Sweden: Jewish centre closes following Nazi threats

Via The Local:

The Jewish Association (Judisk föreningen) in Umeå, northern Sweden has decided to end its activities and close its centre in the city following Nazi threats.

The association's members feel unsafe, and its spokesperson has even received a visit to her home, SVT News Västerbotten reports.

"Too many things have happened lately which mean that Jewish parents don't feel safe having their kids at the schools. Our children shouldn't need to live in a world where they have to be ashamed for what they are, but it's not possible to operate if people are scared," Umeå Jewish Association spokesperson Carinne Sjöberg told SVT.

The association has received threatening e-mails, and also had its buildings painted with the phrase "we know where you live", as well as vandalised with stickers of swastikas.

It made its decision at a meeting on Sunday, where everyone who participated agreed to close the premises and end the association’s activities.

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France: Teacher in machete attack says he now hides his kippa

Via Times of Israel:

On the eve of a landmark trial for terrorism in France, the Jewish victim of a violent machete attack said he has begun concealing his kippah from fear.

Benjamin Amsellem told the news website 20 Minutes on Tuesday about how his life was turned upside down following last year’s incident in Marseille, when police say a radicalized youth of Turkish descent lightly wounded the city teacher using a machete.

Having moved to the Paris region as part of his therapy, Amsellem said he now prefers “to wear a hat instead of the kippah in places where I don’t feel safe.” He said he never feared wearing a kippah in Marseille.

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As anti-Semitic tides rise, Diaspora turns to Israel for help

Israel invests a lot of money and manpower in fighting antisemitism worldwide.

Via Times of Israel:

 Leaders of Jewish communities across Europe called on Israel Monday to help them tackle the rising threat of terrorism and anti-Semitism, saying that the Jewish state can provide vital security assistance against potential attacks.

Speaking at the European Jewish Association’s annual Jewish Leaders Conference here in the Belgian capital, community leaders spoke of how growing anti-Semitic sentiment caused by both far-right political gains and left-wing anti-Zionist activists have led to an increasing number of attacks and other incidents across Europe.

Philippe Markiewicz, chairman of the Consistoire of Belgium, an umbrella group of Jewish organizations in the country, said that European communities could stand to benefit form Israel’s experience in combating terrorism.

“I think that Israel can help Europe a lot to fight against terrorism because Israel has a long experience of the subject,” Markiewicz said. “It’s very important that Israel give help to European countries to fight against this terrorism.”

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Netherlands: Jewish journal moves offices to secret location

Via NRG:

At a recent conference of Jewish journalists in Jerusalem, a Dutch editor said her newspaper offices has been forced underground.

Esther Voet, editor of the Jewish weekly NIW, said that authorities have notified them that they're targeted by terror groups.  Since security costs were prohibitive, the staff pressured her to move the offices to a secret location.  The paper's site only mentions their PO box.  They are extremely careful when having meetings at their offices.

Voet says that every Jewish building has massive security, with bullet-proof glass and cameras.  Many Dutch blame the Jews for the economic situation, which is classic antisemitism, but then there are many who say publicly 'don't touch our Jews'.

UK: Gov't pledges £13.4million to guard every Jewish school, college, and nursery and synagogue

Via Telegraph:

Amber Rudd has pledged to spend millions to provide guards for all Jewish schools, colleges, and nurseries and synagogues.

The Home Secretary said she was forced to act after receiving 924 reports of anti-Semitic incidents, including 86 violent assaults, last year.

Ms Rudd warned against the “increasingly sophisticated” tactics of far-right extremists in the wake of the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox.

She said that groups were becoming better at harnessing the use of social media for promoting their cause and hauling in new members.

Speaking at a UK-Israel conference in Parliament, Ms Rudd said she was clear “we can only effectively challenge hatred and division by working together – not just internationally but at home – Government, police, local people and organisations.

“And sadly the Jewish community knows all too well what it’s like to live with the threat from terrorism and hate crime.

“Last year, the Community Security Trust received 924 reports of anti-Semitic incidents, including 86 violent assaults. Let me be clear, any attack of that kind is one attack too many.

“We are providing £13.4million for guarding at all Jewish state, free and independent schools, colleges, and nurseries, and at synagogues, and to support the continuing efforts of the police to provide security and reassurance to the Jewish community.

“We take the security of the Jewish community seriously, and we will continue to put in place the strongest possible measures to ensure the safety of this community – and all other communities too.”

