Report of Anti-Semitic Incidents - Oct-98

Report of Anti-Semitic Incidents - October, 1998

General

October saw a certain increase in anti-Semitic attacks against Jews and Jewish facilities. The incidents were characterized by specific attacks, without direction or declared organizations behind them. The increase can be partly attributed to the fact that this year the Jewish festivals of Succot and Simhat Torah fell in the first half of October.

Incidents

Britain - A Jewish student was attacked in the yard of Hillel House in Birmingham. The attacker beat the student with a wooden board and shouted 'Bloody Jew'.

During the Succot festival a Lubavitch succah, built in a parking lot in London's Edgware neighbourhood, was set on fire.

There was an attempt to break into the Sefardi/Portuguese synagogue in London. The background to the incident is unknown.

Abusive slogans and swastikas were drawn on the gravestones of the Jewish Southampton Old Cemetery in Hampshire. Exactly a week later swastikas were again found on gravestones in the cemetery, as well as the words 'White Power' and 'We Are Back'.

A children's nursery in the Stanmore neighbourhood in Middlesex was vandalized by unknown persons who damaged and hanged toys, writing that that was also the way to hang Jews.

Several times this month unknown vandals caused damage to the Failworth Jewish cemetery in Manchester.

France - Swastikas and abusive slogans were drawn on the walls of the Garge Les Gonesses synagogue in Paris.

The memorial plaque to Jewish victims in Val D'Hiver in Paris was desecrated in September.

The synagogue in Verneuil, Paris, was desecrated in September. Torah scrolls were damaged in an arson attempt.

Germany - In late October a pig was released in the Alexander Platz in Berlin by unknown persons. A Star of David and the name of the president of the Board of Jewish Communities in Germany were drawn on the pig.

Lithuania - Unknown persons toppled a Holocaust memorial plaque in the cemetery near the city of Liaudiskes in northern Lithuania. They also placed a swastika made of metal rods on the memorial.

Russia - The rabbi of Nizhny Novgorod was attacked by unidentified persons while leaving his house.

Azerbaijan - The Ashkenazi synagogue in Baku was desecrated. Garbage was spilled near the synagogue and faeces was smeared on the front door.

Uzbekistan - The Habad synagogue in Tashkent was broken into. The background to the incident is unclear.

U.S. - Swastikas and abusive slogans were drawn on two synagogues in Bucks Country, some 65 km. from Philadelphia. The abusive slogans included such phrases as 'Death to the Jews' and 'Juden Raus'.

Canada - At the end of Yom Kippur a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the Jewish 'Maimonides' school which belongs to the Habad movement in Ottawa. The only damage was to property. The background to the incident is not clear.

Australia - Unidentified persons attacked students and shouted derogatory remarks at them while they were near a synagogue in Sydney.

A window of a Jewish school in Sydney was smashed by stones thrown at it. The background of the incident is unclear.

Uruguay - The Jewish cemetery in Montevideo was desecrated. Several gravestones were smashed and the names of the deceased were defaced. The reason for the incident is unknown.

Venezuela - The Jewish Agency emissary in Caracas was harassed a number of times this month by unknown persons. The harassment included the intentional scratching of his car, spitting on the window of his house and car and curses shouted at him such as 'Jewish sons of bitches'.

Threats

Italy - An anonymous letter threatening to harm Jews was received by the Union Camera association during a symposium on 'Israel and the Palestinians, Two Cultures As a Bridge to Peace'.

Ukraine - A harsh threatening letter denouncing Jews and threatening the life of Jews in Ukraine and in Israel was received in the Jewish Agency offices in Krementschug in Kharkov.

Columbia - A number of letters threatening the life of members of the community and anonymous phonecalls were received at the Jewish community offices in Barranquilla.

Anti-Semitic and Racist Propaganda

Britain - During a soccer game between an Israeli team and the Glasgow Rangers in Glasgow, Scotland, anti-Semitic calls and comments were heard from the spectators. A person giving the Nazi salute was also seen among the crowd.

An MP from among the senior members of the Jewish community in London received a number of anti-Semitic abusive letters.

An anti-Semitic abusive letter was received by the Anne Frank Education Trust.

On 17 October, 1998, a meeting of the Nation of Islam and the Black Unity Front took place in Trafalgar Square in London. One of the speakers called the Board of Deputies of British Jews, 'Satans who spread lies against Louis Farrakhan'.

A woman living in Hampstead, London, received an anti-Semitic letter from the Ku Klux Klan. The letter included a Klan calling card on which was written 'Join the Klan before your wife is raped by a person seeking political asylum'.

An anti-Semitic letter was received by the Jewish Aid Committee. The letter contained comments such as 'Hitler had a wonderful idea - gas for the Jews', and others.

