Struggle against antisemitism
27-01-2008 / Britain
Britain - Muslim group to take part in U.K. Holocaust Memorial Day
For the first time ever, representatives of Great Britain's largest Muslim umbrella organization will take part Sunday in the international Holocaust Memorial Day. Two months ago, the Muslim Council of Britain (MBC) decided to put an end to their six year boycott of the Memorial Day. The international Remembrance Day was first instituted by the UN in 2001 on the day - January 27th - that...27-01-2008 / United States
USA - Bush: World must go on condemning anti-Semitism
In a statement issued by the White House for the International Holocaust Memorial Day, US President George Bush called upon the world to go on condemning anti-Semitism.
"I was deeply moved by my recent visit to Yad Vashem," said Bush. "Sixty-three years after the liberation of Auschwitz, we must continue to educate ourselves about the lessons of the Holocaust, and honor those...25-01-2008 / Germany
Germany - parliament commemorates victims of Holocaust
Germany's parliament acknowledged the country's special responsibility in the battle against anti-Semitism and racism.
“We remember an unthinkable crime against humanity and a systematic mass murder,” lower house president Norbert Lammert said during a commemorative parliamentary session. “After the bitter experiences of the last century, we do not tolerate any kind of...25-01-2008 / Germany
Germany - Merkel attacks "middle-class anti-Semitism"
Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany must tackle disguised "middle-class anti-Semitism" and attacked those who were silent about the country's painful past.
Speaking ahead of a memorial day for victims of the Nazi era nearly 75 years after Adolf Hitler's party came to power, Merkel said that while anti-Semitism was often linked to poorer communities, the middle-class was also to...25-01-2008 / United States
USA - Man who intervened in subway attack on way to D.C. to hear Bush's address
A good Samaritan who intervened in a subway fight is headed to Washington to hear the President's State of the Union address firsthand.
"It's definitely one of the biggest honors," said Hassan Askari, a Muslim who tried to stop the Christmas-vs.-Chanukah fisticuffs.
Askari jumped into the Dec. 7 brawl on the Q train, defending two couples he did not know who were pelted...
...24-01-2008 / Britain
Britain - MPs to meet Putin for antisemitism talks
British MPs plan to discuss the outcome of last year’s Westminster inquiry into antisemitism with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Moscow later this year. The delegation due to go in April is to be led by Tory MP Tim Boswell, vice-chair of the all-party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism (PGAA), which sponsored the inquiry whose recommendation have been taken up by...23-01-2008 / United States
USA - Community protests Anti-Semitic attacks in Crown Heights
In the latest of a number of recent attacks against residents of the Crown Heights Jewish community, five black teenagers Friday night beat and allegedly yelled anti-Semitic slurs at 16-year-old Samuel Balkany.
In related to Friday night’s attack, Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, challenged Rev. Al Sharpton on Martin Luther King Day to...23-01-2008 / Canada
Canada - Youth charged in anti-Semitic vandalism
Durham Regional Police have laid criminal charges against a youth in connection with anti-Semitic vandalism found at a trashed rental property in the town of Bowmanville, east of Toronto. The young offender, who cannot be identified, has been charged under section 441 of the Criminal Code of causing damage to a rental property, an indictable offence that carries a maximum...22-01-2008 / Israel
Europe –European Union to fund visits to Holocaust sites
The second seminar on the subject of combating racism and anti-Semitism opened today (22 January 2008) at the Foreign Ministry. In the opening ceremony, the vice-president of the European Commission, Franco Frattini, said that the Union will fund visits of students from European countries to Holocaust memorial sites.
Farantini added that Europe is not anti-Semitic, but that...22-01-2008 / United States
USA - Tensions Run High at Press Conference
State Senator Eric Adams convened a press conference at the Jewish Museum to proterst and condemn the vicious beating of the 16 year old yeshiva bochur this past Friday night.
Speakers at the press conference all agreed that this crime must be dealt with immediately and decisivly so it won't get out of hand and lead to riots similar to the ones in 1991.