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Switzerland: Government wants Jews to fund their own security costs

Via Times of Israel:

Switzerland’s Jews need to fund their own security costs even though doing so is really the government’s responsibility, a Swiss government agency said in a report on anti-Semitism.

The unusual assertion came in a report published last week by the Swiss interior ministry’s Service for the Fight against Racism. It prompted a mixed reaction by the country’s Jewish communities, who welcomed the report’s naming of the problem but criticized its failure to offer alternative solutions.

“Where credible indications suggest that the Jewish community, Jews or Jewish institution may be targeted in violent attacks, the state — meaning the federal confederation or its cantons — is positively duty bound to offer protection and guarantee individual safety, even at the expense of elevated expenditure of human of financial resources,” states the 18-page document, entitled “Report on the measures taken by the federal state to combat anti-Semitism in Switzerland.”

And while Swiss Jews are at such risk, “there is no constitutional or legal basis permitting the participation of the federal state in the costs of security costs to protect Jewish institution.” Therefore, “Jewish organizations could create a foundation for financing their security costs,” the document goes on to recommend.

On Thursday, the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities criticized the report in a statement titled “Jewish groups remind the federal state of its duties.”

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UK: London police warn pro-Israel groups not to disclose their location

Via Israel Hayom:

The Metropolitan Police in London have asked pro-Israeli organizations Reservists on Duty and Campaign for Truth not to disclose the locations of any of their conferences, citing security concerns.

Wednesday's warning followed the violent anti-Israel rally at University College London last week, when Jewish students attending a campus event hosted by UCL Friends of Israel were trapped in the hall by protesters.

Police officers called representatives from the Israeli organizations to tell them it would be best not to disclose the location of a conference scheduled for next week. At the same time, since the location has not been disclosed, the police will not provide security at the event. The organizations were told that if necessary they could summon police to the scene.

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UK: Leading Labour activist questions whether Jews really need special security

This took place at a session for training activists to challenge anti-Semitism.

Via Huffington Post (h/t glykosymoritis):

A leading Labour activist was heckled at an anti-Semitism meeting on Monday after she wrongly criticised Holocaust Memorial Day for not including non-Jewish genocide victims.

In secret footage obtained by HuffPostUK Jackie Walker also stirred anger as she questioned the need for security at Jewish schools, and said she hadn’t heard an anti-Semitism definition she could “work with”.

To jeers, the Momentum vice-chair said “wouldn’t it be wonderful if Holocaust day was open to all peoples who’ve experienced Holocaust?”

When told the day was indeed for all post- World War II genocides, she said “in practice it is not circulated and advertised as such.”

Speaking at a Labour conference fringe, which was set up to train activists to challenge anti-Semitism, Walker also said extra security measures in Jewish schools in the UK were not due to fear of anti-Semitic attacks.

“I was a bit concerned... at your suggestions that the Jewish community is under such threat that they have to use security in all its buildings”, she said.

“I have a grandson, he is a year old. There is security in his nursery and every school has security now. It’s not because I’m frightened or his parents are frightened that he is going to be attacked.”

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Poll: European Jews afraid to attend holiday services

Via Arutz 7:

A survey by the European Jewish Association suggests few Jews in Europe will attend synagogue for this year’s Rosh Hashanna and Yom Kippur holidays as security fears grow and with harassment by Muslims on the rise.

According to the study, which spanned 700 Jewish communities from England to the Ukraine, 70% of European Jews said they would not be attending synagogue during the holiday season.

The study also showed that membership in Jewish organizations and local communities had dropped significantly, with 50% of Jewish communities registering a decline in the number of active members, compared with only 11% who showed an increase.

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France: Anti-Semitic incidents plummet in first half of ’16, official says

Via Times of Israel:

Anti-Semitic incidents in France have decreased by 64 percent in the first half of 2016 compared to a year ago, according to a French official who credited his government’s policing around Jewish institutions.

Gilles Clavreul, France’s interministerial delegate for the fight against racism and anti-Semitism, said this week that the drop began in June 2015 and continued into the first seven months of this year over the corresponding period of 2015.

Clavreul did not name the number of incidents recorded in those periods in an interview published Tuesday in Actualite Juive, but he did say that “if this tendency continues, we could drop below the 400 mark of incidents per year – one of the best results of the past 15 years.”

