implement[ing] a holistic strategy to prevent and fight all forms of antisemitism as part of their strategies on preventing racism, xenophobia, radicalisation and violent extremism....
endors[ing] the non-legally binding working definition of antisemitism employed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) as a useful guidance tool in education and training, including for law enforcement authorities in their efforts to identify and investigate antisemitic attacks....
For eight nights, Jewish families and friends will come together to engage in the lighting of the menorah. This special tradition started more than 2,000 years ago during the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, which followed a trying period when Jews were persecuted for practicing their faith.
Unfortunately, Jews today continue to face many different forms of violence, hatred, and bigotry around the globe. We remember all those from the Tree of Life—Or L’Simcha Congregation—whose lives were tragically taken in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this past October. As one Nation, we pledge our continued love and support for the victims, their families, and the community, and we pray that the victims’ families find some measure of peace and comfort during this holiday season.
In the articles, Anglin described Gersh's behavior as extortion, and Anglin drew heavily on crude ethnic stereotypes, painting Gersh as acting in furtherance of a perceived Jewish agenda and using Holocaust imagery and rhetoric. He called for "confrontation" and "action"....
When Gersh filed her Complaint in the spring of 2017, she and her family had received more than 700 disparaging and/or threatening messages over phone calls, voicemails, text messages, emails, letters, social media comments, and Christmas cards.Refusing to dismiss the suit on free speech grounds without a more fully developed factual record, the court said in part:
At minimum, Gersh has made a plausible claim that Anglin' s speech involved a matter of strictly private concern....
The context of the case is, at first blush, public-a series of blog posts on an alt-right "news" blog, which often engages with political issues, albeit from an extremist viewpoint. However, under a liberal interpretation of the Complaint, the content of the speech may be seen as strictly private; Anglin launched a campaign of unrelated personal attacks on a Whitefish realtor, her husband, and their son because of a perceived conflict between Gersh and the mother of Anglin's friend, another white supremacist. Although Anglin drew heavily on his readers' hatred and fear of ethnic Jews, rousing their political sympathies, there is more than a colorable claim that he did so strictly to further his campaign to harass Gersh...CNN reports on the decision. [Thanks to Scott Mange for the lead.]
While I understand that these plaintiffs, and some other members of the Jewish or Israeli community in or around SFSU, feel deeply that SFSU has not done enough to curtail others’ anti-Semitic behaviors and to foster a better environment for Jewish and pro-Israeli students, the acts described in the SAC do not adequately allege a violation of federal anti-discrimination laws so that liability may be imposed on SFSU, its administrators, or its faculty.San Francisco Chronicle reports on the decision.
On Saturday, October 27, 2018, at 8:05 p.m., U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert C. Mitchell signed a criminal complaint charging Robert Bowers of Baldwin, Pa., with 29 counts setting forth federal crimes of violence and firearms offenses. The crimes of violence are based upon the federal civil rights laws prohibiting hate crimes. The FBI in Pittsburgh is leading the investigation."
The federal complaint alleges that Bowers committed the following crimes on or about October 27, 2018, in the Western District of Pennsylvania:
• Eleven counts of Obstruction of Exercise of Religious Beliefs Resulting in Death (18 U.S.C. §§ 247(a)(2) and 247(d)(1))
• Eleven counts of Use of a Firearm to Commit Murder During and in Relation to a Crime of Violence (18 U.S.C. §§ 924(c)(1)(A) and 924(j)(1)
• Four counts of Obstruction of Exercise of Religious Beliefs Resulting in Bodily Injury to a Public Safety Officer 18 U.S.C. §§ 247(a)(2) and 247(d)(3))
• Three counts of Use and Discharge of a Firearm During and in Relation to a Crime of Violence (18 U.S.C. §§ 924(c)(1)(A) and 924(iii))UPDATE: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports on state charges that have also been filed against Bowers:
Later Saturday, Pittsburgh police filed 11 counts of criminal homicide against Mr. Bowers, along with six counts of attempted homicide; six counts of aggravated assault and 13 counts of ethnic intimidation.
The new head of civil rights at the Education Department has reopened a seven-year-old case brought by a Zionist group against Rutgers University, saying the Obama administration, in closing the case, ignored evidence that suggested the school allowed a hostile environment for Jewish students.
