THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL ANTISEMITISM REPORT
Eighteen U.S. State Treasurers wrote a letter to investment rating firm Morningstar over concern its ESG subsidiary unfairly targets Israel by using antisemitic sources and criteria for investment ratings in the Jewish state.
Canada’s government announced extra steps to ensure the federal government anti-racism strategy does not contribute to more racism, and will conduct an “extensive review” of the funding that is being distributed through the strategy.
The New York Police Department increased patrols near Brooklyn synagogues amid a surge in antisemitic assaults, and France will proceed with the deportation of an imam who incited violence against Jews.
A 34-year-old Jewish man, Eyal Hadad, was murdered in Longperrier, France, and the suspected perpetrator, Mohamed Dridi, confessed to an antisemitic motive, according to media reports. Dridi killed Hadad with an ax blow to the head and also burned his face to prevent him from being identified. Dridi initially said he had attacked Hadad over an unpaid 100 euro debt, but subsequently admitted to killing him for being Jewish.
In support of a Students for Justice in Palestine campaign, several Berkeley Law student groups adopted a ‘no Zionist speaker’ policy, and Neo-Nazis hung banners at University of California, Davis including one that read “Holocaust is an anti-White lie.”
Neo-Nazis demonstrated for the second time this summer in the Tampa, Florida area, displaying Nazi flags and banners reading “End abortion, Save white babies,” and another with the word “problem” alongside a Star of David.
CST, Britain’s Jewish community security group, issued warnings to Jewish schools after sacked Bristol University professor and accused antisemite David Miller used his show on Iran’s state-run Press TV to claim UK Jewish schools were influencing students to promote Zionism. Meanwhile, a synagogue and Jewish school were vandalized in London by a perpetrator who said “I will take you Jews to Africa & burn you”.
A swastika was drawn on a Holocaust monument in Croatia, and the phrase “Jews to the oven” was drawn on a local Democratic Party headquarters in northern Italy.
This week’s global antisemitism report highlights 28 new media reports of antisemitic incidents. The total includes 13 (46.4%) from the far-right, 4 (14.3%) from the far-left, 10 (35.7%) with Islamist motivations, and 1 (3.6%) unidentifiable in nature.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
UNITED STATES
GROUP DISPLAYS NAZI SYMBOLS ON FLORIDA BRIDGE
By NATHANIEL RODRIGUEZ
A video taken Saturday shows a group displaying Nazi symbols on a bridge in Pinellas County, Florida. In the video, a group of six people can be seen holding the Nazi flag and anti-abortion banners. One of the banners said “End abortion, Save white babies.” Another had the word “problem” with the Star of David, a Jewish symbol, on it while the rest was obscured by the Pinellas Trail bridge sign. “Another Nazi display, right here in Pinellas,” wrote Eric Lynn, Democratic candidate for Florida’s 13th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. “We must all condemn these acts of Antisemitism as hate must have no home in Pinellas, Florida, or in USA. If you don’t speak out against hate, antisemitism, & Nazis, they will keep coming back.” This is the second appearance of white supremacists in the Tampa Bay area in recent weeks.
WORLD NEWS
UNITED KINGDOM
CST ISSUES SECURITY WARNING FOR JEWISH SCHOOLS AFTER MILLER’S RANT ON IRANIAN TV CHANNEL
By BEN BLOCH
Jewish schools are being given urgent security advice following claims on an Iranian TV channel that British children are being “indoctrinated”. Sacked Bristol University professor David Miller used his Palestine Declassified show on Iran’s Press TV to claim schools including Yavneh College and Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School (now Haberdashers’ Boys’ School) were influencing students to promote Zionism. In response, the Community Security Trust (CST) says it has given security advice to Jewish schools throughout the UK. The JC understands the CST has been monitoring the show, which is produced by Miller and hosted by disgraced former Labour MP Chris Williamson, since it launched earlier this year.
A SYNAGOGUE AND JEWISH SCHOOL VANDALIZED IN LONDON
By CFCA
A synagogue and Jewish school in Stamford Hill vandalized by a 50 year old male. When confronted, the Racist male replied “I will take you Jews to Africa & burn you”.
GERMANY
ANTISEMITIC WRITING ON ECKERMANN BOOKSTORE WINDOWSILL IN WEIMAR
By CFCA
In front of the Eckermann bookstore in Weimar, “trash or filthy literature” (“Schund- oder Schmutzliteratur”) was written on the windowsill with an arrow on the bookstore’s window. The term “trash or filthy literature” has already been used in the Weimar Republic and ended up in a “law for the preservation of youth” („Gesetz zur Bewahrung der Jugend“) and the introduction of “checkpoints for filthy and filthy literature” („Prüfstellen für Schund- und Schmutzschriften“). Shortly after the National Socialists took power in 1933, book burning took place in over 70 cities, which were victimized by the works of Jewish authors, as well as political critics. Shortly after, the so-called “Reichsschrifttumskammer” was founded, which, among other things, banned new publications by Jewish writers and their works from libraries and bookstores.
