Anti-Semitic attacks spike worldwide, killing most Jews in decades

Israeli researchers reported Wednesday that violent attacks against Jews spiked significantly last year, with the largest reported number of Jews killed in anti-Semitic acts in decades, leading to an "increasing sense of emergency" among Jewish communities worldwide.

Capped by the deadly shooting that killed 11 worshippers at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue on October 27, assaults targeting Jews rose 13% in 2018, according to Tel Aviv University researchers. They recorded nearly 400 cases worldwide, with more than a quarter of the major violent cases taking place in the United States.

But the spike was most dramatic in western Europe, where Jews have faced even greater danger and threats. In Germany, for instance, there was a 70% increase in anti-Semitic violence.

Last year saw the largest reported number of Jews killed

"There is an increasing sense of emergency among Jews in many countries around the world," said Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, an umbrella group representing Jewish communities across the continent. "It is now clear that anti-Semitism is no longer limited to the far-left, far-right and radical Islamist's triangle - it has become mainstream and often accepted by civil society," he said. Tel Aviv University's Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry releases its report every year on the eve of Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, which begins Wednesday at sundown. This year, the report comes just days after another fatal shooting attack Saturday against a synagogue in southern California. The attack on the Chabad of Poway synagogue on the last day of Passover killed one woman and wounded three other people, including the rabbi. In addition to the shooting attacks, assaults and vandalism, Kantor also noted the increased anti-Semitic vitriol online and in newspapers, including a recent anti-Semitic cartoon that appeared in The New York Times' international edition. It depicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a dog wearing a Star of David collar and leading a blind and skullcap-wearing President Donald Trump.

Anti-Semitic cartoon published by the New York Times

The Times has since apologized, calling the image "offensive," and vowing to refrain from publishing such bigoted cartoons again. Still, it sparked outrage among dozens of American Jewish groups that subsequently sent a letter calling on the newspaper to "become far more sensitive to anti-Semitism in the future." "Anti-Semitism has recently progressed to the point of calling into question the very continuation of Jewish life in many parts of the world. As we saw with the second mass shooting of a synagogue in the US, many parts of the world that were previously thought of as safe no longer are," Kantor added. "Anti-Semitism has entered gradually into the public discourse," he said. "Threats, harassments and insults have become more violent, inciting to even more physical violence against Jews. It feels like almost every taboo relating to Jews, Judaism and Jewish life has been broken." The ascendancy of British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has also contributed to a growing sense of fear among Britain's Jewish community. Critics say Corbyn, a longtime critic of Israel, has long allowed anti-Jewish prejudice to go unchecked. Corbyn's supporters have been accused of sharing Holocaust denial and international Jewish banking conspiracies on social media. Several members of the party have quit it in protest.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn accused of letting anti-Semitism run amok within his party (Photo: Reuters)

Similarly, the inclusion of anti-Semitic activists in the Yellow Vests protests in France have raised greater concerns in a country in which anti-Semitic acts already account for half of all its documented hate crimes. Kantor added that there has been an improvement in cooperation between Jewish communities and law enforcement agencies in Europe, and several European governments have taken strong steps as well, including fully adopting the working definition of anti-Semitism as outlined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The report says there has been a growing awareness of the threat among government agencies responsible for the well-being and security of their Jewish citizens. Israel has also taken steps, hosting a global forum to combat anti-Semitism, and the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial has reported wide participation in its online course on the origins of anti-Semitism. Netanyahu said following the attack in southern California he would be convening a special meeting over the rising anti-Semitic attacks worldwide.

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LA judge rules Holocaust survivor isn't rightful owner of Nazi-looted painting

A federal judge in Los Angeles ruled Tuesday that a Spanish museum that acquired a priceless, Nazi-looted painting in 1992 is the work's rightful owner, and not the survivors of the Jewish woman who surrendered it 80 years ago to escape the Holocaust.  Although US District Judge John F. Walter criticized Baron Hans-Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, the German industrialist whose name now graces the Madrid museum where the painting by Camille Pissarro hangs, for not doing all of the due diligence he could have when he acquired it in 1976, he found no evidence the museum knew it was looted art when it took possession in 1993.

