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Global Anti-Semitism: Selected Incidents Around the World in 2015

December 31, 2015

Argentina

  • October 18, 2015 - Concepción del Uruguay, Entre Ríos – A Jewish cemetery was desecrated with a swastika. 

  • August 25, 2015 - Buenos Aires – “Jew and mobster” were spray painted on a subway station in reference to Mauricio Macri, head of the government of the City of Buenos Aires and a presidential candidate. 

  • August 1, 2015 – Sauce Viejo, Santa Fe – Graffiti reading “Black and Jewish here” along with a swastika were spray painted on a police officer’s home, whose wife is Jewish. 

  • June 25, 2015 – Paraná, Entre Ríos – Graffiti reading “Death to the Jews” and a swastika were found spray painted on a wall. 

  • March 10, 2015 – Rosario – Anti-Semitic graffiti reading "f*** Jews" was written on the Jewish community center, while the local Jewish cemetery was vandalized.  

  • February 2, 2015 – Buenos Aires – Posters reading “A good Jew is a dead Jew. A good Jew is Nisman” were found in the Villa Crespo neighborhood. Nisman is a reference to Alberto Nisman, the Argentine prosecutor overseeing the AMIA bombing case who was found dead in his home on January 19th.

  • January 20, 2015 – Lago Puelo - Israeli tourists were physically attacked and insulted with anti-Semitic epithets.  

Australia 

  • November 28, 2015 - Melbourne - A man attacked a group of Jews outside a synagogue, and shouted at them "go back to Israel" and "do you think you can rule this land?"
  • October 31, 2015 - Melbourne - A Jewish male walking home from Synagogue was attacked by an assailant who verbally abused him about the war in Israel, and called him a “f***king Jew.”

Austria 

  • March 17, 2015 - St. Pölten – A man wearing a Star of David necklace was attacked at shopping mall by a group of young men, who yelled “F***ing Jew!” and then began to beat him with their fists and feet. The victim took himself to the hospital.

  • January 31, 2015 - Vienna - Two Jewish men were assaulted by four individuals who were shouting anti-Semitic slogans including the phrase "s***ty Jews."

Belgium

  • May 29, 2015 - Brussels - A Belgian municipal security officer posted an anti-Semitic rant on Facebook. He wrote: “The word Jew itself is dirty. If I were in Israel, frankly, I would do to the Jews what they do with the Palestinians — slaughter each and every one of them.” 
  • May, 13, 2015 - Brussels - Viviane Teitelbaum, a Belgian Jewish MP, received an anti-Semitic letter reading: "Jewish scum!", "Gaza = Auschwitz "Thieves,  Murderers Liars,  Degenerates" and "'Belgian' Jews are accomplices and collaborators." 

Brazil

  • February 4, 2015 – Brasilia – Anti-Semitic posters calling Jews murderers, thugs, criminals, terrorists etc. were hung in the capital city. 

Canada

  • February 22, 2015 - Montreal - A number of cars were spray-painted with swastikas. 

Denmark

  • April 9, 2015 - Copenhagen - Vandals smashed the window of a Kosher deli and wrote the word “Jødesvin,” which translates to “Jewish pig,” on the deli's wall. 
  • February 14, 2015 - Copenhagen - A gunman opened fire at the Great Synagogue, killing Dan Uzan, 37, a member of the Copenhagen Jewish community who was guarding a celebration at a Jewish community building near the synagogue, and wounding two police officers. Earlier in the day, the same gunman shot up a cafe hosting a free speech forum, killing filmmaker Finn Nørgaard and wounding others. The gunman, later identified as Omar El-Hussein, was killed by police.

France

  • December 14, 2015 - Bonneuil-sur-Marn - Fourteen people attending in a synagogue were poisoned after the synagogue’s electronic lock was daubed with poison.

  • December 7, 2015 - A man on a train from Paris threatened and insulted a group of French Jews. He was caught on video saying: “If only I had a grenade here, how do you call it, a fragmentation grenade, I would blow up this wagon with the f***ing Jewish bastards.”

     

  • October 24, 2015 - Marseilles - A rabbi and two Jewish worshipers were stabbed outside a synagogue by an attacker shouting anti-Semitic slurs.

  • July 19, 2015 - Menton - The rabbi of Menton was hit in the back and insulted by an Italian-speaking man, while the rabbi was walking in the street. 

  • July 15, 2015 - Paris - A Jewish family was assaulted and robbed in their suburban Paris home, injuring two parents and their daughter. Reportedly, the robbers told the family they had targeted their home because they were Jewish and have money.

  • July 7, 2015 - Paris - A visibly Jewish 13 year-old boy was beaten and robbed outside his school by six young men, who physically assaulted him while one shouted "take that, dirty Jew!" The boy cell phone was also stolen. 

  • May 15, 2015 - Paris - A visibly Jewish boy was brutally assaulted and robbed for four individuals. 

  • May 13, 2015 - Sarcelles - A Jewish woman and her child were sitting on a park bench when the three young women violently assaulted her and shouted “Hitler did not finish his work” and “you're a dirty race.”

    April 27, 2015 - Paris - A Jewish man was beaten by three individuals as he left a synagogue. The attackers called him a "dirty Jew" and attempted to stab him.

  • April 18, 2015 – Vénissieux – Two men on a motorcycle drove up to a synagogue and mimicked firing with automatic weapons at the soldiers on guard.

  • April 17, 2015 – Villeurbanne – Two men shouted anti-Semitic insults in front of a synagogue, then punched two security guards while threatening to kill them.  They escaped before soldiers guarding the synagogue could catch them.

