anti-Semitism

Solidarity Bracelets

Solidarity Bracelets

The World Zionist Organization has embarked on a project to distribute commemorative prayer and spirit-strengthening bracelets, which combine the feelings of cohesion, unity, and victory.

The bracelets consist of three values:

In their memory – Dedicated to the memory of the civilians and martyrs who were murdered and fell since the beginning of the war. “And I have cleansed their blood I have not cleansed, and the Lord dwells in Zion” (Joel 4:21)

For their safe return – represents the hope and prayer for the return home of the abductees; those who were cruelly separated from their families, who are experiencing hell, and were taken captive by bloodthirsty enemies. “And I took you from the nations and gathered you from all the countries and brought you to your own land” (Ezekiel 36:24)

For victory – represents the aspiration and confidence in the eternity of the people of Israel, in the victory of its soldiers, in the victory of light over darkness and good over evil. “Blessed are you, Israel, who is like you, a people saved by God, He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword, your enemies will cower before you, and you will tread on their heights” (Deuteronomy, 33: 29)

We invite you to take part in the project, receive the bracelets free of charge, wear them, and spread this message widely, as an expression of support and partnership in the fate of the people of Israel.

To receive a bracelet, please click here: https://www.wzo.org.il/department/haravotbarzel/spirit-strengthening-bracelets/en

Sincerely,
Or Cohen

Pakruojis Wooden Synagogue Hosts Photo Exhibit on Kinder Aktion and Hamas Hostages

Pakruojis Wooden Synagogue Hosts Photo Exhibit on Kinder Aktion and Hamas Hostages

The Šiauliai Jewish Community is holding a half-day photography exhibit at the wooden synagogue in Pakruojis on November 20 detailing the painful past of the Jewish people and current events.

The first part of the exhibit is a joint project between the Šiauliai Religious Jewish Community and Yad Vashem in Jerusalem to mark the 80th anniversary of the Kinder Aktion or children’s mass murder operation at the Šiauliai ghetto. It only contains a small number of photographs of victims conserved by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial.

The second section features the 240 people taken hostage by Hamas and held in the Gaza Strip, including fathers, mothers, children, teenagers, the elderly and the disabled.

Time: 11:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., Monday, November 20
Place: Pakruojis synagogue, Kranto street no. 8, Pakruojis, Lithuania

Remembering Hamas Kidnap Victims in Šiauliai

Remembering Hamas Kidnap Victims in Šiauliai

The Šiauliai Jewish Community will exhibit photographs of more than 200 hostages taken and held by Hamas in southern Israel on the city streets in Šiauliai on Thursday.

The posters will go on display outside the building at Višinskio street no. 24, Šiauliai Jewish Community headquarters between 11:00 A.M. and 2:00 P.M. on November 16.

The Šiauliai Jewish Community asks you to express support for the families of the kidnapping victims and seeks to bring attention to the fate of these people who have been trapped in a living in hell for more than a month now.

Israel reports Hamas is currently imprisoning 239 people abducted from southern Israel.

Anti-Semitic Terrorism Continues in Montreal

Anti-Semitic Terrorism Continues in Montreal

Montreal Jewish school target of another shooting in city’s week-long string of hate crimes
by Alessia Simona Maratta, Global News, November 12, 2023

A Jewish school in Montreal was once again the target of gunfire early morning Sunday in what authorities say is the latest in a string of hateful acts targeting the community this week.

Police say 911 calls were made around 5 a.m. for gunshots heard near Yeshiva Gedola school in the Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood. Officers say they found bullet holes and casings at the building on Deacon Road near the Van Horne Avenue intersection.

Witnesses told officers a vehicle was seen leaving the scene after shots were heard.

Montreal police spokesperson Caroline Chèvrefils told Global News no one was inside the building at the time of the incident and no injuries were reported.

The investigation has been transferred to the SPVM’s hate crimes unit.