Referring to the posting of some 12,000 soldiers at Jewish neighborhoods and institutions following the murder of four people at a kosher supermarket in January 2015, Clavreul added: “The security measures put in place around synagogues and Jewish schools have had a discouraging effect” on would-be attackers.

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France: "Even the ‘true’ French look at me as a Jew"

The article headline ("No future for Jews in Western Europe") is bombastic, but it comes down to the fact that Jews don't feel at home anymore.


Via Times of Israel:

The Consistoire’s focus is clearly not on appearances but content. And on this visit, the subject is truly menacing: violence and hate speech against Jews. This is the charge of Charles Baccouche, the second in command of the Bureau National de Vigilance Contre l’Antisemitisme, or, the National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism.

(...)

As he speaks, he waves his arm toward the young woman who serves as a part-time administrative aide to the BNCVA. Elisheva Cohen, a married 22-year-old, prefers to use an alias for fear of her own safety. When she must go to French bureaucratic offices, she prefers to wear a wig instead of her head covering that suggests she is a religious Jew. Like Baccouche, she sees aliyah in her future.

“The danger is there if I am Orthodox or not because even the secular wear a Magen David,” she says, referring to the Star of David necklaces favored by many French Jews. “It’s a danger for everyone… I don’t feel the danger but I put a wig when I go to French offices because I feel a difference when I am with a head covering or a wig. Even the ‘true’ French look at me as a Jew.”

(...)

As for Baccouche, the BNVCA’s volunteer lieutenant president, he doesn’t wear a yarmulka or a Magen David necklace.

“I put tefillin (phylacteries) on and go to synagogue since I was young,” he says, matter of factly.

When asked why, his simple answer is “Because. It has no connection to anti-Semitism,” he says. “I feel myself as a Jew from North Africa but I decline to say what country I’m from. For me, it’s not important.

“I’m not a prophet or a prince but there is no future for Jews in all of Western Europe. Not only because of the war in the Mediterranean basin but because anti-Semitism is part of the Koran. I don’t think there is a future for Jews in France. There will be a day when all of Israel will be gathered back in our country,” Baccouche says.

Despite his negative predictions of Europe, Bacchouche says, “We are not going to our deaths. We live. Jews are more and more living amongst ourselves. There are always interactions with non-Jews but all our social interactions are with Jews, more and more. For example, ‘Elisheva’ has to remove her Jewish symbols but it’s a shame. She doesn’t bother anyone.”

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UK: Jewish MP receives death threats from Corbyn supporter

Via Jerusalem Post:

A Jewish member of the British Parliament was provided police protection after receiving online anti-Semitic death threats.

Ruth Smeeth was repeatedly referred to as a "Yid," the Jewish Chronicle reported.

The message also said that  “the gallows would be a fine and fitting place” for the 37 year old MP “to swing from”.

She wrote on Twitter about the reaction to the threats: “Huge thanks for the solidarity and supportive messages. I'm very touched and will keep fighting the good fight against abuse.”

The death threat showed strong support for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, referring to a “hatchet job” against him by the “right-wing, neo-con, Nazi-Zionist outfit Portland Communications”.

It ended by saying “Jeremy Corbyn, to put it bluntly, is staying exactly where he is”.

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United Kingdom: Scottish Jews scared to reveal their Jewish identity

Via Express:

A damning new report has found that public attitudes have changed dramatically in the past two years, with many Scots now scared to reveal their Jewish identity.

Disturbingly, some second or third generation Holocaust survivors even compared modern Scotland with Germany in the 1930s due to the growing sense that Jewish people are not safe or welcome here.

The study blames “unbalanced political comment”, a lack of confidence in the police and widespread anti-Israel sentiment for the rapidly worsening situation.

One Jewish man in his 60s, living in Glasgow, said: “When people are murdered just because they shop in a kosher deli in Paris or attend a batmitzvah in Copenhagen, it’s natural for everyone who goes to the equivalent venues in Scotland to think that it could just as easily have been a Glasgow deli or an Edinburgh batmitzvah, and to change their behaviour.

Another man in his 30s, living in Edinburgh, said: “I have come to realise that identifying myself as a Jewish Israeli, or just identifying my wife as Jewish or our house as one where Jewish people live, might pose a risk to our lives and our property.”

A woman, in her 50s living in the Highlands, asked: “Is it safe to advertise a Jewish event in a local newspaper?”