  • March 10, 2015 – Marseille – Two 16 year-old Jewish boys, wearing visibly Jewish garb, were punched by two young men while walking home from a synagogue.  The attackers reportedly said, “Dirty Jews, we’re going to exterminate you all, f*** you all.” 

  • February 12, 2015 - Sarre-Union - Five teenagers overturned 250 graves in a Jewish cemetery while making Nazi salutes, spiting on the Jewish symbols and shouting slogans including “dirty Jews” and “Heil Hitler.”
  • February 10, 2015 - Paris - The word "Jew" was painted on 26 cars in the 16th arrondissement, a neighborhood with a sizable Jewish population. The police arrested a suspect. 
  • January 20, 2015 - Paris - A 13 year-old boy wearing a visibly Jewish garb was tear-gassed on the street by three girls.
  • January 14, 2015 - Marseille - An unidentified man smashed a window at a Jewish library, and shouted “We’ll get all of you Jews,” before mounting a scooter that was being driven by someone else.
  • January 9, 2015 - Paris - Four Jewish men were killed by terrorist Amedy Coulibaly after Coulibaly stormed a Kosher supermarket and took shoppers hostage. French police eventually killed Coulibaly, and rescued the remaining hostages. Coulibaly was an accomplice of brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi who carried out the terrorist attack at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper, killing 12 people. The Kouachi brothers were also killed by French police. 

Germany

  • August 1, 2015 - Berlin - Anti-Semitic slogans were sprayed on a mural that depicts an Israeli flag superimposed over a German flag on a section of the former Berlin Wall.  
     
  • January 1, 2015 - Berlin - An Israeli citizen who was beaten by a group of young men after he asked them to stop singing anti-Semitic songs on the subway. The victim, 26-year-old Shahak Shapira, who lives in Berlin, asked the seven men to stop chanting anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli songs and slurs, he recorded them on his cell phone. When he got off at the next subway stop, the men, who Shapira said were speaking both German and Arabic, followed him and demanded he delete his video. When he refused, some of the men spat on him and beat and kicked him, injuring his head.

Greece

  • October 21, 2015 - Athens - The main Jewish cemetery was spray painted with swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti including the phrase "f*** Jews".

Hungary

  • March 22, 2015 - Gyongyos - About 20 graves in a Jewish cemetery were vandalized, and human remains were scattered across the area. 

Italy

  • November 12, 2015 - Milan - A visibly Jewish man was stabbed multiple times in front of a kosher restaurant.

  • February 21, 2015 – Grassina – The slogan “Jews to the gas” and swastikas were painted on a community center in Grassina, a small town in Tuscany.

The Netherlands

  • April 5, 2015 - Amsterdam - Anti-Semitic slogans including “My father was in the commandos, my mother was in the SS, together they burned Jews cause Jews burn the best” and “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas,” were chanted during a soccer game by fans of the FC Utrecht team.

Poland

  • December 17, 2015 - Sochaczew - The Jewish cemetery was spray painted with anti-Semitic and pro-ISIS graffiti including the slogans: “Holocaust never happened,” “Allah bless Hitler,” “Islamic State was here,” “Islam will dominate,” and “F**k Jews.” 
  • April 6, 2015 - Olkusz - Several tombstones were desecrated in the local Jewish cemetery, and one was painted with a pentagram — a five-pointed star that is a Christian symbol sometimes associated with Satanism.  
  • January 31, 2015 - Warsaw - The fence of the Jewish cemetery in Warsaw was defaced with spray paint reading "Jews for slaughter" and the date 10/12/14, a reference to the date when Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruled that the ban on ritual slaughter was unconstitutional. 

Russia

  • March 23, 2015 - Volgograd - Vandals painted a swastika on a memorial to Holocaust victims.

South Africa 

  • March 21, 2015 - Johannesburg - Three visibly Jewish teenagers were attacked in a shopping mall by three men. One of the attackers punched one of the teens while another: "You f***ing Jew" and "Your f***ing people are killing our innocent children."

Sweden

  • October 20, 2015 - Malmo - Pro-Palestinian demonstrators chanted "slaughter the Jews, stab soldiers" during an anti-Israel rally. 

Switzerland

  • July 4, 2015 - Zurich - A Jewish man leaving a local synagogue was attacked by a member of the neo-Nazi band Amok. The band member spat in his face and shouted "sh*t Jew" and "Heil Hitler" while giving the Nazi solute. 

Ukraine

  • June 24, 2015 - Kiev - Vandals sprayed swastikas on a memorial for Jewish victims of the Babi Yar massacre.
  • March 23, 2015 - Mykolaiv - A Holocaust memorial was spray painted with a swastika.
  • January 30, 2015 - Kiev - Swastikas were spray painted on the Babi Yar memorial monument for Holocaust victims. 

United Kingdom

  • September 5, 2015 - Manchester - Three males physically assaulted and shouted anti-Semitic comments at a group of four Jewish males. One victim, a 17 year-old, received serious injuries and was hospitalized. 

  • July 30, 2015 - London - A visibly Jewish man was physically and verbally assaulted with anti-Semitic slurs outside a synagogue.

  • June 29, 2015 - London - Anti-Semitic graffiti reading "F*** the Jews" was written on the gates of a Jewish school. 
  • March 21, 2015 - London - A group of around 20 intoxicated young men and women attacked a group of people inside a synagogue following a nearby altercation. One of individuals involved shouted comments about killing Jews.

Venezuela

  • June 21, 2015 - Caracas - Anti-Semitic graffiti accusing Jews of being Nazis was spray painted near a subway station. 
     
  • June 8, 2015 - Merida - Anti-Semitic graffiti reading "evil murderous Jews" was found close to the airport.