New Survey of Anti-Semitism Has Grim Narrative

Yesterday, Tel Aviv University's Kantor Center (along with the European Jewish Congress) announced the release of a new report Worldwide Report on Antisemitism 2013. (The report is also listed in my posting earlier today of Recent Articles of Interest.) The Kantor Center's report is one of several similar surveys including the European Union's Discrimination and hate crime against Jews in EU Member States (see prior posting) and the ADL's 2013 Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents (see prior posting). The Kantor Center's report appears to be more conservative than others in its methodology for counting incidents, finding:

554 registered violent antisemitic acts perpetrated with weapons or without, by arson, vandalism or direct threats against Jewish persons or institutions such as synagogues, community centers, schools, cemeteries, monuments as well as private property

However its narrative appears much grimmer:

Anti-Zionism, which is rampant in the west, cannot explain the present level of antisemitism, nor can it be explained by the rise of right-wing extremist parties (each having its own wider agenda), or by the economic crisis of 2008 (which is no longer ‘news’). No Middle East event tied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict occurred in 2013, nor can elevated data of antisemitic incidents in this year be attributed to hate-generated hordes of admirers sparked by the attack on the Toulouse Jewish school in March 2012. In short, what we witness in 2013 is ‘net antisemitism’ per se.

ADL Releases 2013 Annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents

In a press release this week, the ADL announced the release of its Annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents. The audit found 751 incidents across the U.S. during 2013. (State-by-state totals.) This is a 19% decrease from the prior year. Of the 751 incidents, 405 involved harassment, 315 involved vandalism and 31 involved assaults.

Ukraine's Jewish Leaders Dispute Putin's Charges Of Anti-Semitism In Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a news conference (full text) on Tuesday at which he attempted to justify recent Russian actions in Ukraine. He said in part:

What is our biggest concern? We see the rampage of reactionary forces, nationalist and anti-Semitic forces going on in certain parts of Ukraine, including Kiev.

JTA reported yesterday that an open letter to Putin from Ukraine's Jewish community took issue with his remarks about anti-Semitism.  Posted on the website of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, the letter written in Russian (full text English translation) and signed by 21 leaders of Ukraine's Jewish community said in part:

Your certainty about the growth of anti-Semitism in Ukraine, which you expressed at your press-conference, also does not correspond to the actual facts. Perhaps you got Ukraine confused with Russia, where Jewish organizations have noticed growth in anti-Semitic tendencies last year.... The Jews of Ukraine, as all ethnic groups, are not absolutely unified in their opinion towards what is happening in the country. But we live in a democratic country and can afford a difference of opinion.

Anti-Semitic Packages and Graffiti In Italy Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Times of Israel reports that in Italy this week, just ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day which falls on January 27 (background), boxes containing pigs' heads were sent to Rome's Great Synagogue, the Israeli embassy in Rome and Rome's Jewish Museum which is hosting an exhibit on the Holocaust. The package sent to the synagogue was delivered on Friday, while the one mailed to the Embassy was intercepted before it was delivered.  On Saturday, graffiti reading "the Holocaust is a lie" and "Hannah Frank is a big liar" appeared outside a municipal building in Rome.  According to Times of Israel, Rome's mayor condemned the actions, saying on Twitter: "Those who insult the Jewish community offend Rome..."

New Anti-Semitic Manifestations Reported In Europe

New examples of anti-Semitism in Europe have made the news in recent days.  EJP reports on the growing criticism of an anti-Semitic Christmas carol broadcast on Dec. 6 by the state-operated Romanian channel TVR3 Verde, a channel directed to rural communities. According to the report:

In the carol, sung by a choir, the “jidovi”, a derogatory term for Jews, are reproached for having “mocked” the Christ Child. “Only in the chimney, in the smoke, the ‘jidov’ is good”, the lyrics further say.

The U.S. embassy in Bucharest issued a statement on Dec. 12 calling the broadcast "an unacceptable display of anti-Semitism." Romania's foreign minister, as well as the Israeli embassy in Bucharest have also condemned the broadcast.

In another move, reported on briefly in the English language press by AFP, but garnering more attention in the Romanian language press, Romania's Jewish community is angered by the ruling Social Democratic Party's nomination of Lucian Bolcas, former vice-president of the nationalistic, right-wing Greater Romania Party, to be a judge on Romania's Constitutional Court. The Centre for the Fight against Anti-Semitism calls Bolcas's ideas "racist and anti-Semitic."

Meanwhile, Haaretz and JTA report that in Italy a spokesman for the Forconi (Pitchfork) Movement which led widespread populist protests against Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s government, its austerity program and the European Union last week, made blatantly anti-Semitic statements in an interview Friday with the newspaper La Repubblica.  Andrea Zunino told the paper:

We want the government to resign.  We want the sovereignty of Italy, which today is slave to the bankers, like the Rothschilds. It is curious that five or six of the richest people in the world are Jews, but this is something I need to investigate.

Tonight Is 75th Kristallnacht Anniversary; New Data On Antisemitism In Europe and U.S. Released

A statement (full text) issued yesterday by President Obama points out that tonight marks the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht-- the violent Nazi-party inspired anti-Jewish pogroms carried out in 1938 in Germany and German -annexed territory in Austria and Czechoslovakia. Kristallnacht marked a turning point that led to ever-increasing anti-Jewish actions by the Nazi regime. Yesterday, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights released a new report titled Discrimination and Hate Crime Against Jews in EU Member States: Experiences and Perceptions of Antisemitism. Several related publications were also released.This is the first report to collect comparable current data across 8 EU countries-- Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Sweden and the United Kingdom.  These countries are home to 90% of EU's Jewish population. Among the key findings were:

66% of respondents consider antisemitism to be a major problem in their countries, while 76% said the situation had become more acute over the last five years.

21% of all respondents have experienced an antisemitic incident or incidents involving verbal insult, harassment or a physical attack in the 12 months preceding the survey. 2% of respondents had been victims of an antisemitic physical attack over the previous year.

In related developments, the Jewish Museum Berlin hosted a conference last night and today titled Antisemitism in Europe Today: the Phenomena, the Conflicts. A Haaretz op-ed criticized organizers for scheduling the conference on the Jewish Sabbath, thereby effectively precluding participation by observant Jews.  And, according to JTA, earlier this week a German hotel, the Kristall Sauna Wellnesspark in Bad Klosterlausnitz, in the former eastern German state of Thuringen, apologized for the ad it had run promoting a "long, romantic Kristall-Nacht" on November 9.

In the United States, the ADL on Oct. 28 released its 2013 Survey About Attitudes Toward Jews In America. It concluded that 12% of Americans have deeply entrenched anti-Semitic attitudes, a 3% decline from the last poll in 2011.  Meanwhile, the New York Times reported earlier this week on the extensive anti-Semitic harassment of students in the New York State Pine Bush Central School District.