The two-year study, What’s Changed About Being Jewish in Scotland, was commissioned by the Scottish Government and carried out by The Scottish Council of Jewish Communities (SCoJeC).

Director Ephraim Borowski said First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was trying to make Jewish people in Scotland feel safe but the report questions the lack of support from some in her party.

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Portugal: Israeli tourists on their guard in Europe

Lisbon airport (photo by Romeu Monteiro)

Romeu Monteiro, a long-standing and outstanding Portuguese pro-Israel militant, wrote this from Lisbon (20 July 2016):

This morning there were a few Israeli guys on the subway and I was very excited thinking I could show off a little bit of my Hebrew.

But I ended up not interacting with them, because every time I approach Israelis in Portugal and ask them if they are from Israel they look surprised, like they were uncovered and for a few seconds they look like they are thinking "Who is this guy? Does he want to murder us?" before they reply...

It's a little too strange, it always seems like I'm scaring them, and I feel like a creep.

Belgium: Conference on Jewish life at Brussels University cancelled for security reasons

La Libre Belgique reported that a conference organised by the Institute of Jewish Studies of the Free University of Brussels (ULB) scheduled for Tuesday was cancelled for security reasons.

The university authorities indicated that the building hosting the conference could not be protected by either the security service of the Jewish community, the army or the local police.

The conference was to mark the end of the academic year and was to be delivered by Philippe Pierret, a researcher at the ULB.

Mr Pierret is a distinguished specialist of Jewish life and society in Belgium and the theme of the conference focused on his research and his book, of which the first volume has alredy been published, on Jewish families in Brussels from 1785 to 1885.

The conference will be held at a later date.

France: Fear of terrorism leads young Paris Jews to parlor games

Via Times of Israel:

But more recently came a time of change for Parisian Jewry, as many community members started skipping cultural events out of fear of increasing anti-Semitic attacks. France saw a 10-year record of 851 incidents in 2014, and several deadly shootings by Islamists.

As recently as four years ago, “there was a social event for young Jews in Paris every other night,” Harroch said. “Now this scene for people my age has taken a huge step backwards.”

Partly to deal with the problem, leaders of French and European Jewry are preparing to open an $11 million community center in central Paris next year.

But on the ground, young French Jews like Harroch are already taking part in efforts to restore the Jewish cultural scene through Moishe House, an international project offering subsidized housing to young Jews willing to turn their home into a social hub for other Jews their age.

(...)

Like most other guests, Hayat and Harroch learned of Moishe House Beaubourg through word of mouth or on Facebook. They had to pass a short interview with organizers to get the address, which is neither listed nor published online for security reasons. There are no Moishe House signs on the building or the apartment door. The apartment’s slot on the intercom board bears the name of the previous tenant.

Despite these precautions, the absence from Moishe House Beaubourg of soldiers and police, who are guarding other Jewish institutions across France, makes some guests reflect nostalgically on better days.

“The way this Jewish institution is set up means that coming here gives you a measure of normalcy,” said Gabriel Saban, a 30-year-old television composer. “You just ring the bell and walk in, like it used to be when we were children.”

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UK: "The risks are the same risks, guards are sadly necessary in synagogues here and in France"

Via Times of Israel:

Some Jews feel safer in Britain than in France, although anti-Semitism here remains a problem. In 2013, 69 violent anti-Semitic attacks were recorded in Britain compared to 105 in France, meaning Jews were 1.3 times likelier to be physically assaulted in Britain. In some other years, French Jews were likelier to be attacked, though not by much.

“The risks are the same risks, guards are sadly necessary in synagogues here and in France,” said Sacha Bielawski, a 38-year-old father of two who came to London 10 years ago from Paris and works in finance. “I feel equally safe and unsafe in both countries.”

Linda Borowski, a computer specialist from Brussels who moved to London 10 years ago, says she is now in the process of immigrating to the United States because of the threat of jihadism.

“My children are targets here every bit as much as in Brussels,” she said. “I don’t want to raise them in fear or under guard.”

Herz said the British media was playing up the risk to Jews in France and portraying Britain as a refuge in what he called “French bashing.” Jewish immigration to London “is part of a major wave of general emigration from France” and is not specific to Jews, he said.

Whatever the reason, the recent arrival of hundreds of French Jews to Britain led to the establishment of Francophone Jewish communities in three London synagogues and the formation of predominantly French-speaking classrooms in at least one Jewish London school.