This is the second time Yeshiva Gedola has been the target of gunfire in just a few days. On Thursday police reported overnight gunshots fired at that same school and at United Talmud Torah school, also in the city’s Côte-des-Neiges area.

Full story here.

German Chancellor, President Mark Kristallnacht at Berlin Synagogue Firebombed Last Month

German Chancellor, President Mark Kristallnacht at Berlin Synagogue Firebombed Last Month

Photo: German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier and chancellor Olaf Sholz attended a ceremony to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogroms at the synagogue of the Kahal Adass Jisroel Jewish complex attacked by Molotov cocktails last month.

BERLIN (AP)–Across Germany, in schools, city halls, synagogues, churches and parliament, people came together Thursday to commemorate the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass in 1938 in which the Nazis terrorized Jews throughout Germany and Austria.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Germany’s main Jewish leader Josef Schuster spoke at an anniversary ceremony at a Berlin synagogue that was attacked with firebombs last month.

“Jews have been particularly affected by exclusion for centuries,” Scholz said in his speech.

“Still and again here in our democratic Germany, and that after the breach of civilization committed by Germans in the Shoah,” they are being discriminated against, the chancellor added.

“That is a disgrace. It outrages and shames me deeply,” Scholz said. “Any form of anti-Semitism poisons our society. We do not tolerate it.”

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One Hundred and Two Holocaust Survivors Ask Australians to Denounce Anti-Semitism and Hatred

One Hundred and Two Holocaust Survivors Ask Australians to Denounce Anti-Semitism and Hatred

Photo: Members of the Australian Jewish community participate in a rally in Sydney in late October. Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images

by Daisy Dumas, November 9, 2023

The broader Jewish community in Australia this week marked 30 days since the October 7 Hamas attacks with vigils and candle-lighting ceremonies

More than 100 Australian Holocaust survivors have united to denounce a wave of “senseless and virulent” anti-Semitism that they fear is growing in the country.

The “last witnesses to the unspeakable horrors of the Nazi regime,” many in their 90s, have penned a letter against abusive incidents that have targeted the Jewish community as Israeli retaliations continue after the brutal Hamas attacks and kidnappings of October 7.

“We are witnesses to the anti-Semitic propaganda that turned our friends, neighbors and the general public against us in Europe. We remember the six million Jewish lives lost because of this hatred,” the 102 Australian survivors wrote in the letter published in the Australian on Thursday.

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Anti-Semitic Attacks across the English-Speaking World

Anti-Semitic Attacks across the English-Speaking World

by Geoff Vasil

While Europeans have been looking on as their streets are taken over by belligerent mobs of pro-Palestinian and/or pro-Hamas protestors, with concomitant protests and violence against Israel supporters in the United Kingdom, there has also been a rising wave of anti-Jewish protests, attacks and violence across the Anglosphere beyond the UK, the rest of the English-speaking world.

In the extreme leftist stronghold of Seattle, Washington, in the United States, where the evening news carries openly sympathetic explanations of Hamas’s violent attacks against civilians in southern Israel on October 7, massive pro-Palestinian protests were followed by a series of mailings to four synagogues of white powder with threatening notes. Seattle police, fire and now the FBI are investigating this as an act of terrorism. The mailings were followed by white powder and threats mailed to four county election offices still engaged in counting the November 7 ballot results. An accompanying note said “End the election now.” Traces of fentanyl were found in two samples from the Seattle and Spokane areas mixed with baking soda.

In nearby Tacoma pro-Hamas activists blocked the loading of a military cargo at the port there for 10 hours, in solidarity with a similar blockade at the Port of Oakland in California which lasted 17 hours, organized by the same pro-Palestinian NGO. JTA reported a Jewish man was killed in Los Angeles when a pro-Palestinian activist hit him in the head with a metal megaphone on November 5.