"Rue St.-Honore, Apres-Midi, Effet de Pluie" painted in 1897 by Camille Pissarro, on display in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid

Under Spanish law, he ruled, the painting is legally the museum's, although he also criticized Spain, calling its decision to keep it "inconsistent" with international agreements that it and other countries have signed "based upon the moral principle that art and cultural property confiscated by the Nazis from Holocaust (Shoah) victims should be returned to them or their heirs." The museum's US attorney, Thaddeus Stauber, said he believes the decision finally puts an end to a bitter legal fight that has pitted the family of Lilly Cassirer against the museum for 20 years. "I think it puts an end to it because the court conducted, and we conducted, what the appellate court asked us to, which was a full trial on the merits," he told The Associated Press. "As a lawyer who has been involved in this case for 14 years, I'm pleased that the court did conduct a full trial. We now have a decision on the lawful owner and that should put an end to it." Walter, who has seen the case returned to court twice by appeals and conducted the trial Stauber mentioned last December, indicated in his 34-page ruling that another appeal still could be possible. A lawyer for Lilly Cassirer's great-grandson, David Cassirer of San Diego, didn't say whether the family plans to appeal. "We respectfully disagree that the court cannot force the Kingdom of Spain to comply with its moral commitments," attorney Steve Zack said.

Claude Cassirer, survivor of the Jewish woman who surrendered, with his wife

The painting at issue, Pissarro's "Rue St.-Honore, Apres-Midi, Effet de Pluie," is a stunning oil-on-canvas work depicting a rainy Paris street scene the artist observed from his window in 1897. It was purchased directly from Pissarro's art dealer in 1900 by the father-in-law of Lilly Cassirer, who eventually inherited it and displayed it in her home for years. When she and her family fled the Holocaust in 1939 she traded it for passage out of the country. For years the family thought it was lost, and the German government paid her $13,000 in reparations in 1958. Then in 1999 a friend of her grandson, Claude, who had seen photos of the painting, discovered it was in the Thyssen-Bornemisza. It had been hanging there since shortly after a nonprofit foundation funded by Spain bought the baron's entire collection for $350 million and named the museum for him. The painting had been sold and resold after Cassirer and her family fled Germany. The baron, a German industrialist who settled later in Spain, bought it from a US dealer for $300,000 in 1976. The baron never hid the painting, putting it on exhibition often. "The court finds that there were sufficient suspicious circumstances or 'red flags' which should have prompted the baron to conduct additional inquires as to the seller's title," the judge said. Still, despite missing and torn provenance labels, the judge concluded that the baron and the museum foundation did not know the work was looted, and under Spanish law that allows the museum to keep it.

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Near historic levels of anti-Semitism in the US reported by Jewish group

As Israel marks Holocaust Memorial Day, the Anti-Defamation League issued its annual audit of anti-Semitic incidents for 2018. According to this report, US Jewish communities experienced near-historic levels of anti-Semitism, including a doubling of anti-Semitic assaults and the single deadliest attack against the Jewish community in American history.

The report recorded a total of 1,879 attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions across the country in 2018, the third-highest year on record since ADL started tracking such data in the 1970s.

Unprecedented rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the US (Photo: Tal Segal, AP)

 

In a year marked by the white supremacist shooting spree at a Pittsburgh synagogue, which claimed 11 lives, and punctuated by a dramatic surge in white supremacist propaganda activity nationwide, ADL’s Audit identified 59 people who were victims of anti-Semitic assaults in 2018, up from 21 in 2017. While the overall number of incidents represents a 5 percent decline from 1,986 incidents reported in 2017, the number of incidents last year remained at near-historic levels – 48 percent higher than the total for 2016 and 99 percent higher than in 2015.

ADL

“We’ve worked hard to push back against anti-Semitism, and succeeded in improving hate crime laws, and yet we continue to experience an alarmingly high number of anti-Semitic acts,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO and National Director. “We unfortunately saw this trend continue into 2019 with the tragic shooting at the Chabad synagogue in Poway. It’s clear we must remain vigilant in working to counter the threat of violent anti-Semitism and denounce it in all forms, wherever the source and regardless of the political affiliation of its proponents.”