GERMAN JEWISH LEADER WARNS OF POTENTIAL ‘ANTISEMITIC SCANDAL’ AT WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES ASSEMBLY
CANADA
ONTARIO ARABIC MEDIA CLAIMS ISRAELI MOSSAD MASSACRED ISRAELI ATHLETES AT MUNICH OLYMPICS
By HONESTREPORTING CANADA
In recent weeks, we’ve exposed and condemned Mississauga-based Arabic news outlet Meshwar, whose editor uttered the antisemitic dual loyalties slur, and the paper itself for peddling antisemitic propaganda and for featuring a column that called for Israel’s destruction. This hateful trend continued on August 18, when Meshwar Media published an article on its website by Editor Nazih Khattaba which claimed that the Israeli Mossad carried out the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics games in 1972.
FRANCE
MURDERER OF JEWISH MAN IN FRANCE ADMITS TO ANTISEMITIC MOTIVE, MEDIA REPORTS SAY
By CAM
A 34-year-old Jewish man, Eyal Hadad, was murdered earlier this month in Longperrier, France, northeast of Paris, and the suspected perpetrator, Hadad’s Muslim roommate, has confessed to an antisemitic motive, according to media reports. The National Bureau of Vigilance Against Antisemitism (BNVCA) stated that the alleged assailant, Mohamed Dridi, killed Hadad with an ax blow to the head. Dridi was also said to have burned Hadad’s face in an attempt to prevent him from being identified.
FRANCE TO EXPEL IMAM FOR ‘VIRULENT ANTISEMITIC’ HATE SPEECH
By NEWS WIRES
France’s top administrative court on Tuesday gave the green light for the expulsion to Morocco of an imam accused of hate speech, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.Hassan Iquioussen “will be expelled from the national territory” in “a great victory for the republic,” the minister wrote on Twitter, citing a decision of the Council of State. The case landed before the highest court after Paris judges blocked the imam’s deportation, which the interior ministry ordered in late July over “especially virulent anti-Semitic speech” and sermons calling for women’s “submission” to men.
OTHER WORLD NEWS
ISRAEL CONDEMNS BUST OF NAZI COLLABORATOR IN HUNGARIAN PARLIAMENT
By LAHAV HARKOV
The Israeli Embassy in Budapest spoke out against a bust of Hungarian leader and Nazi collaborator Miklós Horthy being installed in Hungary’s Parliament this week. “It is hard to imagine that in modern Hungary in the heart of Europe,” the embassy said in an official statement on Wednesday, “there are still political circles that are busy glorifying a person who was also responsible for the inhumane sufferings and death of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian citizens, among them the majority of the Jewish community. “There is no room and tolerance for antisemitism and antisemitic ideas, period,” the embassy stated. The far-right Mi Hazánk (“Our Homeland”) Party announced the bust’s installation in the office of the party’s vice president Dóra Dúró on Tuesday, saying they were repaying a historic debt, according to Hungarian news site Telex.
ITALY – ANTISEMITIC WRITING AT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY HEADQUARTERS IN VALMADRERA
By CFCA
Unknown persons vandalize the notice board of the Democratic Party headquarters at via San Giuseppe with the antisemitic writing “Jews to the oven” (Giudei al forno). In the days before the headquarters had already been scarred with neo-Nazi phrases and symbols: “Heil Hitler”, “Stop ethnic substitution”, and a swastika.
MIDDLE EAST
IRAN CHAMPION WRESTLER PRAISES HITLER
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
Iranian Greco-Roman wrestling champion Mohammad Ali Geraei has praised Adolf Hitler as an inspirational leader.
On Sunday, Iranian-Norwegian journalist Mina Bai tweeted: “Iran’s world champion in Greco-Roman wrestling, Mohammad Geraei, in an interview with a sports outlet in Iran has named Zlatan, Mohammad Ali and Hitler as his inspirations! [The] Iranian government has made Jew hate so normal that there is no limit to how far one can go!”
LEBANESE JOURNALIST GHADI FRANCIS: ISRAEL PERPETRATES A HOLOCAUST AGAINST THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE EVERY DAY; I WANT ISRAEL TO CEASE TO EXIST; THE “ISLAMIC RESISTANCE” IN LEBANON BELONGS TO ALL LEBANESE PEOPLE
LEBANON – THE JOURNALIST MAGUY FARAH: THE ONLY WAY TO STOP ISRAEL’S PLOTS IS TO END ITS EXISTENCE, THROW THE ISRAELIS INTO THE SEA
PALESTINIAN ISLAMIC JIHAD OFFICIAL BASSAM AL-AGHA: ARAB SCHOOLS SHOULD TEACH THE PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION; STUDENTS SHOULD LEARN HOW THE JEWS THINK
SYRIAN ISRAELI AFFAIRS EXPERT: THE NUMBER OF JEWISH DEATHS IN THE ‘SO-CALLED’ HOLOCAUST IS GROSSLY INFLATED; THE ZIONISTS WERE BEHIND THE BOMBING OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI
ON CAMPUS
SEVERAL BERKELEY LAW STUDENT GROUPS ADOPT ‘NO ZIONIST SPEAKERS’ RULE
By GABE STUTMAN
A strongly worded pro-BDS bylaw adopted by a handful of student groups at Berkeley Law is quietly raising the temperature of the debate surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and prompted the law school dean, a progressive Zionist, to write an email expressing concern to students.The statement, written by Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine, goes beyond the now-familiar calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, pledges that have become commonplace at U.S. universities (The campus advocacy group Amcha Initiative has tallied 28 such resolutions adopted since 202Rather, in addition to supporting BDS, groups that adopt the bylaw also pledge not to invite “speakers that have expressed and continued to hold views … in support of Zionism, the apartheid state of Israel, and the occupation of Palestine.”