The move by Kenneth L. Marcus, the assistant secretary of education for civil rights and a longtime opponent of Palestinian rights causes, signaled a significant policy shift on civil rights enforcement — and injected federal authority in the contentious fights over Israel that have divided campuses across the country. It also put the weight of the federal government behind a definition of anti-Semitism that targets opponents of Zionism, and it explicitly defines Judaism as not only a religion but also an ethnic origin.
America is no stranger to anti-Semitism, which is often rooted in prejudice against a person based on his heritage/ethnicity without regard to the person’s particular religious beliefs. Jewish citizens have been excluded from certain clubs or neighborhoods, and they have been denied jobs and other opportunities based on the fact that they were Jewish, with no particular concern as to a given individual’s religious leanings. Thus, they have been treated like a racial or ethnic group that Title VII was designed to protect from employment discrimination based on membership in that group.AP reports on the decision.
In 1871, Congress passed a law “directed at the organized terrorism in the Reconstruction South[.]” ... 42 U.S.C. § 1985. Over a hundred and forty years later ... the Defendants ..., including the Ku Klux Klan, various neo-Nazi organizations, and associated white supremacists, held rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia. Violence erupted.... Plaintiffs, allege that this violence was no accident. Instead, they allege the Defendants violated the 1871 Act and related state laws by conspiring to engage in violence against racial minorities and their supporters. The Defendants retort that they were simply engaged in lawful, if unpopular, political protest and so their conduct is protected by the First Amendment. While ultimate resolution of what happened at the rallies awaits another day, the Court holds the Plaintiffs have plausibly alleged the Defendants formed a conspiracy to commit the racial violence that led to the Plaintiffs’ varied injuries. Accordingly, the Plaintiffs’ claims largely survive, although one Defendant is dismissed and other claims are pared down.WTVR reports on the decision.
at least 4.2 million anti-Semitic tweets were shared or re-shared in English on Twitter over the 12-month period ending January 28, 2018. Those 4.2 million tweets were sent from an estimated three million Twitter handles.[Thanks to Scott Mange for the lead.]
In 2017, there was a moderate worldwide average decrease in antisemitic violent incidents that were directed at Jewish people, their communities and their private property, of about 9% (327 cases compared to 361 in 2016, according to the Kantor Center criteria). It does not include yet the numbers of violent incidents in France, which the Jewish security body is still elaborating. During the years 2006 to 2014, the violent cases worldwide numbered between 600 to 700 per year, while during recent years they decreased 300 to 400. But it should be emphasized that some of the recent violent cases have been perpetrated more brutally, causing more harm. And most important – this decrease is overshadowed by what is seen by the Jewish communities as a dramatic increase in all other forms of antisemitic manifestations, many of which are not even reported, most notably harassment in schools (some Jewish pupils moved to Catholic schools) and on social media.AP reports on the data.
My girlfriend is always ranting and raving about how cute and adorable her wee dog is, so I thought I would turn him into the least cute thing I could think of, which is a Nazi.The Sheriff's Court judge however ruled:
The accused knew that the material was offensive and knew why it was offensive. He would have known it was grossly offensive to many Jewish people.Sentencing in the case is scheduled for April 23.
ADL identified 1,986 anti-Semitic incidents perpetrated throughout the United States in 2017. This is an increase of 57% over the 1,267 incidents reported in 2016. For the first time since at least 2010, an incident occurred in every US state. The states with the highest numbers of incidents were New York (380 incidents), California (268 incidents), New Jersey (208 incidents), Massachusetts (177), Florida (98), and Pennsylvania (96). These states combined made up more than half (62%)of the total number of incidents. The number of incidents tends to correlate with large Jewish populations.Wall Street Journal reports on the new data. [Thanks to Steven H. Sholk for the lead.]
Mr. Marcus, who is also a visiting professor of equality and justice at Baruch College of the City University of New York, served under President George W. Bush as acting assistant secretary for civil rights, leading the Office for Civil Rights, or OCR. Since leaving the department, Mr. Marcus has been an outspoken critic of anti-Semitism on campuses. He previously served as director of the Initiative on Anti-Semitism at the Institute for Marcus Jewish and Community Research, in San Francisco.