THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL ANTISEMITISM REPORT
One year ago, the European Commission unveiled the first-ever European Union Strategy on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life, which detailed a series of measures to prevent all forms of antisemitism, secure and foster Jewish life, and promote remembrance and education about the Holocaust. The European Commission is now celebrating the first anniversary of the launch of this initiative, and highlighting what has been achieved over the past twelve months.
Spain’s parliament adopted a bill by the regional Madrid Assembly barring any public funds from being granted to entities that promote antisemitism as defined by the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism. U.S. President Joe Biden outlined his administration’s efforts to combat antisemitism during a High Holidays reception at the White House.
U.S. Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC) replaced Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) as the lead Democrat on the U.S. House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, as Deutch retired from Congress to become the new CEO of the American Jewish Committee. Rep. Manning, who was previously the first female board chair of the Jewish Federations of North America, called rising antisemitism in the U.S. “a real threat to our democracy,” and highlighted the urgency of confronting Jew-hatred on college campuses.
The City University of New York (CUNY) system is allocating $750,000 to address rising “antisemitism and other forms of religious or ethnic bigotry” on its 25 campuses, and will adopt the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism.
An object was thrown through the stained-glass window of a synagogue in Hanover, Germany during the closing Yom Kippur service while 150 worshippers were praying inside. Vandals spray-painted “Stop the Jews” on the sign of a Chabad synagogue in Melbourne, Australia, and an “unusual break-in” was reported at a synagogue in San Francisco, California. In Genoa, Italy, “Jewish Shop” and a yellow Star of David were spray-prainted across the front of a confectionary store.
On Twitter, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the protests and unrest that have swept the country, were “schemes designed by the US; the usurping, fake Zionist regime; their mercenaries…”
This week’s global antisemitism report highlights 34 new media reports of antisemitic incidents. The total includes 19 (55.9%) from the far-right, 4 (11.8%) from the far-left, 2 (5.9%) with Islamist motivations, and 9 (26.5%) unidentifiable in nature.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
UNITED STATES
ANOTHER SWASTIKA INCIDENT REPORTED ON STATEN ISLAND, NY: MAN, 64, ACCUSED OF GRAFFITI ON JEWISH GROUP’S VAN
By STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE STAFF
A 64-year-old man defaced a van used by a Jewish volunteer public-safety group with antisemitic graffiti in his home community of Meiers Corners, authorities allege. Lloyd Zamichow of Kell Avenue was arrested on Sept. 22 in connection with the incident that allegedly occurred on Sept. 1 around 2:05 p.m. on the 500 block of Buchanan Avenue, according to the criminal complaint. The arrest was based on an investigation by the NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force.
‘SMASH AND GRAB’ ATTEMPT AT EMANU-EL RATTLES S.F. SYNAGOGUE COMMUNITY
By EMMA GOSS
Staff and clergy at Congregation Emanu-El were on heightened alert this week after an unusual break-in at the historic San Francisco synagogue. Saturday evening around sundown, a man was seen on the synagogue’s surveillance video breaking into the shul, according to David Goldman, Emanu-El’s executive director. He said it appeared to be a “smash and grab” burglary attempt, based on a review of the video footage and information from the alarm system. Police were notified of an intruder by Emanu-El’s security system, which automatically alerts 911 to a break-in. However the suspect fled before officers from the San Francisco Police Department arrived.
WORLD NEWS
UNITED KINGDOM
TORY CONFERENCE FRINGE INCLUDES CLAIM IHRA DEFINITION ‘RESTRICTS’ DEBATE ON ISRAEL
By LEE HARPIN
A fringe event at this year’s Tory Party conference has included claims that the IHRA definition of antisemitism “restricts” debate over Israel and the Palestinians. At Sunday’s joint Taxpayers Alliance and Institute of Economic Affairs event at the Birmingham conference panelist Eric Kaufmann openly backed claims made by an audience member that there is “no doubt” IHRA “does restrict what people can say about the Israel/Palestine conflict.” Kaufmann, a professor at Birkbeck, responded to the suggestion saying:”IHRA – I totally agree with you.”
GERMANY
WINDOW OF SYNAGOGUE IN HANOVER, GERMANY, SHATTERED DURING YOM KIPPUR SERVICE
By CAM
An object was thrown through a stained-glass window of a synagogue in the northern German city of Hanover during the closing Yom Kippur service on Wednesday evening. According to a Hannoversche Allgemeine report, around 150 worshippers were praying inside the synagogue at the time of the incident, which occurred on the holiest day of the Jewish year. No one was injured. Local police have launched an investigation, with a spokesperson saying, “It is certain that a window was damaged. How — that has not yet been clarified.”
