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The CAM Antisemitism Research Center collects comprehensive antisemitism data from around the world on a constant basis, and publishes a regular feature on the top ten antisemitic incidents that shook Jewish communities globally during the preceding month.
The ten most shocking antisemitic incidents of March 2024 are as follows:
At the 96th Academy Awards in Los Angeles, California, English director and screenwriter Jonathan Glazer received the honor for “Best International Feature Film” for The Zone of Interest, a historical drama set during the Holocaust.
In his acceptance speech, Glazer, who is Jewish, said, “All our choices are made to reflect and confront us in the present. Not to say, ‘Look what they did then,’ rather ‘Look what we do now.’ Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It shaped all of our past and present. Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization — how do we resist?”
CAM CEO Sacha Roytman condemned Glazer’s remarks, stating:
“Unfortunately, Jonathan Glazer turned a magnificent achievement into another ‘As a Jew’ moment, where he appropriated his religious and ethnic identity to attack the national homeland of the Jewish people which is fighting a war on seven fronts against those who openly call for the genocide of Jews. While not comparing the two, Jews are once again being dehumanized for mass destruction, much as they were in the Holocaust. Rather than hijacking the Holocaust, the overwhelming majority of the Jewish people have learned that when someone says that they come to destroy us, we should not doubt their intent. In fact, it is Glazer himself who has hijacked his important portrayal of the Holocaust to assist in the dehumanization of the fight for Jewish survival, while not saying a word about the tsunami of antisemitism facing Jews globally.”
“The Combat Antisemitism Movement invites Jonathan Glazer and his team to meet and discuss how and why it is so important to combat and defeat the oldest and most malignant hatred in our societies, and why Jews around the world are extremely fearful to display any outward signs of their identity.”
Jonathan Glazer would do well to recall that October 7th was the worst loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust.
Hamas put themselves firmly in the league of history’s most infamous genocidists all by themselves.
Suggesting anything else is an intolerable distortion of history.
— Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) March 11, 2024
2. Orthodox Jewish Man Stabbed in Switzerland, Police Probe Antisemitic Attack
A 50-year-old Orthodox Jewish man was stabbed and critically wounded in a suspected antisemitic hate crime in the Selnau area of Zurich, Switzerland, shortly after Shabbat ended on the evening of March 2, according to the Zurich canton police.
City Councilor Jehuda Spielman said that the attacker, a 15-year-old Swiss national, was shouting antisemitic slogans during the assault and as he was pinned down by passersby who intervened to restrain him.
We are horrified and disgusted by the news that a visibly orthodox Jewish man was seriously injured last night in a stabbing attack by a teenager in Zurich, Switzerland.
Witnesses said the attacker shouted antisemitic statements before and during the attack such as “death to the… pic.twitter.com/ZEyDwcinkl
— European Jewish Congress (@eurojewcong) March 3, 2024
3. Jewish Man Attacked Outside Chicago Screening of ‘Nova’ Documentary
A Jewish man was attacked at the screening of the “Nova” documentary at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Chicago. Protestors began by attempting to yank the flag out of the Jewish man’s hands and then proceeded to attack him as a group. “I was completely surrounded. They started punching me in the head,” he said.
A Jewish man was attacked at the screening of the ‘Nova’ documentary at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Chicago on Monday. https://t.co/xPmCZ5pEqJ
— The Jerusalem Post (@Jerusalem_Post) March 15, 2024
Jewish students from nine American universities shared their recent experiences with campus antisemitism at a Capitol Hill roundtable forum hosted by the U.S. House Education and Workforce Committee.
Students from Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, MIT, Columbia, UC Berkeley, Rutgers, Stanford, Tulane, and Cooper Union talked about challenges they have faced as Jews in their day-to-day lives at their schools, particularly in the aftermath of the October 7th Hamas massacre in Israel, which triggered a global surge of antisemitism.
“In the past five months, I have become traumatized,” Talia Khan, a second-year graduate student at MIT, told lawmakers.
MIT, Khan said, has become “overrun with toxic antisemitism” and by “terrorist supporters that directly threaten the lives of Jews on our campus.”
“It is not overly dramatic to ask that something be done when our very existence is under threat,” she noted.
