Anti-Semitic Incidents - June 2000

Anti-Semitic Incidents - June 2000

General

During the month of June a relatively large number of violent incidents and damage to Jewish installations were reported throughout the world. This is part of a trend of increasing incidents in recent months perpetrated with no particular geographical focus or specific reason.

Desecration of Jewish cemeteries and memorials is especially worthy of mention. We believe it indicates a widespread desire to hurt Jews and their holy places. Such targets provide an object to express hatred towards the Jews at very little risk.

U.S. - In Brooklyn, four Hassidic Jews were stabbed by a group of Hispanic youths, possibly for anti-Semitic reasons. The incident is being investigated by the police as a hate crime.

France - In Longjumeau, a suburb of Paris, a bus taking Jewish children from the Tanougi Jewish school in Savigny Sur Orge, was stoned. Buses transporting Jewish children are often a target for harassment un France.

On 5 June, some twenty Arab youths threw large stones at the glass wall of the Alliance 'Leven' Jewish school, in Paris.

Hungary - On 1 June at the end of the school day, several pupils aged 12 from the Jewish Sheiber school in Budapest, were violently attacked on the way to the bus. The attackers two young bullies, shouted scornful anti-Semitic expressions at the pupils, such as 'Why don't you wear the yellow badge and leave the country?'.

Argentina - On 23 June, a bottle of red paint was hurled from a car at the door of the Habad synagogue in the Once neighbourhood.

Britain - A man who carried a metal disk under his shirt tried to forcefully enter the Cricklood synagogue asking to speak with the rabbi. He left the premises when he noticed that the guard sought help.

On 23 June, three skinheads attacked a pupil while he was leaving the King Solomon High School.

Two youths harassed two girls from the King Solomon High School in Essex.

Desecration of Jewish Cemeteries, Memorials and Synagogues

Germany - On the night of 23 June, five German youths defaced 35 gravestones in the Jewish cemetery in Worms. The police are investigating five suspects who apparently belong to a Neo-Nazi or radical right-wing organization.

On 11 June, in the state of Ludwigslut, unkown persons desecrated the Woebbelin memorial, overturned a gravestone of a common grave, tore out memorial tablets and scattered refuse on the grave. The memorial was set up near Hamburg a short time before the end of the Second World War in memory of over one thousand victims of the Neuengamme concentration camp.

On 20 June, in Berlin, unkown persons defaced the memorial to the Jews of the city and carved three swastikas on it. This was not the first time that the memorial was a target for violence and contempt.

Bulgaria - On the night of 30 May, the synagogue in Bourgas was desecrated. Swastikas and the slogan 'The world would be a better place without Jews, April 20' were drawn. April 20 is Hitler's birthday.

Slovakia - On 25 June in the town of Dunajska Streda, the Jewish cemetery was desecrated. Suspects of the deed are a group of children aged 10-11.

Lithuania - In Pasvalys, a city on the northern border of Lithuania, a memorial tablet which marked the ancient Jewish cemetery was desecrated.

Latvia - At the memorial site for the Holocaust victims in the Rumbala forest near Riga, a memorial tablet in memory of Bobby Zeitlin, one of those who restored the site in the sixties, was torn out.

South Africa - On 22 June, 35 gravestones were desecrated in the Maitland cemetery in Capetown.

Britain - On 24 and 27 June, gravestones were damaged in the Edmonton Federation Cemetery.

Threats

U.S. - Three high school students in Santa Fe, Texas are to stand trial accused of threatening a 13-year-old Jewish boy. They called him 'dirty Jew' and threatened to hang him. According to the boy's father, he is the only Jewish student in a population of 4300 students in the area and has been suffering from anti-Semitic harassment school for two years.

Despite recurring complaints to the school principal, nothing has been done to stop the harassment. The three boys did not express any regret or apology when they were arrested.

