Report of Anti-Semitic Incidents - Jun-99

Report of Anti-Semitic Incidents - June 1999

General

June was characterized by many violent incidents that were ostensibly unrelated. It is noteworthy, however, that the most violent were concentrated in western countries that have large Jewish communities and well developed media. It cannot be discounted that reports of a successful anti-Semitic action in one place encourage similar actions in other places.

U.S. - In the early morning hours of Friday, 8 June, 1999 (3:24-3:58), three synagogues in Sacramento, California were torched - the reform Bnei Israel and Beth Shalom synagogues, and the orthodox Knesset Israel Torah Center. All signs indicate that the fires were carefully planned, coordinated and set within a short period of 30 minutes. Two synagogues showed signs of breaking and entering and a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the third. The reform Bnei Israel synagogue, which is situated in one of Sacramentos established neighborhoods, suffered the most damage. Its library containing 5000 volumes and video cassettes on the history of the Jewish people and the Holocaust was destroyed. The other two synagogues suffered less damage since the fire department was called in time. No one was injured in all cases but the total damage to the three synagogues was estimated at a million dollars. Pamphlets were found in two of the synagogues. The one found in the Bnei Israel synagogue was signed by the North Atlantic Terrorist Organization. The assessment is that it was the work of Neo-Nazi anti-Semites, such as skinheads, who are very active around Sacramento. The two organizations suspected are the National Alliance and the World Church of the Creator which distribute propaganda against the Jews.

Britain - Unidentified persons threw a stone at the window of the Sukkat Shalom synagogue in the London Herman Hill Wanstead neighbourhood.

A swastika was drawn on the Richmond synagogue in Lichfield Gardens, Richmond. Stickers were also pasted protesting Jewish ritual slaughter and reporting on Jewish slave trading.

Unidentified persons sang anti-Semitic songs in the yard of the Birmingham Central synagogue in Birmingham.

Unidentified persons harassed a group of Jewish girls in Manchester. A car traveling at high speed drove towards the girls who were walking on the sidewalk, frightening them. Later on the same car drove on the sidewalk towards another Jew who was forced to jump aside to avoid being hit.

Two religious Jews were attacked in Salford by skinheads.

The rabbi of the Ezra Torah yeshivah was attacked in the Salford bus station.

A group of boys chased pupils of the Talmud Torah school in Salford, Manchester. One of the pursuers caught a student and assaulted him. The attacker was caught and arrested.

Pupils from the King David school in Manchester were attacked by a gang of boys who threatened them with knives while they were eating in a restaurant near the school and called them dirty Jews. The incident was repeated a few days later.

Many incidents were reported this month in the Salford district in Manchester, including stones thrown at a bus, children harassed and skullcaps snatched from their heads while they were returning from school, windows shattered in homes owned by Jews, a child who required medical treatment after being hit by a stone and other incidents.

An unidentified person threw a bottle and stones into the Torah Terminal school yard. Two days later a stone was thrown which shattered one of the school windows.

France - During the prayer service at the Fontenay Sous Bois synagogue in Paris, a brawl broke out between Jewish worshippers and Arab youths who claimed that the Jews were making noise and behaving like rulers in occupied territories. The brawl developed into a fist fight and one of the Arabs fired a pistol into the air.

During a brawl in the Vincennes quarter in Paris between youths and local Jews, bottles were also thrown. The Jewish boys escaped into the synagogue and the other youths tried to break in by force but were unsuccessful.

Belgium - A car was torched in the parking lot of the Ganeinu Jewish school in Brussels.

Poland - The Cracow Jewish cemetery in southern Poland was desecrated once again for the fourth time since the beginning of the year. White crosses were spray-painted on 34 headstones and paint was spilled on them.

Ukraine - An unidentified person attacked the director of the Joints Hesed facility in Odessa. The attacker lay in wait for him at the entrance to his apartment building, struck him in the face and shouted derogatory anti-Semitic remarks.

Venezuela - A fire broke out in the Shomrei Shabbat synagogue in Caracass San Bernadino neighbourhood. The kindergarten located next to the synagogue was evacuated. No one was hurt. The reasons and background to the incident are unclear.

Australia - Children from the Yavne Jewish school in Melbourne wearing skullcaps were attacked by a group of ruffians. Two of the children required medical attention as a result of the blows they received.

Unknown persons smeared excrement on the window of a shop run by a Jewish charity organization in Sydney.

A Jew was attacked in Melbourne by unidentified persons on his way home from the synagogue.

Britain - An anonymous threat of a bomb plant was received at the Ilford Jewish Primary School in Essex. The school was evacuated and searched but nothing was found.

A threat was received over the answering machine of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality which said This is the BNP. All Jews must leave England. The Jews must mix with the Blacks and not with other races since their origin is from the Blacks.

France - Anonymous threatening calls were recently received at the Neuilly synagogue in Paris.

The synagogue on Buffault street received an anonymous phonecall on a bomb planted there.

Ukraine - Two threatening announcements on a bomb plant were received at the Kherson synagogue. In both cases the synagogue was evacuated and searched but nothing was found.