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House of Representatives Censures Tlaib over Anti-Israel Comments

House of Representatives Censures Tlaib over Anti-Israel Comments

The United States House of Representatives voted in favor Tuesday of a resolution censuring Palestinian-American representative Rashida Tlaib (Democrat from Michigan) for comments she made on youtube, calling US president Joe Biden’s (Democrat) support for Israel genocide and including footage of demonstrators chanting “from the river to the sea,” an old Palestinian slogan calling for genocide, for driving the Jews out of Palestine from the Jordan River and into the Mediterranean. Calling for the commission of genocide is part of the crime of genocide under the UN Convention for the Prevention of Genocide and international jurisprudence. The motion to censure was brought by Republicans in the House and didn’t enjoy Democrat support, with 212 Republicans voting in favor, just 22 Democrats in favor, 4 Republicans against and 184 Democrats against. One Republican and 3 Democrats voted “present,” in effect abstaining, and 7 representatives from both parties didn’t vote.

The failure of House Democrats to come out in favor of fellow party-member Biden’s Israel policy during multiple rounds of “shuttle diplomacy” by Democrat secretary of state Antony Blinken comes as Biden sinks below Trump in polls by even the most left-leaning pollsters for the upcoming 2024 presidential election.

Tlaib is one of four extreme leftist activist representatives known as the Squad and sometimes as the Gang of Four in reference to Communist China’s Cultural Revolution.

Full story here.

Israel Arrests Palestinian Activist Ahed Tamimi in West Bank

Israel Arrests Palestinian Activist Ahed Tamimi in West Bank

The 22-year-old Palestinian icon is arrested on another night of Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli forces have arrested Ahed Tamimi, a prominent 22-year-old Palestinian activist, for “inciting terrorism.”

They announced the arrest on Monday following another round of overnight raids and fighting in the occupied West Bank. Violence has been spilling over into the territory since the start of the Israel-Hamas war last month.

The activist “was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence and terrorist activities”, an army spokesperson said. “Tamimi was transferred to Israeli security forces for further questioning.”

Israeli media reported that Ahed Tamimi had called for the murder of settlers in the West Bank in an Instagram post. An Israeli security source shared the alleged Instagram post with AFP when questioned about the reason for her arrest.

Full story here.

British Columbia, Ontario Make Holocaust Education in Middle, High School Mandatory

British Columbia, Ontario Make Holocaust Education in Middle, High School Mandatory

Photo: Marilyn Sinclair’s Holocaust education group Liberation 75 is sending free copies of a middle school title To Hope and Back: The Journey of the St. Louis to 6th grade classrooms across Ontario as part of an initiative named for her father Ernie, a Holocaust survivor. Photo by Nazima Walji/CBC.

As Holocaust Education Becomes Compulsory in Some Provinces, Advocates Call for Wider Adoption

Curriculum changes in Ontario and British Columbia to take effect in 2025

by Jessica Wong, CBC News, November 6, 2023

Marilyn Sinclair says she’s feeling “pretty great” about Ontario’s new requirement that sixth-graders learn about the Holocaust.

Sinclair, founder of Holocaust education organization Liberation 75, is responding to more than 8,000 requests for copies of a book from 6h grade teachers across the province. Told from a child’s perspective, the book recounts the real-life story of the St. Louis, a ship filled with Jewish refugees that fled Nazi Germany in 1939 and was turned away from Cuba, the US and Canada.

The free books from Sinclair’s organization will also come with a toolkit of teaching resources, information about a forthcoming speaker series with the author,and links to an online book club where educators can trade teaching strategies.

“[The package] was our way of saying, ‘Don’t be scared, we’re here. We’re going to provide you with the resources you need,'” Sinclair said. “Teachers have a lot to teach in the curriculum. We want to make it as easy and as pleasant for them as possible.”

