Argentina- A Jewish-owned grocery was vandalized in Argentina. Windows were broken and anti-Semitic graffiti found in the store in the city of Rosario. The attack was followed by anti-Semitic remarks on the Internet. The store owner suspected that teenaged members of a local rugby team were behind the attack. The club manager expressed sympathy for the attack and called on players to apologize to the Jewish community.
- Anti-Semitic graffiti was painted on a wall in the largely Jewish neighborhood of Once. The graffiti resembled the Israeli flag and featured a swastika on top of a Star of David, with the words “Estado Fascista” (they are fascists) scrolled across the flag’s blue stripes.
Belgium January - Anti-Semitic graffiti was discovered in two places in Antwerp. The first place was the windows of a school and the graffiti read: "F*** Joden". The second place was the door of a shop on Lange Kievit Street and the graffiti read: "Hamas, joden aan de gas". The verbal graffiti were accompanied by antisemitic caricatures.
Brazil- In Teresopolis – A synagogue and dozens of Jewish-owned houses were vandalized with swastikas in Teresopolis, north of Rio de Janeiro.
Top Czechoslovakia- Slovak police accused three young men of promotion of Nazism, who gave the Nazi salute and called Nazi slogans in February in Puchov, central Slovakia, Trencin police spokeswoman Katarina Hlavacova told CTK today.
- A Jewish cemetery has been desecrated in a northeastern Czech town, an official said Tuesday. Jirina Garajova, head of the Jewish community in Ostrava, 350 kilometers east of Prague, said that 25 tombstones were overturned at the Jewish cemetery in the nearby town of Bohumin over the weekend. Two of the tombstones were broken, she said. The cemetery, dating back to the 19th century, is no longer used
for burials and opened to public on July 1 after renovations. Some 400 Jews lived in Bohumin before the World War II. Only 11 survived the Holocaust. - A Jewish cemetery has been desecrated in a southern Czech town, police said in July. Spokeswoman Hana Moltasova said in a statement that 23 tombstones were overturned at the cemetery in Pisek, south of Prague. Five of the tombstones were broken, she said. The cemetery, dating back to the 19th century, is no longer used for burials, and opened to the public in 1993 after renovations.
- April 23, 2007 - Brno - Vandals sprayed Nazi and racist symbols throughout the city. The graffiti, including swastikas, SS symbols and the German phrase "Juden raus," appeared on a memorial to victims of World War II, storefront windows, roads and other locations.
- April 1, 2007 – Krnov – Vandals destroyed the three oldest tombstones at the Jewish cemetery in the North Bohemian town of Krnov.
- February 6, 2007 – Ceska Lipa – A memorial to the Jewish victims of a 1945 death march in the northern Czech town of Ceska Lipa was vandalized. Police reported that the memorial’s menorah, Stars of David, and a plaque with the victim's names were stolen.
Croatia- Following is a letter sent to the Jewish community in Zagreb: “Ivan Kesic promises you the great fight against Zionism in the Croatian media!” “Death to Zionism!” “Feel free to sue me for race and other discrimination. You made me and other Croatians laugh during the Lebanese war and you will make us laugh again! Ha, Ha, Ha”
- In some Croatian cafes, sugar packs bearing Hitler’s image and printed with vulgar jokes about Jews were being given to customers.
DenmarkThe Copenhagen synagogue on Krystalgade was vandalized on the night between January 21st - 22nd. Unknown perpetrators threw two rocks at two of the synagogue windows, both were smashed.
Top Finland- Justice expected: A 31-year-old man accused of selling neo-Nazi propaganda by mail-order has finally been brought to face the Vantaa district court on Thursday after going missing for several years. The man was apprehended at his work place in Finland on Monday. As the man had not made an appearance in court, the charges brought against him in 2003 ran the risk of becoming time-barred. The Vantaa district court declared the defendant remanded in his absence a few weeks prior to his apprehension. On Thursday the court decided the man should remain in custody until the trial.
France- French police are investigating the desecration of 53 gravestones Sunday at a cemetery in the northern city of Lille the day before the Passover holiday. Several of the markers were knocked down or broken. President Jacques Chirac condemned "this unspeakable and intolerable act" and expressed his sympathy to the families affected.
- A 45-year-old Jewish man was stabbed in front of a French Kosher restaurant Tuesday in another anti-Semitic incident which has plagued the French Jewish community. Last week, a young Jewish woman was attacked in Marseilles. The victim was identified as "Eric" and was hospitalized for injured in his left shoulder. The attack occurred in the city of Villeurbanne in southern France.
- Rabbi Elie Dahan (rabbi of a Jewish community in north of France) was assaulted this morning by a 20- year-old at the Paris train station, he was transferred bleeding and in shock, to the nearest hospital. Witnesses tried but failed to catch the felon. Dahan declared: “I arrived from Lille and was walking in the
Paris station when the man, who was accompanied by a woman, turned
at me and shouted: dirty Jew, you are looking at me. I will
smash your face dirty Jew.” The police say the motivations might not be religious
ones.