Venezuela - The secretariat of the Hebraica club in Caracas received a threat of a bomb planted in the Jewish school next to the club. The school was searched but nothing was found.

Britain - The London Beth Din received an anti-Semitic letter.

The Finchley Central synagogue received a letter which said White wolves. White pride, you aint seen nothing yet.

Anti-Semitic derogatory remarks were shouted at a group of worshippers at the Sheffield Jewish Congregation Center.

A CD version of a fictitious story called Lod Horror was produced by a recording company in Manchester. The story tells about Jews murdered by an anti-Semite with a razor blade. The original book was banned from publication in 1991 but the court subsequently reversed its decision. The story currently appears on a CD which includes frightening graphic illustrations of the murder.

Spain - Swastikas were drawn in a park in central Madrid.

Austria - The Vienna-based Zur Zeit newspaper published an article on world War II by Hans Gamlich denying Nazi crimes and the murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust. The author claimed only one to one and a half million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

Hungary - Swastikas were drawn on a wall and gate of the Habonim-Dror clubhouse in Budapest.

Poland - A Holocaust denial book called Dangerous Themes was written in Warsaw by a university professor who claimed that the Nazis did not kill millions of Jews and that the gas chambers were used to kill lice.

Ukraine - Anti-Semitic pamphlets against the Jewish candidate Surkis were distributed close to the mayoral elections in Kiev. The pamphlets emphasized Surkis Jewish origin and demanded that he and his mafia colleagues be prevented from fulfilling municipal posts. One pamphlet accused Surkis of stealing money from the government and claimed that there was no anti-Semitism in Ukraine, but that Jews like Surkis and his supporters constituted a faction and controlled television and many newspapers.

Russia - In the current affairs program Russian House on Moscows local third television channel, two anti-Semitic reports were shown. The first dealt with the worldwide Jewish connection. The anti-Semitic author and reporter Vorobievskiy, who visited Israel, broadcast the impressions of his visit accompanied by anti-Semitic commentary in the style of the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' . The second report again mentioned the worldwide Jewish connection, this time in connection with the Holocaust, the real pretext being the affair of the crosses set up at Auschwitz. The commentator maintained that the affair once more proves that world policy is dictated and organized by the Jewish communities. This time the Jews want to prove that they are the nation which suffered the most in World War II and that the victims of the other nations were too few to be mentioned. The Jews want to rewrite humanitys history in the twentieth century in their favour, thereby not giving consideration to the feelings of any other nation.

Brazil - On Friday evening, when worshippers of the Associacao Religiosa Israelita de Rio de Janeiro were entering the synagogue, a scooter passed by ridden by two men wearing helmets. One of them made the Nazi salute, shouted out some incomprehensible words in German and ended with Heil Hitler.

Uruguay - On the main street of Paso Da Los Toros a Neo-Nazi placard was waved on which was drawn a swastika and the words Proud Skinhead, most likely from the Neo-Nazi Uruguayan Orgullo Skinhead organization.

The La Republika newspaper published an anonymous statement by a Neo-Nazi activist attacking the editor in the Letters to the Editor section. The writer claimed that the Jews pay the editor money not to publish the research which reveals that the Holocaust is a fraud and an industry which makes millions of dollars profit each year. Another one of the false claims raised in the statement was that the Jewish people declared war against German in 1933. In the editors reaction which was subsequently published, he rejected the claims that the Jews pay him and denounced racism. He also explained that the Holocaust of the Jewish people was a genocide and a crime against humanity.

Australia - Anti-Semitic derogatory remarks were voiced against a person leaving the Jewish community building in Melbourne.

On two separate occasions anti-Semitic remarks were shouted at a member of the Jewish club in Sydney.

E-mail was received in Sydney which included abusive remarks and criticized the involvement of a senior member of the community in Australian public affairs.

E-mail containing a Holocaust denial message was sent to a Jewish media person.

Neo-Nazi propaganda was delivered personally to the home of a Jewish community leader in Sydney.

The AUS.POLITICS news group continued to publish anti-Semitic articles this month.

A listener made anti-Semitic remarks on a radio program, such as an invasion of sub-human beings such as Blacks and Jews.

Switzerland - The Supreme Court in Aargau turned down the appeal on the sentence passed in September 1998 by the Baden district court against the 47 year old Holocaust denier Juergen Graf from Basel. Graf was sentenced to 15 months in prison and a fine of 8000 Swiss francs after being tried for writing books and other publications containing Holocaust denial. He reiterated that he stands behind his writings 100 percent. He also said his books were still being distributed from Belgium and England and that he had already written another book. Grafs publisher, Gerhard Foerster, is a German who served in the Wermacht and became a Swiss citizen. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison in a trial conducted last year but died in the meantime at the age of 78.

Hungary - The municipal court in Debrecen gave a 19 year old resident a two-year suspended sentence who had been arrested wearing a shirt with a swastika on it during a radical right-wing party demonstration.

