Global Anti-Semitism: Selected Incidents Around the World in 2017

Barbados

• St. Michael – March 17, 2017 – Anti-Semitic message were spray painted on the exterior walls of the Nidhe Israel Synagogue.

Brazil

• Rio de Janeiro – June 11, 2017 – A swastika was drawn inside a Star of David sign outside the entrance of Clube Israelita Brasileiro, a Jewish community building.
• Porto Alegre – March 25, 2017 – A Jewish school was painted with the words “Israel genocide state” and “Free Palestine.”

Bulgaria

• Vidin – August 19, 2017 - A monument erected by Bulgarian Jews living in Israel to thank members of the Vidin community to protecting Jews during the Holocaust was defaced with spray paint reading: “Allah”, “Palestine”, “Hamas” and the star and crescent moon symbol.

Canada

• Mississauga, Ontario – July 22, 2017 – During a rally, protesters chanted anti-Semitic slogans, including: “Remember Khaybar, oh you Jews, the Army of Muhammed with return” and “Israel and Hitler are the same.”
• Winnipeg – March 30, 2017 – Graffiti with the anti-Semitic slogan “The 1% is 99% Jewish” and a link to an anti-Semitic website was found on the University of Winnipeg campus.
• Toronto - February 22, 2017 – Yellow Post-it notes with hand-drawn swastikas and anti-Semitic language, including the phrase "No Jews" were stuck on the doors of a Toronto condominium building with mainly Jewish residents. Additionally mezuzahs on the doorposts of several apartments were removed or damaged, including a replacement for one that had been vandalized several days before the incident only hours after it had been mounted.

Chile

• Santiago – January 14, 2017 – Jorge Arce, a member of “Hod Jews for Diversity” was attacked by a group of Neo-Nazis while he wore a shirt with an Israeli flag on it. The group initially insulted him and threw rocks at him, but they later escalated and began to beat and stab Arce.

Czech Republic

• Prague – January 1, 2017 – An ATM on Maiselova Street, the main street of the Old Jewish Quarter in Prague, was spray painted with a swastika and the words “Adolf Hitler.”

Denmark

• Copenhagen – May 13, 2017 – Imam Mundhir Abdallah from the Masjid Al-Faruq mosque in a suburb of Copenhagen was accused of inciting violence and calling for Muslims to rise up against Jews. A YouTube video shows Abdallah saying “Judgment Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them.”

France

• Cannes – August 10, 2017 – A Jewish male wearing a Star of David pendant was assaulted by a motorist with a knife who shouted “kill the Jew.”
• Bernay – May 6, 2017 – Emmanuel Macron’s campaign branch in Normandy was vandalized with anti-Semitic and anti-Israel slurs.
• Waldwisse – March 30, 2017 – An 18th century Jewish cemetery was vandalized, with 40 out of the 50 headstones broken or toppled over.

Germany

• Gotha – June 8 2017 – A Jewish cemetery vandalized with swastikas spray painted on tombstones.
• Berlin – May 3, 2017 – A woman holding an Israeli flag during a Memorial Day German-Israeli friendship youth event very nearly escaped harm when a man tried to set the flag she was holding on fire. The woman has filed a criminal complaint, claiming that the man “sought to cause her dangerous bodily harm.”
• Berlin – March 28, 2017 – A 14-year-old student left his state school in Berlin due to escalating verbal and physical abuse that incurred after he revealed he was Jewish. The abuse went on for nearly four months with the child attacked, nearly strangled, and threatened with a realistic-looking toy gun.

Greece

• Larissa – July 17, 2017 - Father Kleomenis, an excommunicated monk filmed himself desecrating a Holocaust memorial while cursing Jews, denying the Holocaust and calling on “patriotic organizations” to take a bulldozer to the monument, which he pelted with eggs and spat at.Kavala – March 30, 2017 – A memorial commemorating the 1484 Jews from Kavala who were killed in Nazi camps during the Holocaust was vandalized.

Hungary

• Budapest – May 1, 2017 – Fifteen gravestones were desecrated and religious objects were stolen at a Jewish cemetery in Farkasret.

Ireland

• Belfast – March 17, 2017 – A mural celebrating an Irishman who became an Israeli hero was defaced. The mural, which portrayed John Patterson, a British Army soldier who was captain of a Jewish troop in World War I and supported the creation of Israel, was burned in an arson attack. The mural was later painted over with graffiti that read “scum Nazi.”