Councilman Dov...22-01-2008 / United States
USA - Brooklyn resident charged with hate crime offenses
Officers went to Ivan Ivanov's apartment after he reported being shot on Sunday evening, police said. Investigators, who said the wound to his finger was self-inflicted, discovered what appeared to be a homemade bomb and several other devices and weapons.
A police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity Monday because the investigation is continuing, said Ivanov told police he...21-01-2008 / Czech
Czech Republic - Neo-Nazi demonstration canceled in Pilsen
Fears of a large neo-Nazi demonstration planned for the 19th January, on the anniversary of the deportation of the Jews of Pilsen to Theresienstadt turned out to be unfounded. The invitation to the demonstration was posted on an international neo-Nazi website. The mayor of Pilsen subsequently banned the march and ultimately only a few dozen neo-Nazis turned up. These faced...18-01-2008 / United States
USA - Gandhi grandson resigns after criticism of anti-Semitic article
The president of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence at the University of Rochester resigned Thursday amid criticism of a short opinion piece he wrote for The Washington Post online titled "Jewish Identity Can't Depend on Violence."
Penned by Arun Gandhi, the fifth grandson of Mohandas K. "Mahatma" Gandhi, the article was widely condemned. The essay was first posted on Jan....17-01-2008 / Germany
Germany - German police to stop neo-Nazis traveling to Plzen march
Bavarian police will take all possible measures to prevent German extremists from taking part in a neo-Nazi march in Plzen, west Bohemia, on Saturday, January 20. The neo-Nazi march that is to pass by Plzen's Great Synagogue will be held one day after the 65th anniversary of the first transport of Jews from Plzen to the concentration camp. Nearly 3000 Plzen Jews perished in Nazi...14-01-2008 / Germany
Germany - Neo-Nazi Lawyer Sentenced for Denying Holocaust
A German court jailed the lawyer of a convicted Holocaust denier for calling the Nazis' World War II slaughter of European Jews "the biggest lie in world history."
Judges in the western city of Mannheim sentenced lawyer Sylvia Stolz to three and a half years in prison on charges that include inciting racial hatred, and barred her from practicing law for five years, a court...14-01-2008 / Austria
Austria - Holocaust denier gets six-and-a-half years in prison
A Vienna court sentenced a former extreme-right city councilor to four years in prison for Holocaust denial, adding another two-and-a-half years of a previous suspended sentence.
It was the third time that Wolfgang Frohlich, 56, had been found guilty on similar charges, following letters to Austrian members of parliament and Pope Benedict XVI denouncing the Holocaust as a...11-01-2008 / United States
USA- Four teens held in U.S. after 499 Jewish graves vandalized
Four teens were arrested in New Jersey as suspects in a massive desecration of a Jewish cemetery. The arraignment ended a week of fear and rage in the New Brunswick Jewish community after the 499 toppled headstones were discovered last weekend. About three-quarters of the gravestones in the Poile Zedek Cemetery had been uprooted and tossed into the paths between the rows,...10-01-2008 / Poland
Poland - New Polish government reviews EU grant to Catholic anti-Semitic radio
According to Polska newspaper, Poland’s Environment Minister, Maciej Nowicki, is making a critical review of a 15.3 million Euro EU grant to Radio Maryja, known for its anti-Semitic and anti-European opinions.
Nowicki reportedly hopes to find a reason to demand the radio station refund the entire amount.
The station, cosseted by the previous conservative government of...10-01-2008 / United States
USA - Oceanside man indicted for bias graffiti at synagogues
A 20-year-old Oceanside man was arrested and charged with spray-painting swastikas on two local synagogues a week before the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur in September. The suspect, James Weeks, was charged following a police investigation of the anti-Semitic graffiti, which was scrawled on the property of the Jewish Center, and Temple Avodah, in Oceanside, NY on...07-01-2008 / United States
USA - Black, Jewish leaders target hate crimes
Black and Jewish leaders have formed a coalition to fight hate crimes in response to a rise in the number of hate crime complaints last year that ended with an attack on a group of Jewish students during Chanukah.
The announcement of the coalition comes as elected officials and police seem to be flummoxed by the increasing number of possible bias crimes - in which police have yet...