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Number of violent attacks against Jews worldwide drop significantly thanks to massive investment in security

Via Jerusalem Post:

The number of violent attacks against Jews abroad dropped significantly in 2015 despite an increase in institutionalized anti-Semitism, an annual report released Wednesday found.

According to the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University, recorded cases of anti-Semitic violence decreased substantially throughout the world, by 46 percent. During 2015, 410 violent cases were recorded, compared to 766 in 2014.

“The year began and ended in a sea of blood and terror, with the massacres at the Charlie Hebdo offices and the Hyper Cacher in Paris during January and the slaughter of 130 people in Paris during November,” Dr. Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress and the report’s sponsor, said during a press conference at Tel Aviv University.

“However, the number of violent anti-Semitic incidents worldwide decreased quite dramatically during 2015, especially after the first months of the year, in comparison to 2014,” he said.

The report attributed the drop to a “massive amount of security around Jewish institutions” in the wake of the January attacks in Paris.

It noted, however, that in “countries in Central Europe and Scandinavia where there was little increase in security, the number of incidents did not markedly decrease.”

Kantor continued that “institutional anti-Semitism” and “slander against the Jewish People as a whole” remained at the same level and perhaps higher. He highlighted the ongoing controversy seizing the British Labor party as the latest example of anti-Semitism rearing its ugly head.

“The recent events in the British Labor Party and the UK National Union of Students demonstrates that the Jews are once again targeted, this time by so-called progressive forces, when actually they uphold the most ancient and regressive of views and policies,” he said.

“I have long argued that the political spectrum is far more cyclical than we think and more and more elements of the far Left have a lot in common with the far Right, fascism and intolerance, especially regarding the Jews,” said Kantor.

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Germany: "We should get Israelis to take care of security"

Via Times of Israel:

“I would say, three-quarters [of the Jews here] are concerned to a certain extent. The other quarter are very worried,” Abraham Lehrer, a senior leader of the Cologne Jewish community and the vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told The Times of Israel last week.

In light of the municipality’s decision to house refugees directly across from the synagogue building, which also houses a community center, a kindergarten and a kosher restaurant, Lehrer and his colleagues at the helm of the Cologne community requested 24-hour police protection. The police refused. “The authorities’ security assessment has not changed due to the refugees,” Lehrer said unhappily.

(...)

“My nightmare is that someone is going to throw a molotov cocktail into the synagogue,” a regular attendant of services at the Roonstrasse shul said. “I am not really afraid to be here, but the police is only here occasionally. The truth is that they’re not really capable of doing anything. You know what their procedure is in the case of an attack? To lock themselves in their car and call for reinforcement.” Policemen ordered to protect the synagogue are not even allowed to enter the building, he added. “We should get Israelis to take care of security.”

He is not afraid to walk around walking a skullcap, the man added, saying that he was only yelled at once. However, he cautioned, there have been several anti-Semitic attacks in other German cities and Cologne could easily be next.

In Germany, securing Jewish institutions is the responsibility of the local authorities and thus varies from place to place. While the synagogue in nearby Düsseldorf, for instance, has 24-hour police protection, the Cologne police only stations a van in front of the building when there are large gatherings planned. Some communities hire Israel security companies to reinforce the local police presence, but smaller one generally cannot afford this extra cost.

While the Cologne police dismissed the local Jews’ security concerns over the refugees, the agency that operates the refugee center did agree to not to house Syrians or Iraqis in the containers. Only refugees from countries where anti-Semitic sentiments are considered less rabid are being placed there, according to various members of the Cologne Jewish community, none of whom agreed to discuss the issue on the record.

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Germany: Paper complains that "Jews want more money" (for security costs)

German paper Westdeutschen Zeitung decided to use the following headline:  "Jewish community wants more money"

Why do those Jews want more money?

The intro explains that from the Jewish community's standpoint, the risks and associated costs are increasing enormously, due to the influx of immigrants from antisemitic countries.  And because of the community's new school.


This past year, the Jewish community in Dusseldorf established its first Jewish school.  However, the security costs are high, for some reason.  According to the Jewish leaders interviewed in the article, even without the school, the community is pressed financially to pay for all its security costs.

The local Muslim community, btw, supports the Jewish community's need request, but does not accept that the influx of Muslims in any way affects the community's security situation.

Not surprisingly, the comments on the article wonder why Jews even need their own school.