Austria - Simon Weisenthal filed a complaint with the Vienna State Attorneys Office (Staatsanwaltschaft) against the radical right-wing activist Karl Steinhauser for anti-Semitism. In the booklet he sends to his supporters, Steinhauser publishes the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' from the fundamental propaganda of the radical right. In the booklet Steinhauser writes about the Jewish control of the world which was planned over a hundred years ago and which is today a frightening fact of life. Steinhauser intends to run in the federal elections in the fall of 1999 as head of his Oesterreich-Partei party.

Four Neo-Nazi youths were sentenced to up to five years in prison for renewing Nazi activity in Vienna. They were accused of writing anti-Semitic graffiti, assault and throwing Molotov cocktails at a meeting place for foreigners in the city. The Austrian authorities are very stringent in enforcing the law against renewing Nazi activity and permit prison sentences of up to ten years.

Andreas Moelzer, advisor on cultural affairs to Joerg Haider, the governor of Kaernten, may find himself accused of breaking the law forbidding renewed activity in the spirit of National-Socialism. Moelzer is the editor-in-chief of the Zur Zeit weekly which published an article by Hans Gamlich. In the article, entitled Doubt is the Father of True Awareness, Adolf Hitler is defined as a great social revolutionary. The Holocaust and the number of victims are described as dogma and myth. The Nuremburg trials are described as the greatest show trials in world history. Since Moelzer is the editor in charge of the newspaper, the complaint filed to the Attorney Generals Office applies to him as well.

Australia - The Queensland Minister of Housing was forced to apologize for an anti-Semitic remark he made in reply to a question he was asked in Parliament. His answer was I succeeded in getting rid of the Star of David in a number of subjects. The statement was made to attack the previous Housing Minister David Weston. The minister apologized and said he had had no intention of offending anyone and that he used the expression Star of David as it contained the name of his predecessor.

U.S. - Dmytro Sawchuk, a 74 year old pensioner, gave up his American citizenship and left the country following a civil action against him for concealing information that he had been a Nazi guard between 1943 and 1945 in one of the forced labour camps in Poland. Sawchuk also participated in the destruction of the Jewish ghetto and hid these facts from the U.S. immigration authorities when he requested an entrance visa in 1951. The U.S. government added Sawchuks name to its WATCH list which prevents the return of war criminals to the U.S.

The Nazi war criminal Vincas Valkavickas was deported from the U.S. to Lithuania on 13 June, 1999 in order to avoid a trial against him. Valkavickas, a 78 year old pensioner from Chicago, admitted that he had served as a policeman in Lithuania between 1941 and 1944. Among others, he was a guard in an installation where 3700 Jews were murdered during World War II. He also admitted that he concealed his past when he asked for an entry visa to the U.S. in 1950.

Russia - The Moskovskiy Komsomolets newspaper published an article on anti-Semitism in Russia, pointing to a trend of exacerbation, possibly due to the large number of Jews around the President, in banking and the media. According to the article, anti-Semitic stigmas in Russia are transferred through mothers milk and therefore exist and will always exist. Their manifestations worsen or improve according to the times. The paper maintains that in spite of this, there is much less hatred than Russians feel, for example, towards Caucasians.

Poland - During his visit to Warsaw, Pope John Paul II called for much more Christian understanding to the suffering the Jews experienced in Poland and prayed for the millions of Jews who perished in the Holocaust in his country. The Pope, a native of Poland, met with heads of the Jewish community there. The 79 year old pope came to Poland for a 13-day visit in his effort to improve relations between the Catholic church and Israel and Jews throughout the world. He admitted that the Church did not do sufficient to save Jews in the Holocaust and noted the mistake of Catholics who preach contempt for the Jews.

France - The World Jewish Congress in the U.S. announced that the large prestigious museum in France, the Louvre, will return an 18th century painting stolen by the Nazis to the heirs of a Jewish family. The Congress noted that this was the first time that paintings are being returned to their rightful owners since the organization began its struggle, two years ago, to return to their owners works of art located in museums in France that had been stolen by the Nazis.

Germany - The German Bundestag decided by a large majority (439 out of 559 members) that a memorial to the Holocaust of European Jews will be erected in central Berlin. The construction of 2700 concrete slabs and an information center in memory of the Jews murdered in the Holocaust will begin next year near the Reichstag building and the Brandenburg Gate. Ten years of debate and argument on the construction of the memorial and its nature have thus come to an end.

On 21 June, 1999, Berlin mayor Eberhard Diepgen said that he opposes the construction of a memorial site to the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust in central Berlin, mainly because of the fear that such a site would be a target for vandalism. Diepgen said: The memorial site will be a target for wall graffiti, provocations and attacks. It will be difficult to prevent these things because of its size, and Germanys good name will be damaged, especially due to the inscriptions on the site. In an interview t the newspaper Die Welt Am Sontag, Diepgen added that the cost of guarding such a site would be millions of marks per year. After Parliaments decision Diepgen said that the model chosen was the worst and he was personally disappointed. Nevertheless, he added that the citys residents and its public representatives would assist in erecting the memorial.