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US Leads Over 30 Countries in Adopting ‘Global Guidelines’ to Combat Antisemitism
Norwegian student Marie Andersen carries an antisemitic sign at an Oct. 21 pro-Hamas demonstration in Warsaw, Poland. Photo: Screenshot
More than 30 countries led by the United States adopted “global guidelines for countering antisemitism” during a gathering of special envoys and other representatives from around the globe in Argentina on Wednesday.
Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the US special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, formally announced the guidelines at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Buenos Aires, where dignitaries were gathering to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center.
“From the AMIA terrorist attack 30 years ago to the aftermath of [Hamas’ massacre across southern Israel on] Oct. 7, the danger of antisemitism is clear. That’s why my colleagues and I recognize the urgent need to unite and spur international action against this evil,” Lipstadt said. “We distilled these twelve ‘guidelines,’ each one a best practice that we know to be effective. We are confident that this framework – to quote one of my colleagues in the State Department – can provide ‘structure and guidance’ to public authorities worldwide. I am also confident that these guidelines will broaden and deepen international diplomacy and policy discourse about how best to counter antisemitism.”
Lipstadt called on other countries and institutions to endorse the framework, arguing it “will not eradicate Jew-hatred, but it will help to shape how the international system responds.”
Her comments came about three months after the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released a report showing antisemitic incidents in the US rose 140 percent last year, reaching a record high. Most of the outrages occurred after Oct. 7, during the ensuing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Meanwhile, antisemitic incidents have also skyrocketed to record highs in several other countries around the world, especially in Europe, since the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7.
The US State Department on Wednesday released a document detailing the legally nonbinding guidelines and listing the dozens of countries that endorsed them. Multiple international bodies, including the European Commission and Organization of American States, also adopted the framework.
Perhaps most significantly, the guidelines state that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism is “an important internationally recognized instrument used by over 40 UN member states since its adoption.”
IHRA, an intergovernmental organization comprising dozens of countries including the US and Israel, adopted a non-legally binding “working definition” of antisemitism in 2016. Since then, the definition has been widely accepted by Jewish groups and well over 1,000 global entities, from countries to companies. The US State Department, the European Union, and the United Nations all use it.
According to the definition, antisemitism “is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
IHRA provides 11 specific, contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere. Beyond classic antisemitic behavior associated with the likes of the medieval period and Nazi Germany, the examples include denial of the Holocaust and newer forms of antisemitism targeting Israel such as demonizing the Jewish state, denying its right to exist, and holding it to standards not expected of any other democratic state.
“Concerned states, special envoys, national coordinators, and representatives tasked by their governments to counter antisemitism, in cooperation with international bodies, offer the following best practices, which have proven to be effective guidelines in formulating public policy,” the guidelines read.
“We urge all states and international bodies, as well as civil society, to embrace and use these practices, many of which already form the basis of regional and country-based action plans,” the document continues. “These guidelines can be applied everywhere, not only in societies with Jewish communities.”
The guidelines urge governments and political leaders to “speak out” against antisemitism “swiftly, clearly, and unequivocally, whenever and wherever it occurs.” They also caution governments not to politicize antisemitism, acknowledging that anti-Jewish bigotry exists “across the political spectrum.”
One measure calls on governments to craft “strategies and action plans” to tackle antisemitism with the help of Jewish organizations, researchers, and experts. Appointing “national coordinators, special envoys, or designated officials” can help thwart antisemitism in public policy, the guidelines say.
The guidelines also highlight the surge of antisemitism on social media platforms, encouraging governments to inform themselves on the “evolving trends” of anti-Jewish hate online. Governments and international organizations should “assess impacts” of online antisemitism on Jewish communities and “find solutions” to fight this modern method of promoting bigotry within the current legal frameworks, the guidelines suggest.
The State Department document urges governments to enhance protection for Jewish communities, underlining their vulnerability as “targets of physical threats and attacks from both foreign and domestic sources.” Moreover, educating the public on the history and consequences of antisemitism and enforcing anti-discrimination laws can help minimize anti-Jewish hatred in society, the guidelines argue.
The post US Leads Over 30 Countries in Adopting ‘Global Guidelines’ to Combat Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Three New Yorkers Charged With Hate Crimes for Antisemitic Vandalism of Homes of Brooklyn Museum Officials
A security guard stands in front as protest is held outside Brooklyn Museum on Sept. 20, 2024 over the police shooting of four people at a New York City subway station over an alleged $2.90 fare evasion. Photo: Laura Brett/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
A woman and two men in New York have been indicted on hate crimes charges for allegedly vandalizing the homes of officials from the Brooklyn Museum, including its Jewish executive director, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced on Monday.