The harrowing testimonies of Jewish students like Talia Khan can’t be ignored, downplayed, or denied.
Colleges and universities, including @MIT, must take concrete action to ensure safe and supportive learning environments free of antisemitic hatred. https://t.co/Eidm6Gq7gJ
— Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) March 8, 2024
5. CAM CEO Slams Antisemitic Protest Outside National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam
CAM CEO Sacha Roytman issued the following statement in response to the antisemitic demonstration outside the inauguration of the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which included ignited fireworks and thrown eggs:
“The violent protest we saw today is another painful manifestation of the disturbing level of antisemitic hatred proliferating across the globe today. The fact it occurred at the opening of the Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam reminds us again of the urgent need to fight without compromise all who perpetrate, support, or justify acts of terrorism, murder, and violence against Jews.”
At a time when antisemitism is rising and spreading all over the world we inaugurated the new National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam, in memory of the ancient Jewish community of the Netherlands, which was decimated by the Nazis and their collaborators.
In a moving event at the… pic.twitter.com/mG0m0SAfiE
— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) March 10, 2024
CAM CEO Sacha Roytman sent a letter to Twitch Chief Customer Trust Officer Angela Hession demanding that the popular interactive live-streaming platform rescind an honor it recently gave to a user streamer Morgan “Frogan,” who has a history of online antisemitic expressions.
It is imperative that Twitch reassess its policies regarding antisemitism and take immediate action to rectify this situation.https://t.co/jOQ7xjpnsQ
— Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) March 14, 2024
A new report published by the AMCHA Initiative revealed there has been a more than 1,000% surge in anti-Zionist activities by University of California faculty members and graduate students in the aftermath of the October 7th Hamas massacre in Israel and detailed how this has fueled rising campus antisemitism.
Read the full study “Academic Agitators: The Role of Anti-Zionist Faculty Activism in Escalating Antisemitism at the University of California After October 7, 2023” HERE.
New Report: 1100% Increase in Anti-Zionist Activity of UC Faculty Since Oct. 7
Read the report: https://t.co/xt3BkGSGuK pic.twitter.com/tYNbyvHdYv
— The AMCHA Initiative (@AMCHAInitiative) March 20, 2024
8. Fake X Accounts Push Antisemitic ‘Zionism=Nazism’ Analogy in Response to CAM CEO Post on Gaza War
A social media post by CAM CEO Sacha Roytman in which he compared Israel’s current military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to the Allied war effort against Adolf Hitler’s regime eight decades ago drew engagement from hundreds of antisemitic responders on X, including many inauthentic accounts promoting an analogy between Zionism and Nazism.
Urging Israel to hold back against Hamas in Rafah is akin to telling the Allies in 1945 to spare Berlin to preserve Hitler’s regime.
— Sacha Roytman (@SachaRoytman) March 24, 2024
9. ‘Zionism Is Nazism’ Scrawled on Norwich Synagogue
Anti-Jewish and anti-Israel graffiti was discovered on the wall of Norwich Synagogue. On the perimeter of the shul site, vandals wrote: “Zionism = Nazism, Isra’Hell, apartheid. Tsiahal + Saitanyahu = Genocide.”
‘Zionism is Nazism’ scrawled on Norwich synagogue https://t.co/zG3VdJY3ai
— The Jewish Chronicle (@JewishChron) March 14, 2024
A Jewish student was barred from entering a lecture hall at the elite French university Sciences Po by anti-Israel demonstrators who occupied the place and renamed it “Gaza Amphitheater.”
The student, who is a member of the Union of Jewish Students in France (UEJF), was greeted with shouts of “Don’t let her in, she’s a Zionist.’’
The hall was lined with Palestinian flags and keffiyehs. Outside the university, students, including UEJF members, were also taken to task by anti-Israel activists.
Hate will never win.
Hundreds of students at Sciences Po University in Paris were blocked from entering an event to discuss Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
The Jewish students united in song, refusing to allow discrimination to bring them down.
Credit: @eurojewcong pic.twitter.com/rN0mWZ1LnO
— Maccabee Task Force (@MacTaskForce) March 19, 2024
For more information on CAM’s antisemitism incidents data, please visit: combatantisemitism.org/research