Italy

• Milan – May 3, 2017 – A plaque commemorating Israeli Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin at Milan’s Tripoli Square Gardens was destroyed, with the plaque smashed and its stand toppled over.
• Bologna – April 12, 2017 – A man was shouting curses in Arabic to passersby, and when police came to confront him he took out a knife and threatened “You are Jews, I will kill you all.” The man was arrested, but managed to injure two of the policeman along the way.

Lithuania

• Naisai – March 9, 2017 – Advertising for local holiday festival featured imagery associated with Nazi propaganda. An invitation to the festival showed people dressed up as Jews and various Jewish cartoons were also used in advertisement.

Moldova

• Kishinev – March, 2017 – Vandals set two animal cubs on fire at a Jewish cemetery, causing damage to some headstones.

Netherlands

• Bussum – February 7, 2017 – The wall of a supermarket in Deen Laarderweg was vandalized with “Free Palestina” and “Kill all Jews” graffiti.

New Zealand

• Queenstown – April 4, 2017 – Anti-Semitic posters were placed around Queenstown Resort College containing Nazi swastikas and anti-Jewish statements.

Poland

• Warsaw – March 28, 2017 – A group called Conscience of the Nation TV burned an effigy of a Jewish woman in a celebration of the first day of spring. The group explained that the effigy symbolized what is “ugly, cold and bad.”
• Warsaw – March 23, 2017 – The Soviet Military Cemetery was vandalized with graffiti of Nazi symbols alongside a Star of David and Israeli flag.
• Warsaw – January 12, 2017 – Four young Jews were brutally attacked by other young people at a shopping center in Warsaw after they were overheard talking about their family members in Israel.

Romania

• Bucharest – April 24, 2017 – Vandals broke 10 tombstones in a Jewish cemetery, in what was described as a “premeditated act.”

Russia

• Moscow – February 24, 2017 – Letters containing anti-Semitic content have been sent to the official email address of the religious Jewish community of Moscow continuously for over a year. The police are investigating the anonymous sender of the letters, which were said to contain “various psychological and linguistic signs indicating a threat to perpetrate acts of violence against Jews.”

South Africa

• Johannesburg – May 18, 2017 – The anti-Semitic slogan “Heil Hitler” was shouted at Jewish students preforming the Holcaust-themed play “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.”

Spain

• Madrid – March 23, 2017 – Vandals painted a swastika and “burn, anti-Semitic” in front of the Jewish community center in Madrid.
• Barcelona – March 15, 2017 – “All the Jews to the gas chambers” was written on a wall at the University of Barcelona.

Sweden

• Malmo – March 16, 2017 – Several Jewish men wearing Chabad style clothing were insulted with anti-Semitic epithets by passersby in a car while they were standing at city hall. Police opened a hate crime investigation.

United Kingdom

• Borehamwood – June 10, 2017 – A woman standing outside polling station for the UK’s latest election chanted “Vote Labour, let’s get the Jews out.”
• Hackney – June 9, 2017 – A man verbally abused and physically threatened another man at a polling station in Hackney, shouting “F**ing Jews, kill all the Jews, what are you doing here?” and later coming back holding a crowbar.
• Brighton – June 9, 2017 – A man describing himself as a “holocaust revisionist” and other members of the public approached Jewish activists from Sussex Friends of Israel and told that “gas chambers in Auschwitz were mock-ups like Disneyland” and that “Jews were responsible for the African slave trade.”
• Manchester – May 30, 2017 and June 2, 2017 – Two kosher restaurants were firebombed within the span of a few days.
• Edgware – May 27, 2017 – 16-year-old Hannah Goldberg was kicked and punched in the face in Stoneyfields Park in Edgware while she sat with friends during Shabbat. The attackers said “Hitler should have killed all you Jews when he had the chance… you should have all been gassed” before throwing a basketball at Goldberg’s face and then kicking and punching her.
• Hackney – May 21, 2017 – A 14-year-old Jewish boy was approached by a group of four teenagers and asked if he was Jewish. When he confirmed, the group grabbed and robbed him. All four involved were arrested.
• West Sussex – April 3, 2017 – Anti-Semitic graffiti, including a swastika, was painted on equipment at a local skateboarding park.

Ukraine

• Ternopil – March 24, 2017 – A Holocaust memorial was defaced with a spray painted swastika and “SS.
• Chekras – In May 2017, the grave of Rabbi Yechiel Michel Hager of Strzaznitz, Ukraine was desecrated by vandals.
• A number of Holocaust memorials in Kostopil, Petrikov, Ternopil, Odessa, Nikolayev, Uzhgorod and Chernivtsi were desecrated in by vandals who spray painted swastikas and Neo-Nazi symbols, poured oil on the monuments and left garbage at the site.