Propaganda

Austria - Ernest Windholtz, one of the leaders of the Freedom party and the representatives of the state of Niederoesterreich in parliament, mentioned an SS slogan during his speech: 'Our honor is our loyalty'. Windholtz repeated the slogan which was engraved on the belt of the SS soldiers, a number of times. This created an uproar in Austria.

At the meeting on the 'Dissemination of Hate in the Internet', which was held in Berlin, Rabbi Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles gave examples of severe cases of violence which occurred in the U.S. and were proven to have been a result of racist information distributed over the Internet. Rabbi Cooper spoke of more than 500 organizations in the U.S. which spread racist propaganda over the Internet. In certain cases the material is even adapted to a level suited for 8-10 years olds.

Hungary - On 3 June, in Budapest, while the 'Hatikva' was being played at the beginning of a friendly soccer game between the national Hungarian all star team and the Israeli all star team, cries of contempt were heard from Hungarian fans. During the game, various anti-Semitic derogatory remarks, such as 'Dirty Jews' were also heard. Several flags that looked like Neo-Nazi flags were also hung in the Hungarian stands which is illegal in Hungary. At the end of the game, a fistfight developed between skinheads and several Jews and Israelis.

Ukraine - In his reply to members of parliament who protested anti-Semitic publications that recently appeared, among others, in the Dzhereltze newspapers in Kharkov, Ivan Drach, the chairman of the state committee for media policy said that the publications were legitimate and were definitely not anti-Semitic. In giving his reasons, Drach himself raised the well-known anti-Semitic claim of the Jewish people's collective guilt towards the Ukrainian people for Communist crimes. In referring to sayings such as 'Kill a Jew and atone for four sins' which was raised in the newspaper, Drach claimed there was nothing wrong with this, as it was a quotation from written sources.

Bulgaria - It has recently been learned that a new anti-Semitic site exists in the Internet run by a Bulgarian from the city of Vratza. The site copies mostly material from American hate sites and the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion'. Drach claimed there was nothing wrong with this, as it was a quotation from written sources.

France - In the city of Douai, small laser flashlights which created the shape of a swastika and were used as children's toys, were sold.

Britain - On 7 June, several anti-Semitic calls were received at the King Solomon high school in Essex, all of them coming from the same telephone.

Argentina - At the central General San-Martin theater a play was performed called 'Mein Kampf'. The play conveys clear anti-Semitic messages and mocks the Jew and humiliates him. The Jew is portrayed as cowardly and treacherous. He gives up the spiritual in favour of the material to fulfill his lusts.

The media published that teachers in a Jewish school in Buenos Aires received accusing letters.

Costa Rica - Swastikas drawn in coloured chalk were discovered on the walls of the San-Jose Jewish community center (CIS).

Peru - In a number of appearances over the media, an elected member of congress Luis Caceres Velasquez, expressed admiration of Hitler for having restored national pride to the German people.

Panama - On 14 June, swastikas and the slogans 'Jews! Get out of here!' were drawn in the Bellavista neighbourhood, some 150 meters from 'Shevet Ahim' synagogue.

On 14 June, on a street between two Jewish neighbourhoods, slogans were found such as 'Jews, sons of bitches, your time has come'.

On 14 June, in a Jewish neighbourhood, much damage was done to a number of Jewish owned cars.

South Africa - An abusive slogan and Nazi symbols were sprayed on twelve homes in a Johannesburg suburb where Jews live. Homes of non-Jews were also sprayed. The head of the local Jewish community believes it was a prank by local youths.

Australia - Much anti-Semitic propaganda was disseminated during the month through e-mail letters and articles to private homes and community organizations in West Australia, Tasmania, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia. Among the letters sent were threatening letters signed by the Waffen SS. The latter activity has occurred several times this year.

A large package of articles and anti-Semitic material was sent to the Jewish community office in Melbourne.

A pamphlet proposing recruitment to a Neo-Nazi group with a drawing of a swastika was found in a Sydney shopping center. Other pamphlets calling for action against 'Jewish murders' were found on the bulletin board of a well-known factory.