GERMANY – 1. FC LOK LEIPZIG SEPARATES FROM STADIUM ANNOUNCER MIRKO LINKE
CANADA
JURY FINDS ONE-TIME LEADER OF THE CANADIAN NATIONALIST PARTY GUILTY OF PROMOTING HATRED AGAINST JEWS
By BRANDON HARDER
A few steps from Estevan’s cenotaph, in the city’s Court of King’s Bench on Wednesday, a jury found the one-time leader of the Canadian Nationalist Party guilty of promoting hatred against Jews. Travis Patron of Redvers, Sask. was 29 when he was charged in February 2021, and his trial on the matter began in late September of this year. The Crown’s case revolved largely around a video, which trial witnesses testified was once publicly available online, entitled “Beware the Parasitic Tribe.” In that video, Crown prosecutor Ryan Snyder said Patron had offered “pretty much every antisemitic trope in the history of antisemitic tropes.”
FRANCE
FRANCE – THE COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUE TO THE JEWISH VICTIMS OF THE HOLOCAUST VANDALIZED IN DUNKIRK
By TOI
The commemorative plaque to the arrested and deported Dunkirk Jews was vandalized at the end of last week, Internet users reported on Twitter. The newspaper La Voix du Nord has also since reported the information. The marble slab, which is in the Garden of Remembrance, in the center of Dunkirk, between the sub-prefecture and the station, was shattered. Several photos posted on Twitter show it in pieces, at the foot of the stele where it was hung.
OTHER WORLD NEWS
ANTISEMITIC DAUBING ON MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA SYNAGOGUE’S BILLBOARD
By J-WIRE NEWSDESK
Vandals have daubed an antisemitic message on a billboard advertising Shul services in front of a Chabad synagogue and religious center in Melbourne. “Stop the Jews” was spray-painted on the sign promoting the Chabad on Carlisle services in Balaclava early on Wednesday morning. The Anti-Defamation Commission, Australia’s leading civil rights organization, has condemned the vandalism.
ITALY – “JEWISH SHOP”, ANTISEMITIC GRAFFITI IN A PASTRY SHOP IN GENOA
By DIRE
“Jewish shop”, complete with a yellow star of David. This is the inscription found on Monday on the shutter of a confectionery shop in via Bertuccioni 19, in the Genoese district of Marassi. The news began to circulate in the last hours on social networks. The writing, which appeared on the eve of Yom Kippur, has already been canceled after the owners of the shop reported the incident to the police. Digos investigates the episode. Mayor Marco Bucci expresses indignation on his Facebook page.
SWISS CARDINAL APOLOGIZES FOR NAZI REFERENCE IN CRITIQUE OF SYNODAL PATH
MIDDLE EAST
KHAMENEI BLAMES IRAN PROTESTS ON U.S. AND ‘ZIONIST REGIME’
By REUTERS
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Monday protests over the death of a woman in police custody were plotted “by America and the Zionist regime” rather than by “ordinary Iranians,” in his first comments on unrest that has swept the country since September 17. Iran has been paralyzed in three weeks of mass protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the so-called “morality police,” after she was detained for allegedly wearing the mandatory Islamic headscarf too loosely. In comments reported by state media, Khamenei said the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini “deeply broke my heart,” calling it a “bitter incident.”
ON CAMPUS
MORE THAN TWO DOZEN GROUPS URGE UC BERKELEY SCHOOL OF LAW TO TAKE ACTION TO PREVENT ANTI-JEWISH DISCRIMINATION
By CAM
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) was among the more than two dozen organizations that issued a joint statement on Monday urging the UC Berkeley School of Law to take action to prevent discrimination against Jews following the recent decision by nine student groups to ban pro-Israel and Zionist speakers from events they host. The bylaw is a vicious attempt to marginalize and stigmatize the Jewish, Israeli, and pro-Israel community and to normalize the requirement that Zionist Jews hide or alter a fundamental aspect of their identity in order to be fully accepted in certain arenas. This is unabashed antisemitism.
ANTISEMITISM-PLAGUED CUNY SYSTEM TO SPEND $750,000 TO FIGHT JEW-HATRED, WILL ADOPT IHRA DEFINITION
By CAM
The City University of New York (CUNY) system is allocating $750,000 to address rising “antisemitism and other forms of religious or ethnic bigotry” on its 25 campuses, the New York Post reported on Monday. In a Sept. 28 letter to New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, CUNY Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez wrote detailed an eight-point plan to reduce attacks targeting Jews. “We are developing a system-wide web page for reporting campus incidents, including antisemitism, to facilitate and standardize reporting,” Rodríguez wrote. Rodríguez also noted that CUNY would adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism.