Memorial honoring victims of Pittsburgh synagogue shooting attack (Photo: AFP)

The ADL calls on Congress to hold additional hearings on the increase in hate crimes, the rise of extremist groups and proliferation of their propaganda, and support legislation, including the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, that calls on the federal government to improve coordinated responses and collect data on domestic terrorism.

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'If a teenage girl would have had Instagram during the Holocaust'

The "Eva.Stories", on instagram, an initiative to commemorate the Holocaust in a way that would appeal to teenagers, stirred debate in both traditional and social media around the world.  The Instagram account set to post short videos and photos, seen as documenting the final months in the life of Eva Hayman, a 13-year-old Hungarian, Jewish girl who perished in the Holocaust, based on her true story as documented in her journal.

Eva Hayman (Photo: Yad Vashem archive)

Eva was born in Nagyvárad, Hungary, and started writing her journal on her 13th birthday, on February 13, 1944. Her last entry was on May 30, three months later, just three days before she was deported to Auschwitz with her family, where she was murdered.

A video trailer was launched on Sunday, and stories will be posted as of Thursday — when Israel marks Holocaust Memorial Day.

Some 78,000 users are already following the account, and many expressed support and enthusiasm for the trailer despite earlier criticism claiming the idea was inappropriate.

The project was initiated and produced by high-tech entrepreneur Mati Kochavi and his daughter, who invested millions of dollars in the filming.

The diary Eva wrote was made into a screen play and filmed in Lviv, Ukraine, with the assistance of some 400 actors, extras and production assistants.

Eva.Stories on Instagram

Instagram stories and photos will showthe Eva's friends and family, the invasion of her town by Nazi forces, racial laws she had to endure.

They will also show her family being moved to the ghetto, the violence she suffered, and finally the train ride that took to the Auschwitz death camp where she died.

"This is the way to make the Holocaust accessible to the young crowd," said Kochavi. "Only 2.7 percent of the total discussion about the Holocaust around the world today, is initiated by the younger generation, which is a significant decline in comparison to previous years." "In an age when Holocaust survivors are scarce, people's attention span is dropping and thrills are quick to achieve — there is a need to find new models of memory and testimony," said Kochavi, who hopes his initiative will show a new way to commemorate the Holocaust in today's day and age.

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Polish church condemns beating of Jewish effigy in Poland

The Catholic Church in Poland poured scorn Monday on an anti-Semitic ritual enacted over the Easter holiday that involved an effigy of Judas represented by a stereotypical Jew being hanged, burned and beaten.

 

Residents, among them children, beat and burned the effigy in Pruchnik, a small town in southeast Poland, on Good Friday. The figure represented Judas, the disciple of Christ who betrayed him according to the New Testament.

"The Catholic Church will never tolerate manifestations of contempt towards members of any nation, including the Jewish people," Bishop Rafal Markowski, chairman of the church's Committee for Dialogue with Judaism, said, describing his view as the church's position.

Antisemitic ritual

After the church statement, Interior Minister Joachim Brudzinski called the ritual "idiotic, pseudo-religious chutzpah" and asked why "Satans" revived the abandoned tradition. The statements came after the World Jewish Congress on Sunday expressed its "disgust and outrage." "Jews are deeply disturbed by this ghastly revival of medieval anti-Semitism that led to unimaginable violence and suffering," Robert Singer, CEO of the New York-based group, said.

"Beating the Jew"

Poles also expressed their disgust at the revival of the anti-Semitic ritual. Some posted photos online of the same ritual being carried out before World War II. For centuries, the Catholic church taught that Jews killed Christ, a position that fomented centuries of hatred and violence against the Jewish communities in Europe. This position was rescinded by the Second Vatican Council's revolutionary 1965 document on non- Christian religions, Nostra Aetate (In Our Times).

