Struggle against antisemitism
18-06-2008 / Italy
Italy - FM: EU stance on Israel in past swayed by intolerance of Jews
Italy's newly appointed foreign minister said that the European Union has in the past taken an unbalanced stance on Israel, at times blurring the line between legitimate criticism and anti-Semitic sentiments.
Speaking before a forum on Israel-European relations in Berlin, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said: "I have to admit, if I look at the past, EU has taken on some...18-06-2008 / Germany
Germany - Germans eye ways to curb anti-Semitism
More must be done to keep anti-Semitism in check, a German parliamentary hearing concluded. Meeting at the Bundestag in Berlin, lawmakers and experts offered suggestions and described the challenges. Deidre Berger, the head of the American Jewish Committee office in Berlin, urged the German government to install a professional at the Bundestag designated to respond to the...15-06-2008 / Britain
Britain - World lawmakers to meet in London to fight anti-Semitism
A landmark conference bringing together the world's leading parliamentarians in the fight against anti-Semitism will convene at the British Parliament and Foreign Office in February 2009. The conference will be jointly hosted by the newly established Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism and the British Foreign Office. The coalition assembles...13-06-2008 / Russia
Russia – Suspect Detained in Vandalism of Jewish Cemetery
Police in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia detained a suspect in a string of antisemitic vandalism incidents. The young man and three other suspects allegedly vandalized Jewish graves in the Krasnaya Etna cemetery multiple times over the course of May and June, including a previously unreported incident on June 9. Source: http://www.fsumonitor.com/...12-06-2008 /
Europe - A new European body on tolerance to be presided by former President of Poland.
European Jewish Congress (EJC) President Moshe Kantor announced the launch of a new European body on tolerance to be presided by Aleksander Kwasniewski, former President of Poland.
The launch of “European Forum of Tolerance: The Council of Europe’s Civil Society Representatives (CECSR)” was announced after a meeting f the EJC’s Executive in Brussels.
Several...12-06-2008 / Britain
Britain - Academic union could face legal action on ‘backdoor boycott’
The University and College Union will almost certainly face legal action if its executive decides to turn into policy the “back-door boycott” motion on Israel passed at its congress last week.
Senior lawyer Anthony Julius, acting on behalf of what he called a “growing number” of Jewish and non-Jewish UCU members, has written to UCU general secretary Sally Hunt setting out...10-06-2008 / Britain
Britain - Israeli ambassador says Britain 'hotbed of anti-Israeli sentiment'
In a comment
piece for the Daily Telegraph, Ron Prosor wrote he was "concerned ... that in Britain the most extreme elements of the debate have been allowed to hijack the mainstream."
"
British academia has built its reputation on freedom of expression and the pluralistic exchange of ideas,"
he wrote.
"Alarmingly, these values are under threat in an institution...03-06-2008 / Sweden
Sweden - Former neo-Nazis become Holocaust commemorators
They used to paint swastika graffiti, get into street fights with immigrants, and distribute anti-Semitic propaganda. But after studying the cases of a few of the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis during World War II, some former Swedish neo-Nazi teenagers came to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial to underline their new attitudes.
The kids, some of whom were active members of...29-05-2008 / United States
USA - ADL: latest call for academic boycott of Israel a 'cynical and perverse violation'
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) denounced a vote by Britain's main academic union to reintroduce a call to boycott Israeli academic institutions, calling it "a cynical and perverse violation of academic freedom and anti-discrimination principles."
Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:
“This reintroduction of the call for an academic...28-05-2008 / Russia
Russia - Bryansk prosecutors drop hate crimes charges against attackers of Jewish school
Prosecutors in Bryansk, Russia have dropped hate crimes charges against a group of youths who attacked a Jewish school on multiple occasions. The four youths, only one of whom is legally an adult, attacked the Or Avner Jewish school five times. Armed with wooden clubs, the accused allegedly shattered the school's windows while, according to earlier media reports, screaming antisemitic...28-05-2008 / Russia
Russia - Newspaper editor sentenced for antisemitic article
The editor of an independent newspaper in the predominately Muslim republic of Dagestan was found guilty of inciting ethnic hatred. Nabigula Dzhavatkhanov, editor of Mnenie Naroda received a suspended sentence of one and a half years for his article "An Answer to the Zionists." An expert commission found that the article incites "hatred towards the Jewish ethnos" and "humiliates the...26-05-2008 / United States
USA - The Presbyterian Church: No to Anti-semitism
The American Jewish Committee praised the Presbyterian Church (USA) for its strongly-worded condemnation of anti-Semitism and anti-Jewish language in writings about Israel.