Derogatory anti-Semitic remarks were shouted from a passing car at a Jewess who was standing near the Jewish old peoples' home in the Salford neighbourhood in Manchester.

A Jew in London received an anti-Semitic letter signed with the number '88' (the number signifying the initials of 'Heil Hitler'). 'Jewish Plot' was written on the envelope. The letter itself claimed that the right-wing was the current solution for sabotaging the Jewish plot to take over the world.

A Jewish doctor from Norfolk received an anti-Semitic letter which contained an anti-Semitic caricature and racist comments, such as 'The Jews are aiming to destroy the white race...' and 'Jews control Britain and the U.S.'.

A large number of persons received a Holocaust denial revisionist publication, called 'Anti-Semitism Found', dated October 1995, which was sent from Illinois, U.S.A.

France - Derogatory anti-Semitic curses were shouted at worshippers in the Trappes synagogue in Paris at the end of Yom Kippur.

Swastikas were drawn on a Jewish butcher shop in Berbeche in Paris.

Germany - Anti-Semitic letters were recently received at the Jewish National Fund offices in Berlin. The writer identified himself as Adolf Hitler.

Estonia - The Estonian business newspaper 'Aripaev' published an anti-Semitic article regarding the bankruptcy of the Evea Bank. The article was entitled 'Evea Bank - the Playing Field of the Jewish Economist'. Among other things, the article claimed that the Evea Bank was a Jewish bank and that 'the Jew and money always find each other'.

U.S. - Swastikas and abusive slogans were drawn on the door of a Jewish-owned delicatessen in Houston, Texas. The delicatessen is located in a neighbourhood where most of Houston's Jews live and where synagogues and Jewish community facilities are found.

South Africa - On 4 September, 1998, the Mago organization held a demonstration in Pietermaritzburg against 'U.S. Imperialism'. The demonstrators called for opposition to the Jewish media carried placards with the words 'Death to Israel' and 'One Zionist - One Bullet'.

Australia - A swastika and abusive anti-Semitic slogan appeared in a Melbourne suburb.

Many anti-Semitic letters and e-mail were sent to private Jewish homes and institutions in Sydney and Melbourne.

The Adelaide Institute, known for its anti-Semitic activity, is expanding its activity to the international distribution of Holocaust denial material over the Internet. This month it disseminated speeches of Holocaust deniers, brochures accusing the Jews of the 'Lewinsky Affair', claims that the Talmud is a source of anti-Semitism and more.

The 'Exposure' newspaper continues to promote the book 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion' .

The 'Australian National News of the Day' newspaper published a number of anti-Semitic and Holocaust denial articles this month.

Uruguay - The Keren Hayesod finance department in Montevideo received an anti-Semitic letter which had been sent by a Nazi group called 'Einsatzgruppa Uruguay'. The letter referred to the supremacy of the white race, the ideology of the Hitlerite stream and pride in being an anti-Semite and acting according to its ideology.

Struggle Against Anti-Semitism

Lithuania - The Attorney General of Lithuania transferred the file of Kazys Gimzauskas, a Lithuanian war criminal and deputy of Lilikus in World War II, to the district court in Vilnius in order to try him for crimes against humanity.

Miscellaneous

Vatican - Edith Stein, a Jewess who had converted to Christianity in World War II and was murdered in Auschwitz, was declared a saint by Pope John Paul II. The Pope's announcement aroused angry reactions from Jewish organizations. The Pope declared her a saint in St. Peter's Square in front of tens of thousands of believers. In his speech the Pope said, 'On the day we mark the death of this new saint we find ourselves obliged to also remember the Holocaust, the plan to liquidate a people, which cost the lives of millions of our Jewish brothers and sisters'. The Vatican appealed to the Jews not to consider the declaration of her sainthood as an insult to them, but as a request to bring religions together.

France - The European Parliament in Strasbourg lifted the immunity of the leader of the National Front party in France, Jean Marie Le Pen, so that he could stand trial in Germany for his statements that the gas chambers were a 'minor detail in the history of the Second World War'. This is the third time that the European Parliament has lifted Le Pen's immunity. Previously times immunity was removed at the behest of the French courts. If he convicted, Le Pen is expected to receive a five year sentence in prison as soon as he enters Germany. Le Pen announced that he would not come to Germany for the trial. His deputy blamed Israel and the Jews for the lifting of his immunity.

Denmark - The first Neo-Nazi school will soon open in Denmark. The leader of the Danish National Socialist party revealed that it is a 'free school based on the values of the Nazi movement'. The children will learn about the theory of race, the 'Auschwitz lie' and other subjects. The school law in Denmark is one of the most liberal in the world and for the time being there does not seem to be a legal way to stop the establishment of the school as long as it operates according to accepted laws in Denmark for operating a school.