Taylor Pelton, 28, of Astoria, Queens; Samuel Seligson, 32, of Brooklyn; and Gabriel Schubiner, 36, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, were charged in a 25-count indictment in connection with the antisemitic incidents that took place in June in Brooklyn and Manhattan. The indictment includes charges such as making a terroristic threat as a hate crime, making a terroristic threat, third- and fourth-degree criminal mischief as a hate crime, third- and fourth-degree criminal mischief, making graffiti, possession of graffiti instruments, and fifth-degree conspiracy. Schubiner was arraigned on Monday and released without bail, and Seligson and Pelton are expected to be arraigned next week.
The defendants allegedly targeted executives of the Brooklyn art museum who had Jewish-sounding names, but only one of their victims was in fact Jewish — Executive Director Anne Pasternak. Gonzalez did not reveal the names of the victims, but it was previously reported that they included the museum’s President and Chief Operating Officer Kimberly Panicek-Trueblood, Board Treasurer Neil Simpkins, and Chairman of the Board of Directors Barbara Vogelstein. Panicek-Trueblood’s husband is Jewish.
“Acts of vandalism that target individuals in their own homes are a deeply disturbing violation meant to intimidate, terrorize, and instill fear,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “These defendants allegedly targeted museum board members with threats and antisemitic graffiti based on their perceived heritage. These actions are not protests; they are hate crimes, and we are deeply committed to holding accountable anyone who uses such unlawful tactics in Brooklyn.”
The three defendants allegedly committed their acts of vandalism during the early morning hours of June 12.
According to prosecutors, Pelton drove the defendants, and three unapprehended others, to the neighborhood of Boerum Hill in Brooklyn and from there, they were caught on surveillance video walking with black bags to Douglass Street, where a member of Brooklyn Museum’s board of directors lives. Schubiner allegedly painted over a video camera at the location, in an attempt to conceal the group’s identity, and the defendants then proceeded to deface the home with red paint and the words, “Brooklyn Museum, blood on your hands.”
The alleged assailants also left a banner that featured the victim’s name and claimed she had “blood on your hands, war crimes, funds genocide,” prosecutors claimed. The banner included several inverted red triangles, which is a symbol used by the terrorist organization Hamas in its propaganda videos to indicate Israeli targets they plan to attack. A stencil found on the ground at the site had a fingerprint covered in red paint that belonged to Schubiner.
Pelton then allegedly drove the group in her car to Pasternak’s residence in another area of Brooklyn. A video camera was painted over again to hide their identity as the defendants defaced the entrance of Pasternak’s apartment building with red paint, including an anarchy symbol and red inverted triangles, prosecutors said. The assailants allegedly hung a banner that described Pasternak as a “White Supremacist Zionist” with red handprints and accused her of funding genocide. Gonzalez said the banners also had the words “Blood on your hands.”
This is not peaceful protest or free speech. This is a crime, and it’s overt, unacceptable antisemitism.
These actions will never be tolerated in New York City for any reason. I’m sorry to Anne Pasternak and members of @brooklynmuseum‘s board who woke up to hatred like this.
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) June 12, 2024
The defendants then headed in Pelton’s car to Manhattan, where Schubiner and the unapprehended others were captured on surveillance footage spraying red paint on a building in Lenox Hill where Vogelstein lives, according to prosecutors. They allegedly painted her name, the red inverted triangles, and an anarchy symbol.
Shortly after the alleged hate crimes took place, an anonymous group claiming responsibility for the vandalism released a statement to Hyperallergic in which they cited the Brooklyn Museum’s “complicity in the Palestinian genocide” and ties that its board members have to weapon manufacturing and Israeli military interests, claims that museum officials have denied. The anonymous group said the vandalism was done in response to a heavily policed pro-Palestinian protest on May 31 at the museum, where dozens were arrested by the New York City Police Department (NYPD).
“Our action is a retaliation against the museum’s direct connections to the networks that materially support the genocidal entity as well as its collaboration with the fascist NYPD,” the statement said.
Mass anti-Israel protests took place in late May outside the Brooklyn Museum, one of the oldest and largest art museums in the country. Activists demanded that the institution divest from Israel and demonstrators from groups like the pro-Palestinian organization Within Our Lifetime hung a banner over the museum’s main entrance that called on the institution to “divest from genocide.” More than 30 protesters were reportedly arrested at the museum after occupying much of the lobby area, clashing with police inside and outside of the building, and defacing an outdoor sculpture with graffiti.
