Sunday, April 28, 2019

UK campus minority officer to Jewish student: Be like Israel and cease to exist

Via Times of Israel:

A student minority officer at a British university told a Jewish student to “be like Israel and cease to exist.”

Omar Chowdhury, the Black and Ethnic Minorities officer at Bristol University, in southwest England, also told Izzy Posen to “fuck off” and that “your comments are like Israeli settlements: always popping up where they are not wanted.”

Chowdhury ran for his student union position on a platform of “zero tolerance for racism,” the London-based Jewish Chronicle reported.

read more

Poland: Southern Polish town burns effigy of Judas, made to look like Hasidic Jew


Via JTA:
A town in southern Poland reenacted the custom of casting judgement on Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus, using a life-size effigy of a stereotypical Jew with a hooked nose and sidelocks.

The event in the town of Pruchnik, called “Judgment over Judas,” took place on Friday afternoon. On a pole on Pope John Paul II Street, the residents hung the large effigy of the Jew which bore the label “Judas 2019, traitor!”

The crowd cut the effigy down from the post, dragged it on a rope through the town, stopping at the square in front of the church and at the street crossing where the effigy was beaten 30 times. After reaching the local river, the head of the effigy was cut off and the effigy was burned.

The rite attracted a crowd of onlookers. Children were encouraged to beat the effigy. There were some anti-Semitic cries, such as “Five more hits for wanting compensation from Poland.”

The custom of the judgment over Judas has occurred at least since the eighteenth century and takes place in the days preceding Easter. In the past, it was accompanied by acts of direct violence against Jewish residents. In the years of the Polish People’s Republic, the tradition gradually disappeared.

read more

Monday, April 15, 2019

France: Man in northern France stabs neighbor because he ‘wanted to kill a Jew’


Via JTA:
A man in northern France said he stabbed his neighbor because he “wanted to kill a Jew.”

The attack, first reported on April 8, occurred in Bourdon, a commune in the Somme department in northern France, on April 5, the French-language 20 Minutes news website reported.

The victim, a 58-year-old man, was stabbed 15 times in his stomach and face. He was injured in the liver and gallbladder and underwent surgery, according to the report.

He was saved by a friend, who was with him at the time of the assault, who came between the victim and the attacker.

The attacker, 18, told witnesses that he “wanted to kill a Jew.” According to the report, the victim is not Jewish.

He was indicted for attempted murder due to race or ethnicity.

read more