THE COORDINATION FORUM FOR COUNTERING ANTISEMITISM
Anti-Semitic Incidents - November 2000
General
The wave of violent incidents suffered by Jewish communities throughout the world during October, which were set off by the riots in the Territories, somewhat subsided in November. However, a relatively large number of anti-Jewish incidents were still recorded in various places in the world. An unusual number of incidents were registered in Australia.
This pattern of reaction against Jewish communities throughout the world to events in Israel could resume under similar circumstances.
Attacks and Anti-Semitic Incidents
Australia
On 1 November, unknown persons broke into the Mahzikei Hatorah synagogue on Roscoe Street in Bondi, Sydney and set fire to the premises by using kerosene and burning prayer shawls. No one was hurt.
On 12 November, the home of Rabbi Pinchas Feldman, head of the local yeshivah in Sydney, was set afire for the third time in less than a month. No one was hurt and no real damage was caused.
On 23 November, unknown persons torched the Beth Herzl synagogue in the Bondi suburb of Sydney.
On 5 November, an unknown person entered the yard of a Jewish home in Sydney and tore off the mezuzah from the door. There was no further damage.
On 3 November, stones were thrown through the windows of a synagogue in Sydney.
Canada
On 31 October, Molotov cocktails were thrown at a synagogue in the center of Edmonton in western Canada. No damage was caused.
France
On 8 November, pupils of Sinai school in Paris were attacked by a group of Arabs who seriously injured five pupils, some of whom required hospitalization.
South Africa
Three bricks were thrown at the Edenvale synagogue in Johannesburg from a passing car. No damage was caused.
Britain
On 10 November, the stall of a Jew in the Petticoat Lane market was defaced with the words "Jews Will Die".
Eggs were thrown at the Stanmore and Canons Park synagogue.
Desecration of Synagogues and Jewish Cemeteries
Hungary
On 2 November, 54 graves were smashed and damaged in the central Jewish cemetery in Budapest.
Macedonia
On the night of 5 November, the cemetery at Bitola was desecrated. Unknown persons completely destroyed two rooms of a building situated in the cemetery. Swastikas and Neo-Nazi slogans were drawn on the building walls.
Bosnia
During the night between 10-11 November, the Jewish cemetery in Sarajevo was desecrated for the first time since the Second World War. Some 30 gravestones were smashed.
South Africa
In the last week of November, the Jewish cemetery in Lichtenburg, Johannesburg was desecrated. All 80 gravestones in the cemetery were damaged.
Threats
Belgium
On 7 November, an anonymous caller called the Brussels police and threatened that there would be an explosion in a Brussels Jewish school which would result in many casualties.
France
On 3 November, an anonymous bomb threat was received in the Jewish community and radio building in Marseilles. The workers were evacuated from the premises which were searched. Nothing was found.
Brazil
In early November, a threatening and abusive handwritten letter signed "Heil Hitler" was placed in the mail box of a Jewish woman living in Belo Horizonte.
Australia
On 16 November, a largely-Jewish social club in one of Sydney's eastern neighborhoods received a bomb threat.
Propaganda
Belgium
On 6 November, leaflets were discovered pasted to the doors of several Jewish community and Israeli institutions in Brussels the Jewish Agency building and the Jewish Community Center, the Maimonides Jewish school and the Israeli embassy. "Jewish Murderers" was written on the leaflets and they were signed by a Belgian radical right-wing organization.
Yugoslavia
On 12 November, dozens of stickers with anti-Semitic abusive slogans in English were pasted on the wall of the only active synagogue in Belgrade. Some of the stickers said "Jews hate your free speech", accompanied by a swastika and signed by the NSDAP-AO (a Neo-Nazi organization based in Lincoln Nebraska, U.S.A.).
Russia
Prior to the elections for district governors on 3 December, anti-Semitic statements were recorded in Ryazan. Many leaflets with the words "The Jews Again" were distributed throughout the city.
Belarus
On 29 November, the 'Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta' newspaper reported an incident in the Belorussian Parliament. MP Sergei Kostan brought a copy of the well-known anti-Semitic book 'The War According to Laws of Meanness" and distributed it among the MP's during the debate. The book contains anti-Semitic articles and was published in the spring of 2000. In reaction an MP expressed disgust and called the distribution of the book in Parliament a "provocation". The Jewish community requested its author be put on trial.
Estonia
On 6 November, a man who spoke Estonian phoned a teacher at the Jewish school in Tallin and abusingly said: "All Jews should be killed".
Mexico
Swastikas were drawn inside an elevator in a building populated mostly by Jewish residents and located in the Polenco neighborhood in Mexico City.
France
The well-known Jewish singer Enrico Macias was invited to appear as part of a multi-cultural festival in Roubaix. Several days before the performance an appeal from several local pro-Palestinian and Arab organizations was published calling for preventing Macias from appearing in the city. Although this was a case of boycotting a French singer inside France from racist motives, there were almost no denunciations or reservations expressed on the part of the public. The event received poor coverage by the media. The only one who made a serious remark was the mayor of Roubaix who claimed that it was a provocation.