“There was damage to existing and newly installed artwork on our plaza,” a museum spokesperson said at the time, as reported by Reuters. “Protesters entered the building, and our public safety staff were physically and verbally harassed.”
The post Three New Yorkers Charged With Hate Crimes for Antisemitic Vandalism of Homes of Brooklyn Museum Officials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump, Harris Spotlight Antisemitism, Gaza War in Closing Rallies Heading Into Election Day
Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump looks on during a rally at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, in Uniondale, New York, US, Sept. 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Amid a surge of antisemitism across the United States and frustration over the ongoing war in Gaza, presidential hopefuls Donald Trump and Kamala Harris sought to win over skeptical Jewish and Arab American voters in their final campaign rallies on Sunday and Monday.
On the eve of the election, both campaigns have scrambled to convince Jewish voters of their commitment to both protecting Israel and combating antisemitic violence on American soil. In their closing pitch to US voters, Harris and Trump presented contrasting visions on how to bolster Jewish security and end the Israel-Hamas war.
During a rally on Monday night in Raleigh, North Carolina, Trump reflected on the fatal shooting of a Jewish man in Chicago by an illegal immigrant from North Africa, casting blame on the Biden-Harris administration’s immigration policies for allowing the assailant in the country.
“An illegal alien from North Africa, who Kamala let into our country with her horrendous, open border — just a dangerous, horrendous situation — traveled to a Jewish neighborhood in Chicago and tried to execute a Jewish man on the street, shooting him in the back as he walked to synagogue,” said Trump, a Republican. “He then opened fire on police and paramedics, shooting an ambulance before police returned fire and ended his rampage fairly quickly.”
Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, a 22 year-old migrant from Mauritania, allegedly shot a Jewish man who was walking to a synagogue on Oct. 26. Prosecutors issued terrorism and hate crime charges against Abdallahi after police unveiled evidence which, they said, showed he purposefully sought to violently target Jews.
Meanwhile, Harris, a Democrat, promised to do “everything in her power” to end the Israel-Hamas war if she wins the White House while speaking to voters at Michigan State University on Sunday. The presidential hopeful also revealed that she had a private conversation with “leaders of the Arab-American community.”
“This year has been difficult, given the scale of death and destruction in Gaza and given the civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon,” Harris said in her remarks to the crowd. “It is devastating.”
“As president, I will do everything in my power to end the war in Gaza,” Harris said, “to bring home the hostages, end the suffering in Gaza, ensure Israel is secure, and ensure the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, freedom, securit,y and self-determination.”
Harris’s statements on the war in Gaza echoed previous sentiments she made during a campaign stop in Detroit on Sunday.
“I am honored to have the support of many Arab American leaders who represent the interests and the concerns also of the Arab American community,” Harris said in Detroit. “But I also know well enough to know it is not a monolith.”
“The level of death of innocent Palestinians is unconscionable,” she added. “We need to end the war, and we need to get the hostages out.”
Over the course of her campaign, Harris has repeatedly vowed to secure an elusive ceasefire deal between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which rules Gaza. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Monday that Hamas rejected the latest temporary ceasefire agreement presented by Egypt. The 12-day proposal would have reportedly started with a 48-hour ceasefire followed by Hamas releasing four hostages who the terrorist group kidnapped last year from Israel over the next 10 days.
In exchange, Jerusalem would release around 100 Palestinian terrorists from Israeli jails, and over the 12-day period, Israel and Hamas were to hold indirect talks on extending the truce.
Since replacing President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket in July, Harris has attempted to strike a balance between demonstrating support for Israel and calling for more restrictions on their defensive military campaign while expressing sympathy for the Palestinian civilians of Gaza. Recent polling indicates that Harris’s strategy has not panned out as she hoped. Anti-Israel Green Party nominee Jill Stein edged out Harris among US Muslim voters by a 42-41 percent margin, according to a poll conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
The post Trump, Harris Spotlight Antisemitism, Gaza War in Closing Rallies Heading Into Election Day first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Obituary: Lloyd Newman, 90, a passionate supporter of Nova Scotia’s cultural groups and Jewish community
Lloyd Newman, who built a family clothing business into a 20-store chain, served on the board of nearly arts institution and Jewish organization in his adopted province of Nova Scotia. […]
The post Obituary: Lloyd Newman, 90, a passionate supporter of Nova Scotia’s cultural groups and Jewish community appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.