Anti-Semitic slogans and threats were heard during and after a soccer game in Sydney.

Struggle

Czech Republic - Vladimir Skoupy, the leader of a right wing group was put on trial for spreading Nazi and Holocaust denial views and received a year in prison. He was released, however after a month. Skoupy promised he would not commit the offenses again.

On 5 June, the Czech Police raided the distribution offices from where copies of Mein Kampf were sent, and confiscated 300 copies. They announced their intention of confiscating additional copies already in the shops and stated that the publisher, Takar Zitko, would be brought to trial.

U.S. - On 6 June a suit was filed in Minnesota against the leader of the local Neo-Nazi movement, the 'National Socialist Party of America'. He was accused of hate crimes after he distributed anti-Semitic flyers. The suit was filed following a complaint received from the 'Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas'.

On 11 June, the court prohibited Paul Mullet, leader of the Nazi Party of America, from having any contact with an individual and/or groups of Jews after he sent anti-Semitic and threatening mail to Jewish organizations.

Italy - The Italian Jewish community conducted a vigorous protest campaign against the intention of naming a street after the scientist Nicola Pende who supported the anti-Semitic Fascist laws in the city of Pesche. Following the struggle, the town council retracted its decision.

New Zealand - Hans Kupka, a German student was suspended from his doctoral studies program at Waikoto University, in Hamilton, New Zealand, after it was discovered that he had been involved in radical political activity in Germany and Holocaust denial over the Internet. The Jewish Community held a demonstration at the university and demonstrators wore the yellow star on their lapels as a sign of identification with Holocaust Jews.

Switzerland - On 28 June, the trial of the 80-year-old Holocaust denier Gaston Armand Amaruz opened in Lausanne. Amaruz is accused of spreading racist ideas and advocating the Nazi theory of racial purity for many years.

Brazil - A 17 year old boy, the owner of an Internet site called Comando Suastico that conveyed anti-Jewish and anti-Blacks messages was arrested in May.

Greece - The Greek government and the leader of the Orthodox Church in Greece denounced unknown persons who desecrated the Jewish cemetery in Athens. The government spokesman stated: 'Not only do we condemn and regret the incidents, we also express our rage at such perverse actions in our country which embarrass us all when they are directed towards citizens'.

Canada - The appeal request of Vladimir Katriu, the Ukrainian war criminal who collaborated with the Nazis, on the court's ruling to revoke his citizenship, was rejected. According to Canadian law, a person who, according to the federal court, received his Canadian citizenship under false pretences has no right of appeal. This law was legislated as part of Canada's effort to get rid of Nazi collaborators who hid their past from the immigration authorities and settled in Canada after the war.

Germany - In Sachsen-Anhalt, the German Security Services searched the home of the operator of an Internet site with right-wing content and confiscated the computers.

Miscellaneous

Germany - On 25 May, the former SS officer Anton Mallot, aged 88, was arrested in Germany on suspicion of having murdered a Jewish worker in September 1943 in the Therezenstadt ghetto for hiding stolen food in his clothing.

The granting of the most prestigious literature prize in Germany, the 'Konrad Adenauer Prize for Literature' to a historian who justifies the Holocaust, aroused a strong public debate in the country. The historian, Ernst Nolte, claims that Hitler's anti-Semitism contains 'internal logic' and that Nazism was essentially a reaction to Bolshevism. The prize, whose recipients include the former Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl, was given by the 'Rothschild Foundation' in Munich for literature which 'contributes to a better future'. At the award giving ceremony Nolte said that since Nazism was the strongest force that stood up to Bolshevism, a movement which won broad support of the Jews, Hitler may have had 'rational' reasons for attacking the Jews.

Poland - At the beginning of the month the new elaborate 'Temple' synagogue was dedicated in Cracow, the only synagogue from the 19^th century that survived in Poland. The building was renovated over a period of six years and was financed by groups which preserve historical sites and private donors. It will serve as a place of worship and a cultural center.