place of worship. We were recently told that they banned places of worship for Jews because they cannot secure them. “They were promised to be able to cook kosher food including kosher meat, but at the moment have only been allowed to sell cold bagel sandwiches.”
WILD BOARS ‘WEAPONIZED BY ISRAELI COLONIALISM’ AGAINST PALESTINIANS – ACTIVISTS
ON CAMPUS
WAVES OF BOMB THREATS HIT JEWISH SCHOOLS ACROSS THE US
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
In the latest wave of antisemitism to hit the US-based diaspora, Jewish schools and community centers around the United States have received bomb threats, forcing closures throughout the country. At Jewish day schools in Texas and Pennsylvania, bomb threats were made to these institutions, forcing them to evacuate for student safety. This follows a consistent uptick in antisemitic attacks and comments in the US in recent weeks. On Monday, while school was in session at the Austin Jewish Academy in Austin, Texas, a parent shared that an assailant had called the school to say there was a bomb in one of the hallways. In Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy was evacuated after receiving what school officials called “multiple concerning calls.” The school was evacuated for hours.
CIVIL RIGHTS INQUIRY FILED AGAINST UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA OVER ‘DISCRIMINATORY’ BERKELEY ‘BAN’ ON ZIONIST SPEAKERS
By ALGEMEINER STAFF
A proposed ban excluding supporters of Zionism from speaking at student-hosted events at University of California, Berkeley is being challenged before the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. On Sunday, two lawyers filed a complaint with the federal government against Berkeley Law School over a August 2022 decision of at least 9 student groups to adopt a bylaw excluding Zionist speakers. The complaint, filed by attorneys Arsen Ostrovsky and Gabriel Groisman, called on the Department of Education to investigate the university for “profound and deep-seated antisemitic discrimination” under violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in federally-funded programs.
DEPAUL UNIVERSITY STUDENT GOVERNMENT DENOUNCES CAMPUS ANTISEMITISM
ANALYSIS & OP-EDS
STUDIES & STATISTICS
KANYE WEST’S ANTISEMITIC TWEET NEARLY DOUBLED FOLLOWER GROWTH – STUDY
By ZVIKA KLEIN
The rate of growth of US rapper Kanye West’s follower count on Twitter nearly doubled after his threat last month to go “death con 3” on Jews, according to a new analysis conducted by the National Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) in partnership with the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM). The study looked at what it called the “Antisemitism Attention Economy” and found that recent controversial social media posts by West, also known as “Ye,” and NBA basketball star Kyrie Irving metastasized populist Jew-hatred across the ideological spectrum, from white supremacists to Black Hebrew Israelites.
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
US JEWS ‘GETTING HIT FROM ALL SIDES’ IN SURGE OF ANTISEMITIC ATTACKS, FBI DIRECTOR TELLS CONGRESS
By CAM
The American Jewish community is “getting hit from all sides” amid a nationwide rise in antisemitic attacks, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Christopher Wray said on Thursday at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Capitol Hill. “Antisemitism and violence that comes out of it is a persistent and present fact,” Wray said in response to a question from Rep. Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) about the FBI’s handling of threats facing U.S. Jews. “The numbers that we’ve seen, about 63 percent of religious hate crimes, overall, are motivated by antisemitism, and that’s targeting a group that just makes up about 2.4% of the American population,” he pointed out. “So it’s a community that deserves, and desperately needs, our support.”
FOLLOWING THREAT AGAINST JEWISH COMMUNITY, GOV. HOCHUL SIGNS BILLS TO HELP PREVENT HATE CRIMES
By JACOB HENRY
Days after two men were arrested at Penn Station and charged with planning an attack on a synagogue, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation meant to combat hate and bias crimes. The bills would require mandatory hate crime prevention training for individuals convicted of such crimes, as well as establish a statewide campaign around inclusion, tolerance and diversity. “Before, this was optional,” Hochul said in a press conference Tuesday, referring to the training for offenders. “The operative word now is mandatory. No discretion; this training will occur.”
LAWMAKERS DISCUSS FIGHTING ANTISEMITISM IN CAPITOL HILL ROUNDTABLE
By MARC ROD
Lawmakers, envoys from various foreign embassies, members of an array of U.S. Jewish groups and congressional staffers packed into a crowded Capitol Hill committee hearing room last Thursday to discuss strategies for combating antisemitism nationwide. Reps. Mike Quigley (D-IL), Pat Ryan (D-NY), Kweisi Mfume (D-MD), Yvette Clarke (D-NY) and Marc Veasey (D-TX) — none of whom are Jewish — spoke at the forum, which was organized by lobbyist Ezra Friedlander and hosted by the office of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL). The discussion was moderated by New York-based activist Leon Goldenberg and Martin Korčok, a member of the Slovak delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Aaron Keyak, the State Department’s deputy special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, was also present.
U.S. SENATOR JACKY ROSEN SECURES SUPPORT FROM SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY AND FBI DIRECTOR ON NATIONAL STRATEGY TO COMBAT ANTISEMITISM
HUMANITY
ANDY COHEN SPEAKS OUT AGAINST ANTISEMITISM FOLLOWING LIZZY SAVETSKY’S RHONY DEPARTURE
By LIOR ZALTZMAN
Last week, Jewish influencer Lizzy Savetsky announced that she was leaving the upcoming season of “The Real Housewives of New York.” “As a proud orthodox Jewish woman I thought participating in this series would be a great chance to represent people like me and share my experience,” the mother of three wrote on her Instagram account, which has over 200,000 followers. But “from the time of my announcement in the cast, I was on the receiving end of a torrent of antisemitic attack.” Andy Cohen told Distractify that “there’s nothing more that I can really say about the decision beyond what she said — it’s her story to tell. I, certainly, as a proud Jewish American, don’t condone antisemitism in any form.”
NELSON CRUZ AND OTHER HISPANIC MLB PLAYERS VISIT ISRAEL TO PROMOTE CHRISTIAN-JEWISH RELATIONS
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