Australia
On 6 November, an anti-Semitic article appeared in the English language Czech newspaper "Noviny" in Sydney. The article claimed that there was truth to the blood libel against the Jews and that Jews were probably responsible for additional crimes.
On 8 November, an accusing letter was sent by e-mail to a Jew in Melbourne. The sender defined the Jews as "Zionist swine" who strived to carry out genocide. He also defined the Jews as the embodiment of evil.
On 8 November, a Jew in Sydney ordered a product over the phone but when he gave his details, the clerk made anti-Semitic remarks.
On 9 November, many slogans of "Kill the Jews" were written on the steps of a Sydney train station.
On 14 November, an unidentified person made seven phone calls to various persons in Brisbane whom he thought were Jewish. He called them "Jewish swine" and added "We are coming to kill you".
On 16 November, unknown persons drew abusive slogans on the front of a building on a main street in Sydney.
On 13 and 16 November, swastikas and abusive slogans were drawn on the front of a Jewish community building in Sydney.
On 17 November, e-mail was sent to a Jew in Melbourne who referred to "Holy-Cost Museums" and called for replacing Israel's emblem with a mosquito symbolizing blood suckers.
On 22 November, an unidentified person phoned a Jewish organization in Melbourne and called for killing the Jews.
On 24 November, abusive slogans were drawn on the walls of a synagogue and Jewish school in Perth, West Australia.
Between 25-26 November, a Zionist youth movement leader in Sydney received a series of anti-Semitic phonecalls. The caller, a Lebanese, apparently learned the details of the leader from an advertisement for a summer camp which had appeared in the press.
On 30 November, a Jew in Melbourne received accusing mail which called for mounting a revolt "in countries controlled by Jews, such as Australia, as part of Jihad". The mail also included a quotation from Hitler's Mein Kampf.
Struggle
France
On 20 November, in an unprecedented decision, a French court instructed the American "Yahoo" Internet company to block French users from access to the company's auction sites which sell Nazi memorabilia. The decision which ended a 7-month court battle represents a significant victory for Jewish organizations which took legal action on the matter. These organizations regard the Yahoo case as a critical test case in matters connected with the responsibility of Internet companies for information or items presented in their sites. The court gave Yahoo a three month extension to find a way of blocking the sites from French surfers. If Yahoo does not abide by the court's decision, it is liable to a heavy fine of 13,000 dollars a day. The verdict maintained that "Yahoo France", a local subsidiary, is technically capable of blocking the sites from at least 90 percent of French users. Internet experts fear that the trial will create a legal precedent in all matters concerning the right of one country to impose its laws on the on-line material and data stored in other countries.
Russia
The severely anti-Semitic statements of communist Alexander Mikhailov, the new governor of the Kursk district, who called for the liberation of Russia from the Jews, received penetrating criticism in the Kremlin and generated strong criticism in the Russian media. Poltavchenko, the presidential representative in Central Russia, met with Mikhailov and said that such statements were unacceptable. Following the meeting, the new governor of Kursk apologized, and said he regretted his statements. On 30 November, the "Kommersamt" newspaper reported that a draft resolution had been proposed which included an appeal to the President to dismiss the governor of Kursk for his anti-Semitic remarks. The draft resolution has not yet been raised for discussion for technical reasons.
A man suspected of participating in a violent attack on the former deputy governor of the Kursk district Sergei Makschov from anti-Semitic motives, was arrested by the Russian police. The deputy governor sustained moderate injuries in the attack.
U.S.
Five skinheads who admitted in a plea bargain to attempting to set a synagogue on fire in Reno, Nevada, were sentenced to imprisonment of up to 15 years. The culprits admitted they had operated out of hatred of the Jews.
Miscellaneous
Romania
In the first round of parliamentary and presidential elections held on 26 November, the radical right-wing party "Great Romania" (Romania Mare) won 21 percent of the votes while the leader Vadim Tudor won 28 percent of the votes. It is noteworthy that this same radical right-wing party received only 4 percent of the votes in the previous 1996 elections. The strengthening of the Romania Mare which is known as an anti-Semitic party, has caused much apprehension among the Jewish community in Romania.
Austria
The synagogue in Graz, which was set on fire during Kristallnacht in 1938, was restored and returned to the local Jewish community. The president of Austria who participated in the event said that Austrians must fight anti-Semitism and racism.
Finland
Finland's Prime Minister apologized in the name of his country for the extradition of eight Jewish refugees to Nazi Germany in 1942. In a speech he delivered at the unveiling of a monument dedicated to these eight Jews, Finland's President said that "the extradition of the eight Jews is a stain on the history of Finland".
The Lutheran Church of Finland also apologized to the Jewish community for remaining silent during the Holocaust period and undertook to enhance awareness of the subject.
Germany
Over 200,000 persons participated in a parade through the streets of Berlin in memory of the victims of Kristallnacht. Chancellor of Germany Gerhard Schroeder led the marchers who waved huge placards bearing the words "No to Neo-Nazis". Thousands demonstrated in the streets of Germany to mark the event.