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Jewish Cemetery Building Burned and Vandalized in Vienna

Jewish Cemetery Building Burned and Vandalized in Vienna

A building in the Jewish section of Vienna’s Central Cemetery was set ablaze and a swastika and inscription about Hitler were spray-painted on its outer walls on the night of October 31, according to multiple media sources. The fire consumer prayer books, Torah scrolls and pews. Over the weekend an Israeli flag was torn down at the entrance to the main synagogue in Vienna, the Stadttempel, without the removal of an Austrian flag flying next to it. The British-based Jewish charity Community Security Trust which monitors anti-Semitic attacks in Europe reports a 300% increase in Austria, a 240% increase in Germany and a 320% rise in anti-Semitic attacks in Great Britain since October 7. Attacks include the attempted fire-bombing of a synagogue in Berlin, the marking of Jewish homes and businesses with stars of David in Paris and the physical assault of at least one person carrying an Israeli flag by pro-Palestinian agitators in London, with Community Security Trust reporting 47 physical assaults in Europe overall between October 7 and November 3. November 10 to 11 is usually marked as the anniversary of the Night of Broken Glass or Kristallnacht when Nazis ransacked Jewish homes and businesses and assaulted and killed Jewish people people across Germany and Austria in 1938.

Latest report available here.
Jewish Chronicle report on attacks in Vienna here.

Jews Afraid after Failed Pogrom in Dagestan

Jews Afraid after Failed Pogrom in Dagestan

Police conducted home searches and confiscated phones to determine those who took part in the storming of an airport in the southern Russian region

Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs has announced the arrest of 83 people in connection with Sunday’s anti-Semitic riots at Makhachkala Airport in the Republic of Dagestan. Police have warned that any attempts to provoke further unrest in the Muslim-majority region will be suppressed.

In a statement on Telegram on Monday, the ministry said officers had conducted over 50 searches and had seized mobile phones and other equipment to be used as evidence against those suspected of organizing and participating in the riot.

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Anti-Semitism on Lithuanian Facebook

Anti-Semitism on Lithuanian Facebook

Anti-Semitic Threats against Backdrop of War
by Inga Kontrimavičiūtė, sekunde.lt, October 18, 2023

One private chat group for students in Panevėžys has turned into a forum for the hatred of Jews and even for death threats.

The student who witnessed this and reported it to police was shocked to learn his fellow student who hurled anti-Semitic insults serves as a volunteer soldier in the Lithuanian military.

He agreed to tell this shocking story on condition of anonymity.

The young man says he is truly afraid for his own safety.

He says it began last Friday when one student from his class posted the Palestinian flag to the private chat.

“When I took offense, he replied Jews are f___s. I told him he shouldn’t say that. He replied: or what? I tried to deescalate the situation, but then the insults began. I tried to explain the situation in Israel, then he said that there is no such country called Israel. In the end he threatened: I see the Star of David should be carved into you,” the young man recalled.

Translated from sekunde.lt here.

Žemaitaitis Update

Žemaitaitis Update

Lithuanian MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis came under fire last spring for posting anti-Semitic and anti-Israel statements on facebook. He was removed from his party and condemned by other political parties, but when he refused to apologize and continued to make similar posts, the ruling coalition sought to impeach and remove him as a member of parliament. The opposition were initially cool towards the idea, but warmed to it after Hamas attacked Israel two weeks ago. The ruling coalition and speaker of parliament filed a complaint with the prosecutor general alleging the MP was sowing ethnic discord against Jews in Lithuania. The prosecutor’s office is calling the MP a “special witness” because he enjoys parliamentary immunity from prosecution. Žemaitaitis says the impeachment commission was formed outside the bounds of parliamentary regulations and is unconstitutional. All sides agree the commission’s initial findings will have to be adjudicated by a court of law, most likely Lithuania’s Constitutional Court, before proceeding to the next stage in the process. This is the latest installment in the on-going saga.

Impeachment Commission No Longer Inviting Remigijus Žemaitaitis to Testify: MP Intentionally Avoiding Attending Meetings
by Gailė Jaruševičiūtė-Mockuvienė, Lrytas.lt, October 23

As Lithuanian MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis continues to fail to appear at meetings of a special interpellation commission, the commission resolved Monday not to send any more summons to the MP.

