Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Sweden: Jewish teacher says he gets death threats from students


Via YLE:

The article is titled "Swedish Jews suffer from hate against Israel", but the article doesn't really explain how the hatred is related to Israel and isn't just regular Muslim antisemitism.

Henry Grynfeld is a teacher in the Rosengård district of Malmö.  As a Jew he's often experienced harassment from his Muslim students.

"I was called 'Jew'.  I was threatened.  I was told things like "We'll kill all the Jews and you too".  As soon as something doesn't go the way these young people had in mind, they have an argument ready in their back-pocket, and that's that you're a Jew."

"I feel safe as long as I do not show who I am - I wouldn't run around here with a kippa or a Star of David."

YLE did not meet many people who wanted to comment on antisemitism in the neighborhood.  A few said that Muslims themselves are targeted by Islamophobia and hate-crimes.

Adam Omar, who comes from Somalia, said he knows that Jews are targeted by some Muslim people in Malmö.

"I can understand that there are those who see the conflicts in the Middle East as their starting point, but there are also Nazis and other ideologies against Jews, so absolutely - they have a reason to be afraid."

The Muslims in the city fear that all Muslims will be accused of the attacks against the city's Jews.  The Jewish community is also aware of this problem.  

Jehoshua Kaufman of the Jewish community says there is no reason to act against the Muslim community.  There are just small group who act due to attitudes which are found in the Middle East.

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