POLICE INVESTIGATING HANGING OF ANTISEMITIC BANNERS AT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS
By CAM
Police at the University of California, Davis are investigating recent incidents in which antisemitic banners were hung from a bridge on campus last weekend, The Sacramento Bee reported. Messages written on the banners read, “The Holocaust is an anti-white lie,” and “Communism is Jewish.” In a statement on Sunday, UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May said, “Four white men wearing black clothing and masks displayed a banner over the Highway 113 bicycle overpass that contained racist antisemitic statements. We recently received a report indicating that a similar incident occurred last weekend. University police have determined this to be a hate incident of concern to our campus community.”
ANALYSIS & OP-EDS
STUDIES & STATISTICS
NEO-NAZIS, FAR-RIGHT GROUPS RISING IN VIC, AUSTRALIA
By CALLUM GODDE AND MIBENGE NSENDULUKA
Neo-nazism and other far-right extremist ideologies are a growing threat in Victoria and are putting marginalised groups at risk of violence, a new report says. In the 150-page report tabled in state parliament on Tuesday, the Legal and Social Issues Committee delved into the rise of far-right extremism within Victoria. It found declining mental health, social isolation and economic insecurity brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has stoked far-right extremism.
Misinformation, conspiracy theories peddled on social media and the normalisation of anti-immigration rhetoric in mainstream media have also put vulnerable people at risk of radicalisation and made them more susceptible to racist narratives, it said.
ANTISEMITISM LIKELY A FACTOR IN MEDIEVAL DEATHS IN UK
GOVERNMENT & POLICY
U.S. STATE TREASURERS TAKE ON ANTI-ISRAEL FINANCIAL RATINGS FIRM CATERING TO ACTIVISTS
By CARRIE SHEFFIELD
A group of 18 treasurers, including from large states like Florida, Ohio and North Carolina, is pushing back against financial-services firm Morningstar for using its power to advance the anti-Israel cause. The financial officers join attorneys general colleagues, who are probing whether the company’s insidious actions break the law. The issue: Morningstar is foisting an anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions agenda onto its many clients, the latest example of a firm beholden to the hard-left environmental, social, governance movement (ESG). BDS adherents want to damage Israel under false claims it oppresses Arab Palestinians.
OTTAWA TO CONDUCT ‘EXTENSIVE REVIEW’ OF ANTI-RACISM FUNDING AFTER LAITH MAROUF SCANDAL
By CATHERINE LÉVESQUE
The Trudeau government says it is taking extra steps to make sure that the anti-racism strategy funded by the federal government does not, in fact, contribute to more racism. Minister of Diversity and Inclusion Ahmed Hussen had already suspended the $133,000 government contract awarded to the Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC) last week because of its ties with senior consultant Laith Marouf, who has a history of posting hateful statements on social media against Jews and francophones among others. Hussen’s department is now going to conduct an “extensive review” of the funding that is being distributed through the anti-racism strategy to ensure that no additional funds are redirected to organizations or individuals who promote hateful content.
NEW HAMPSHIRE GOVERNOR CALLS CONTROVERSIAL TWEETS BY STATE LIBERTARIAN PARTY ‘HORRIBLY INSULTING’
HUMANITY
CNN’S WOLF BLITZER INCLUDES TESTIMONY FROM HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR FATHER IN TV SPECIAL ABOUT SHOAH MUSEUM
By SHIRYN GHERMEZIAN
CNN news anchor Wolf Blitzer shared details about his family’s personal experiences in the Holocaust in a special television program on Friday night that took viewers inside the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. Blitzer, the child of Holocaust survivors and grandson of four victims, talked about both of his parents who lived in Poland when Nazi German forces invaded in 1939 in the hour-long CNN special “Never Again: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: A Tour With Wolf Blitzer.”
US JEWS PAY HOMAGE TO HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR ANCESTORS AS THEY AID UKRAINIAN REFUGEES
By JULIE MASIS
As the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine passes the six-month mark and rockets continue to fall on Ukrainian cities, Jews in the United States — many of whom have roots in Ukraine — are stepping up their support of the war’s refugees. For many, however, it’s also proved a way of karmically paying back long-gone Ukrainians who once aided their own Holocaust survivor ancestors. Psychologist Debbie Pincus-Ward recently welcomed a 32-year-old Ukrainian mother and her son into her home outside of New York City, rescuing them from the rodent-infested basement of a church where they had been sleeping. The pair stayed in Pincus-Ward’s attic bedroom for five weeks, sharing her kitchen and communicating with the help of Google Translate.
EATING GRASSHOPPERS FOR ISRAEL
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.
