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Dear Friends,
Antisemitism concerns across the American southwest escalated, following a string of high-profile incidents in San Antonio and Austin last week. The FBI is investigating an arson at Austin’s Reform Congregation Beth Israel, after someone set the front entrance on fire with a 5-gallon gasoline tank, causing extensive damage. Just outside of Austin, Hays County residents’ yards were leafleted with antisemitic flyers blaming the “Covid Agenda” on Jews.
In San Antonio, an appalling sign was hung outside an autobody shop that featured ‘Heil Hitler,’ the Nazi swastika, and a question: ‘How Many Poisoned Jews Does it Take to Make An Audi?’ At Arizona State University, grisly flyers were distributed asserting that Jews control the world, and at a school board meeting in suburban Phoenix a woman claimed that the Jewish race was behind Covid vaccines, critical race theory, and the recent increase in consumer prices.
The George Washington University campus community was shocked this week after a vandal broke into a fraternity house and destroyed a Jewish member’s miniature Torah scroll.
Elsewhere around the world, nine graves were desecrated in a Swiss Jewish cemetery, swastikas were spray painted near the entrance of a London synagogue, and a vandal painted “F**K Jews” outside a Jewish school in Gateshead, England. An Australian man faces charges for hanging a Nazi flag above an historic synagogue in Brisbane, and vandals destroyed a sculpture in Nordhausen, Germany that honored Jewish athletes who were persecuted by the Nazi regime.
Meanwhile, French Far-Left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon characterized Judaism as a racist and xenophobic religion, and a source of inspiration for a far-right potential presidential candidate in France.
This week’s global antisemitism report highlights 46 new media report s of antisemitic incidents. The total includes 32 (69.6%) from the far-right, 4 (8.7%) from the far-left, 2 (4.3%) with Islamist motivations, and 8 (17.4%) unidentifiable in nature.
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