Top Hungary- Anti-government demonstrators and extreme-right
radicals in May, disrupted a speech by Prime Minster Ferenc Gyurcsany at a pro-tolerance demonstration on the banks of the Danube in Budapest. Hecklers, some of them throwing eggs at Gyurcsany, shouted anti-government and anti-Semitic slogans throughout the prime minister’s speech. Gyurcsany has said anti-Semitism was on the rise in Hungary since the start of anti-government protests, triggered last September by the leak of a tape on which Gyurcsany said he lied to voters on the economy to get re-elected.
Iran An anti-Semitic cartoon recently shown on Iranian TV shows a Jewish rabbi planting a Nazi swastika, covering it with dirt, watering it and watching as a giant star of David grows in its place. The rabbi, who is donning a black hat with a Star of David on the brim and a scowl, does not speak during the 56-second clip. An Iranian government-sponsored body set up to probe the veracity of the Holocaust has challenged Europe to hand over documents about the mass slaughter of Jews in World War II. Mohammad Ali Ramin, the head of the "World Holocaust Foundation" created after Iran's controversial Holocaust conference last year, said Austria, Germany and Poland in particular should supply documents.
ItalyOn 27th January 2007, International Holocaust Memorial Day, antisemitic graffiti were sprayed all over Rome. The graffiti read: "Jews, get out"! "Jews are swine"! "Dirty Jews"! An exhibition of anti-Semitic paintings is on display at a church in Umbrian city of Orvieto in Italy. One of the paintings displayed at the San Francesco Church portrays a Jewish woman baking sufganiyot (Hanukkah doughnuts) out of communion wafers. "The church is filled with paintings portraying the Jews as bloodthirsty people desecrating the Christian religion,"the Roman Association of Friends of Israel said in a letter to Pope Benedict XVI. Israeli Ambassador to the Vatican, Oded Ben-Hur, met over the weekend with Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, and expressed his shock over the exhibition.
Top Korea- The author of a best-selling Korean comic book series intended to teach children about other countries has bowed to pressure to change a chapter on Jews which has been called anti-Semitic. Rhie Won-bok maintains, however, that his depiction of Jewish control of American media and politics was based on fact and "commonly believed." The professor of visual arts at Duksung Women's University in Seoul told the Associated Press news agency: "The Jews are the invisible force that controls the US. I wrote the chapter to let people know that you can't understand the US without knowing the Jewish community."
More than ten million copies of the series entitled 'Far Countries, Near Countries' have been sold since it was first published in 1987, according to its publisher, Gimm-Young. The company boasts that at least one volume is in every home in the country of 48 million people. The comics with playfully drawn figures have sought to explain European countries, America, Japan and Korea itself. The first volume of three focusing on the United States was published in 2004. In a chapter titled 'You have to know the Jews to see the US', Rhie takes a wide-ranging look at Jewish history, mentioning the Holocaust and the fact that Jews have been spread throughout the world.
MoldovaSlovakia- Rabbi Meyers and his son were leaving the synagogue in Bratislava, two young thugs began shouting at them: "Jew! Jew! Jewish into oven! Juden Raus". Police, who were summoned to the place, arrested the attackers on criminal charges which carry a sentence of up to three years in prison. The Slovak Minister of the Interior denounced the attack and expressed his satisfaction with the tough reaction of the police.
South KoreaAttempted Justice, 10 million copies too late: SEOUL, South Korea -- A South Korean publisher agreed Thursday to withdraw a best-selling children's book from stores after meeting with an anti-Semitism watchdog group that accused the author of spreading messages echoing Nazi propaganda. The comic-book series by Rhie Won-bok, ''Meon Nara, Yiwoot Nara'' (''Far Countries, Near Countries''), purports to teach about the world. It has sold at least 10 million copies. One of three books on the U.S. claims Jews were the driving force for the hatred that led to the Sept. 11 attacks, that they exert control over U.S. media and says they prevent Korean Americans from succeeding in the United States.
SudanOn 13 April 2007, at a mosque in Sudan, the Acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Sheik Ahmad Bahr, calls for Israel and America to be annihilated and for Allah to kill every single Israeli and American citizen.
Sweden- Racial abuse, Nazi graffiti and Hitler salutes have become so widespread at a school in the village of Vännäsby that pupils are to be kept home for two days next week as staff meet to discuss ways to tackle the situation.
SwitzerlandTen percent of the Swiss population is anti-Semitic, according to a recent study. The 10 percent, the study said, had "systematic anti-Semitic attitudes," meaning across the board, Swiss news outlet NZZ online reported, while another 28 percent held some anti-Semitic views. Alfred Donath, president of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities, told Swiss news agencies that the 10 percent figure was "worrying," but noted that it had remained constant in recent years.... The majority of respondents, 54 percent, said Israel is governed by religious fanatics and 50 percent believed Israel is carrying out a "war of extermination" in the territories. Police establish that blaze which destroyed Hekhal Haness synagogue in May was started deliberately; investigators seeking DNA analysis from cigarette butt found at the scene. Investigators had believed an electrical fault might have been to blame for the pre-dawn blaze in the empty building, which injured no one, but had now established it was started deliberately.