Vigilance against anti-Jewish Ideas and Bias, issued by the church's Interfaith Relations Office, repudiates anti-Semitism in advocacy and writings on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“This statement...25-05-2008 / United States
USA – The trial of the youngsters for anti-Semitic attacks on a Jew has begun.
The trial of 4 students from Temple University in Philadelphia, accused of attacking a Jew because of anti-Semitism, began a few days ago. The four, David Scott, his brother, Steven Scott, Michael Walsh and Bryan Pediero are from New Jersey.
They are accused of attacking Jordan Blady.
Blady is a student completing his second degree at Penn State University. They...23-05-2008 / Britain
Britain - BA apologized to a passenger whose luggage was daubed with swastika
Emma Pelta, 29, a member of Loughton Synagogue in Essex, flew from London Gatwick to Orlando, Florida, last December.
But it was not until she arrived at her boyfriend’s home in Florida, she says, that she realised her bags were marked with a large swastika and the initials NF (assumed to stand for National Front).
She has spent the past five months requesting an apology...23-05-2008 / United States
USA - Teen arrested in Crown Heights assault
Two black teenagers have been arrested in the assault last week on a Hasidic Jew in Crown Heights. Besean Parker, 14, and Namor Clarke, 17, both will be charged as an adult with robbery, police sources said. Sherman was on his bicycle, shortly past midnight, was knocked to the ground by two suspects and robbed of his bike, watch and cell phone. Sherman's cell phone,...20-05-2008 / Germany
Germany - Neo-Nazi hotline created in Germany
Germany has created a neo-Nazi hotline and website for parents worried that their children are falling in with far-Right extremists. Counseling against Far-Right Extremism will also provide counseling to youths who would like to get out of the neo-Nazi milieu or leave far-Right groups – known as "comradeships". The project, which is also aimed at friends and relatives of...20-05-2008 / Germany
Germany - Muslim sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for stabbing Frankfurt rabbi
A Frankfurt state court has sentenced a 23-year-old German Muslim to 3 1/2 years in prison for attacking a rabbi with a knife.
The court found Sajed Aziz guilty of serious bodily injury for the September attack on orthodox Jewish rabbi Zalman Gurevitch.
A German citizen born of Afghan parents, Aziz has denied all along that the attack had an anti-Semitic motive or that he...19-05-2008 / Russia
Russia - Crackdown on Antisemitic Incitement in Two Cities
Prosecutors in two Russian cities have recently taken steps against antisemitic incitement. In the first case, prosecutors in Novosibirsk have succeeded in shutting down the newspaper "Otchizna" for violating laws against the incitement of ethnic hatred, in this case against Jews. Meanwhile in the Astrakhan region, four members of the bizarre antisemitic cult "Towards God's Kingdom" are on...16-05-2008 / United States
USA - FBI asked to investigate anti-Semitic incidents
Nine South Florida members of Congress have sent a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller asking for an investigation of a recent string of anti-Semitic incidents. The members of Congress cited three incidents during the past two weeks: a fire at a Miami Beach synagogue, and swastika graffiti in Parkland and in Palm City. "We condemn in the strongest possible terms...15-05-2008 / Britain
Britain – Chief Rabbi calls for action over campus hate
Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks has called on university vice-chancellors to take greater action to defend Jewish students who are made to feel like “pariahs” on campuses around the UK. He called on the chancellors to “defend freedom of speech on all sides and all arguments. It must never be students of this or that faith who feel vulnerable or at risk or like pariahs on a university...
