Struggle against antisemitism
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...15-05-2008 / United States
USA – The Presbyterian Church “beats its breast” (expresses remorse)
In an official document published early in May, the Presbyterian Church admits to having made use of anti-Semitic- theological motifs in the past in the debate on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Now, the church rejects and renounces the use of the abovementioned motifs and promises to be “on guard” in order to prevent its repetition. It should be noted that the document is the...15-05-2008 / Russia
Russia - Krasnoyarsk Vandals of Jewish Cemetery Put on Trial
Three residents of Krasnoyarsk, Russia were put on trial on charges of having vandalized a Jewish cemetery. The three defendants face the rarely applied charge of “damaging tombstones motivated by ethnic hatred”. The three suspects allegedly vandalized the cemetery on the night of October 7, 2007 after getting drunk . Source: www.fsumonitor.com...14-05-2008 / Russia
Russia - Russian JCC workers attackers were detained
Three people were detained in an attack on two workers at a Russian Jewish community center in Tula. Three days earlier the center in Tula, about 90 miles south of Moscow, had been vandalized with swastikas and neo-Nazi phrases. Source: www.jta.org...07-05-2008 / Argentina
Argentina– school children at SALTA Seminar on the Holocaust
On May 7, a special seminar was conducted to remember 65 years since the Holocaust. The meeting was arranged by the Parliament of the province of SALTA and students from the various schools in the province participated. A member of the local parliament, Monica Luz Petrocelli, included the marking of Holocaust Day in a parliamentary proposal to declare it a day of social, educational and...07-05-2008 / Germany
Germany - Security officials shut down 2 extremist organizations accused of Holocaust denial
German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has banned two far-right organizations accused of denying the Holocaust. The minister calls the groups "reservoirs of organized Holocaust deniers" who disseminate anti-Semitic propaganda and praise the Nazis over the Internet. Source: http://www.pr-inside.com/05-05-2008 / Spain
Spain– the Jewish community denounces the expel of a political activist
The Association of Spanish Jewish Congregations (FCJE) has issued an announcement denouncing the Bloque Nacionalista Galego (BNG) decision to expel Pedro Gomez Valdes from its ranks since he also serves as the chairman of the Galego association for friendship with Israel (AGAI). “It is not reasonable that for an entire year Mr. Pedro Gomez Valdes suffered the avoidance,...30-04-2008 / Argentina
Argentina– the Senate declaration in remembrance of the Holocaust
The Argentinean Senate approved a bill proposed by Senator Isabel Viudes in which the parliament expresses its identification, while marking the co - existence day in multi –cultural, in remembrance of the uprising in the Warshau ghetto in 1943 and in honor of the holocaust victims during World War II, so their memory will be preserved. Source: DAIA29-04-2008 / United States
USA - Student charged in harassment of Jewish UND student
Spencer Garness, a University of North Dakota student has been charged with disorderly conduct in the case of a Jewish student who says he was harassed. Spencer Garness is accused of writing "Scott is a Jew" in ice cream on an elevator at UND's West Residence Hall. Scott Lebovitz said his tormentors used anti-Semitic taunts and drew swastikas in the stairwell of his dorm, and...24-04-2008 / Ukraine