“We won’t undertake additional measures. We will simply send an access link to all meetings we hold in the future and will provide the member of parliament the chance to connect and explain his position,” commission chairman Arūnas Valinskas said during the commission meeting held Monday.

Valinskas said Remigijus Žemaitaitis’s refusal to present his own explanations could be interpreted as a conscious effort to discredit the commission’s actions, and might include using loop-holes in the parliamentary statute for that purpose.

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Rabbi Dov Maimon on Growing French but not Belgian Sympathies towards Israel

Rabbi Dov Maimon on Growing French but not Belgian Sympathies towards Israel

Perception of the Israel-Gaza Conflict in France
by Dov Maimon, Le Point, October 15, 2023

Exploring France’s Evolving Sympathy for Israel and its Jewish Population: An Analysis

In contrast to previous military conflicts when French public opinion leaned toward supporting the Palestinians, a remarkable shift has emerged in recent days. This shift reflects a surge in sympathy in France towards Israel and its Jewish community driven by a complex interplay of factors connected to evolving dynamics in the Middle East and mounting concerns about the growing threat of Islamic extremism. While this new-found affinity is worth describing, its long-term sustainability remains uncertain, given the various potential factors that could shape public sentiment moving forward. …

Full opinion piece in English here.

Joint Statement of Personal Representatives of OSCE Chairman-in-Office on Tolerance and Non-Discrimination on Recent Hamas Attacks on Israel

Joint Statement of Personal Representatives of OSCE Chairman-in-Office on Tolerance and Non-Discrimination on Recent Hamas Attacks on Israel

SKOPJE/VIENNA, 14 October 2023–Rabbi Andrew Baker, personal representative on combating anti-Semitism, and associate professor Dr. Regina Polak, personal representative of the OSCE chairperson-in-office on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, made the following statement:

“The horrific Hamas terrorist attacks that shattered this week’s early Shabbat morning calm along Israel’s southern border have shocked the civilized world. The torture and murder of hundreds of innocent civilians–men, women, children and the elderly–and the forceable taking of dozens more as hostages to a fate unknown call to mind even the actions leading to the mass murder of Jews in the dark days of the Holocaust.

“The expressions of support and solidarity of religious leaders, including Muslims, from around the globe are greatly appreciated. Nonetheless, there have been demonstrators in cities across the OSCE region that praise these heinous acts and ‘celebrate’ the murder of Jews. We have also witnessed a surge in anti-Semitism on social media, and Jewish individuals, communities and their institutions are being threatened. We are grateful to the leaders and diplomatic representatives of many OSCE participating States. We ask them all to carefully assess the heightened security concerns that their Jewish citizens face and do whatever is necessary to address them.”

Šiauliai Ghetto Doctor’s Testimony Recalls Drowning “Illegal” Newborns

Šiauliai Ghetto Doctor’s Testimony Recalls Drowning “Illegal” Newborns

Photo: Šiauliai ghetto territory in 1988, unknown photographer, courtesy Ninth Fort Museum.

by Kristina Tamelytė, LRT.lt, October 15, 2023

“A young girl had to be killed so we decided to drown her,” doctor Aharon Pitsk wrote in his diary in 1942. He died just before the Šiauliai [Shavl] ghetto was “liquidated” with surviving ghetto prisoners sent on to Dachau and Stutthof. Šiauliai had a Jewish population of over 8,000 people before the Holocaust and only a few hundred survived.

The Nazis issued an order it was illegal for Jews to procreate so a newborn was a danger to the family, the community and everyone. Unborn children also posed a danger so ghetto officials encouraged and demanded women get abortions. This was considered the lesser evil, the death of one person instead of several. The children who were born were subject to poisoning. This often wasn’t lethal so “a more effective method” was found.

Pitsk called Lithuania “my homeland” in his diary.

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