A leading church figure who opposed anti-Semitism in the church was the Polish pope, John Paul II, who considered Jews to be Christians' "elder brothers" in the faith. "One can only wonder how John Paul II who taught Catholics in his native Poland and all over the world that anti-Semitism is a sin against God and man would have reacted to this flagrant rejection of his teachings," Singer said.

The ritual comes after a diplomatic crisis last year between Poland and Israel sparked anti-Jewish sentiment in Poland as well as anti-Polish feeling in Israel.

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Israeli migration hotspot Berlin sees spike in anti-Semitic attacks

There has been a significant rise in anti-Semitic attacks in Germany’s capital, which over the past decade became a migration hotspot for young Israelis, a research conducted by an anti-Semitism group finds.  

It’s estimated some 10,000-25,000 Israelis have relocated to Berlin since 2009, a migration wave that’s driven largely by young artists trying to integrate into the local art scene.

According to Berlin’s Anti-Semitism Research and Information Centre (RIAS), in 2018 there were 1,083 anti-Semitic incidents in the city, which represents a 14% increase from the previous year that saw some 951 incidents.

March against anti-Semitism in Berlin in 2018 (Photo: EPA)

The number of physical assaults on Jewish residents spiked dramatically from 18 attacks in 2017 to 48 in 2018. The number of threats against the Jewish community also saw an unprecedented rise, jumping from 26 incidents in 2017 to 46 in 2018 (with some 15% of the issued threats coming from individuals of Muslim background).

In addition, at least 117 letters with anti-Semitic contents were received and some 43 cases of damage to Jewish-owned property had been recorded.

Overall in 2018, at least 368 Berliners were directly affected by incidents with anti-Semitic undertones - compared to 213 people in 2017 - which represents a 73% increase. The number of Jewish women who were personally affected by anti-Semitism rose by 80% from the previous year.

Berlin mayor attends last year's anti-Semitism march in the city (Photo: EPA)

In the meantime, an alarming trend has taken over Germany's social media over the past month, which sees young Germans declare their lack of remorse for the Holocaust while visiting former death camps, according to a research conducted by an Israeli-owned media company Vocativ.

The disturbing trend was started a month ago by a German neo-Nazi activist and Holocaust denier Nikolay Girling, who posted a video of himself in the Dachau concentration camp as an act of opposition to holding German people accountable for the Holocaust. He called on young people to follow in his footsteps and upload their own versions to social networks.

Girling’s videos have been viewed over 12.8 million times and his YouTube channel has grown from 2,000 to 65,000 subscribers over the past year.

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US ambassador accused of offending Poland with Passover tweet

The US ambassador to Poland wished Jews a happy Passover in Polish, and the reaction was a wave of angry comments on Twitter.

Ambassador Georgette Mosbacher also wished Poles a happy Easter on Sunday. By then, Mosbacher had been accused of offending Poland with her Passover tweet and reminded she is serving in a predominantly Roman Catholic country.

Krystyna Pawlowicz, a lawmaker with Poland's right-wing ruling party, called the ambassador's tweet, which was posted Friday along with a colorful illustration of items for a Passover Seder, a "provocation."

Ambassador Georgette Mosbacher (Photo: US embassy in Poland)

Some came to Mosbacher's defense, recalling that Poland also has a small Jewish population. Poland was home to Europe's largest Jewish population before the Holocaust. Michal Szczerba, an opposition lawmaker, put some blame on the ruling Law and Justice party, accusing it of encouraging Polish nationalists by failing to react to past cases of racism and anti-Semitism. Mosbacher's critics included far-right activist Robert Bakiewicz, who organizes a yearly Independence Day march that Polish government officials joined last year. "Christ died and was resurrected also for you, pagans and traitorous Jews," Bakiewicz said.

Effigy styled like Orthodox Jew burned in Poland

Also Sunday, Polish media reported that residents of a town in southeast Poland, Pruchnik, carried out a Good Friday tradition of beating and burning an effigy that was styled to look like an Orthodox Jew.

The effigy represented Judas, the betraying disciple of Christ in the New Testament.

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