ANALYSIS & OP-EDS
STUDIES & STATISTICS
GROWING EUROPEAN ANTISEMITISM FORCING FRENCH JEWS TO HIDE RELIGION, NEW REPORT SAYS
By DION J. PIERRE
Growing antisemitism in Europe is forcing French Jews to caution their children against revealing their faith, according to a new report by the Jewish People Policy Institute, a Jerusalem-based nonprofit. Published in September, the report, titled “Annual Assessment: The Situation and Dynamics of the Jewish People,” described an increase in antisemitic discrimination from across the political spectrum in multiple European countries. The report comes amidst a significant uptick in antisemitic incidents in Britain and France. In August, Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit that monitors antisemitism, recorded in the first half of 2022 the fifth most antisemitic incidents since it began tracking them in 1984. In February, France’s interior ministry reported a 74 percent increase in complaints of antisemitism.
JEWS MAKE UP LESS THAN 1 PER CENT OF UK POPULATION BUT A QUARTER OF ALL HATE CRIMES
By DANIEL BEN-DAVID
Official hate crime statistics published Thursday by the Home Office show that despite making up a tiny fraction of the UK population, Jews were the victims of nearly a quarter of all hate crimes. The report also showed that between March 2021 and March 2022, there were 1,919 hate crimes targeting Jews, an increase of 49 per cent from the previous year. Antisemitic hate crimes accounted for 23 per cent of all religious hate crimes in the UK, despite being less than 1 per cent of the total religious population.
ANTISEMITIC, RACIST CRIME RISING IN ENGLAND’S WEST MIDLANDS
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
BIDEN TOUTS ADMINISTRATION’S APPROACH TO ANTISEMITISM
By DMITRIY SHAPIRO
President Joe Biden discussed his administration’s efforts to combat antisemitism during a High Holidays event at the White House last Friday. Biden addressed a large gathering of Jewish leaders and administration officials in the White House’s East Room, following remarks by First Lady Jill Biden and the Jewish Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff—a fixture of the administration’s events with the Jewish community.
DOUBLE VICTORY AGAINST BDS FOR PRO-ISRAEL ADVOCACY GROUP IN SPAIN
By YOSSI LEMPKOWICZ
The first victory by Action and Communication on the Middle East (ACOM) was obtained on Tuesday when the Spanish Parliament adopted a bill by the regional Madrid Assembly which passed legislation precluding any possible grant or public aid to entities that promote antisemitism as defined by the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism. The second, on Monday, saw Spain’s Supreme Court for the first time upholding a lower court’s decision that BDS is discriminatory and thus illegal for public institutions to support such organizations or events associated with it.
EUROPEAN COMMISSION CELEBRATES FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF LAUNCH OF COMPREHENSIVE ANTISEMITISM STRATEGY
By CAM
One year ago this week, the European Commission unveiled the first-ever European Union Strategy on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life (2021-2030). The stated purpose of this comprehensive plan was to “significantly step up the fight against antisemitism to ensure a good perspective for the future of Jews in Europe.” It detailed a series of measures to prevent all forms of antisemitism, secure and foster Jewish life, and promote remembrance and education about the Holocaust. The European Commission is now celebrating the first anniversary of the launch of this initiative, and it is highlighting what has been achieved over the past twelve months.
THE NETHERLANDS – NATIONAL COORDINATOR ANTISEMITISM WORK PLAN PRESENTED TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
HUMANITY
ISRAELI-ARAB PSYCHOLOGIST AHMAD MANSOUR CALLS FOR RENEWED EFFORT IN FIGHT AGAINST ANTISEMITISM
By ALGEMEINER STAFF
The Israeli-Arab psychologist who led an inquiry into accusations of antisemitism at the Arabic language service of German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) has urged the country’s politicians to step up the fight against rising anti-Jewish bigotry. “I am often dissatisfied with the culture of debate in Germany and would like to see more engagement from politicians and society against extremism and antisemitism,” Ahmad Mansour told the news outlet Deutschland in an extensive interview on Wednesday.
VIGIL HELD IN LACONIA, NH AFTER SWASTIKA VANDALISM FOUND IN MULTIPLE PLACES AROUND CITY
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.