Top Vatican and Churches- Pope Pius XII, who allegedly turned a blind eye to the Holocaust as head of the Catholic Church during World War II, has been placed on the path to sainthood. A group of 15 bishops and cardinals known as the ‘Congregation for the Causes of Saints’ voted on Tuesday to approve the beatification of Pius. Current Pope Benedict XVI has to approve the proposals and two miracles will have to be found that can be attributed to Pius XII. Pope Pius’s wartime record was the source of a recent dispute between the Vatican and Israel’s Holocaust memorial institution, Yad Vashem. The Vatican’s ambassador to Jerusalem threatened to boycott the annual Shoah commemoration there ceremony unless a passage saying that Pius "abstained from signing the Allied declaration condemning the extermination of the Jews" and "maintained his neutral position throughout the war" was removed from an exhibit. The Vatican claims that it has evidence that Pius quietly intervened on behalf of Jews, but still blocks access to Vatican archives from that period.http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/news/globalnews/gn_archives/2007/05/gn_070511_catholic.html
- A group of 12 Orthodox priests have called on their Church to review its longstanding theological positions toward Jews and the State of Israel, and to excise anti-Semitic passages from its liturgy. The dissident priests made their demands in a 12-point declaration adopted during a weeklong visit to Israel that is meant to spur debate in the Orthodox Christian world and to challenge centuries-old anti-Semitic views. "Sadly, there are some Orthodox Christians who propagate disgusting anti-Semitism under the banner of Orthodoxy ... ," said Rev. Innokenty Pavlov, professor of theology at Moscow's Biblical Theological Institute.
"We have to raise our voices and call on Orthodox laity and the Church leadership to formulate an official position of the Orthodox Church toward our relations with Judaism, as it was formulated a few decades ago by the Catholic Church," he added, referring to the Second Vatican Council of 1962 to 1965. The 10-page declaration issued Thursday calls for the renunciation of replacement theology and the removal of anti-Semitic passages from Church liturgy - particularly Easter services - and endorses the eternal connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel. The passages appear in the standard Orthodox liturgy all over the world. The dozen Orthodox priests who signed the declaration - some in open defiance of directives from church leadership - represent five different Orthodox churches, including the Russian, Greek, Ukrainian, Georgian and Ecumenical Orthodox Churches. "We came to the firm belief that it is high time for the Orthodox Church to correct its attitude toward Jews and Judaism," the declaration states. Unlike the Catholic and Protestant churches, the Orthodox Church has never removed anti-Semitic passages from its liturgy, which still refers to Jews as Christ killers, said Dr. Dmitry Radyehsvky, director of the Jerusalem Summit, a conservative Israeli think tank that co-sponsored the visit. He said the anti-Semitic passages were most conspicuous during Easter services, and included statements such as "the Jewish tribe which condemned you to crucifixion, repay them, Oh Lord," which is repeated half a dozen times, and "Christ has risen but the Jewish seed has perished," as well as references to Jews as "God-killers."
Yemen- Jews living in the Sa'ada District in North Sana'a, the Yemeni capital, were recently the victims of unequivocal threats by the adherents of the radical cleric Hussein Badr-a-Din al-Huthi, ordering them to evacuate their homes within 10 days. Following complaints by the Jews about the threats they had received, a meeting of the local authorities was held on Monday, 8th January in the presence of the sheikhs from the district. Among other things the Jews demanded that they be treated as citizens of Yemen enjoying equal rights. At the end of the meeting a fatwa (a Muslim religious ruling) was handed down defining relations between Jews and Muslims. Nevertheless, this decision, to which a group of Jews were also signatories, does not actually ensure their immunity from the threats made to them. While Yemeni security forces initiated efforts to convince the Jews to remain in the areas in which they were living, their fears were stronger than the attempts at calming them down, which forced the Yemeni authorities to grant them financial assistance to allowing them to pay for accommodations in guest houses. The explicit language of the threats read as follows: "They engage in activities and movements that serve first and foremost World Zionism which works enthusiastically in order to demoralize the people and to cause them to abandon their values, the values of morality and their religion and to spread every kind of abomination within society". Those threatening the Jews, had, according to the wording of the threat, reached the conclusion that "After scrupulous monitoring of the Jews living in the Al-Hid region in the Sa'ada District…our religions faith orders us to fight against these pernicious [elements] and refute them". Yiyeh Yosef Mussa, one of the Jews who had fled their homes in Al-Hid, said that the commander of the threatening youths, Yahya al-Hadir, made it clear to him and his friends that they do not want to see even one Jew in the Sa'ada District. According to this Jew, although they did return to their homes on 10th January, the young members of the organization continued to threaten them, including threats of abduction and robbing them of their money and their vehicles.
"Where do they want to send us"? Mussa asked. "The second threat came after we had returned to our homes. Four masked men came to us and said that if we remained until Friday, they would make trouble for us. The Sheikhs in the region are the last ones that can do anything for us". The Jews have issued complaints to the District Governor and to Yemeni President "Ali Abdullah Saleh, demanding that they protect them from these threats.
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