JNS publishes a weekly listing of antisemitic incidents recorded and found by Jewish, pro-Jewish and pro-Israel organizations; national and international news; and social media. By the Anti-Defamation League’s count, an average of seven instances of varying measure occur daily in the United States. (Dates refer to when the news was reported, not when the events took place.) Also included are news items detailing efforts to combat antisemitism and research anti-Jewish bigotry.
May 1
Antisemitic vandals targeted a Detroit Jewish center. Colorado students drew swastikas on themselves after a Holocaust presentation. Neo-Nazis protested an Ohio “drag brunch,” and an Illinois man was arrested for threatening a local synagogue and national Jewish organizations. The Board of Deputies of British Jews sought a meeting with The Guardian to discuss a recent antisemitic cartoon. A playground in England was vandalized with swastikas. At the United Nations, the United States called on France to do more to address antisemitism, and Berlin police sought to ban Palestinian terror flags and violent anti-Israel rhetoric at May Day celebrations.
May 2
Jury selection entered its second week in the Pittsburgh Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue shooting, with candidates asked about their views on capital punishment. Ohio high school lacrosse players faced antisemitic slurs, and in Santa Cruz, Calif., students celebrated Hitler’s birthday and an antisemitic flier surfaced downtown (as well as in Pennsylvania). The Biden administration will release a plan to counter antisemitism by the end of the month. A woman was arrested in Michigan for painting a swastika on a synagogue, and a Florida man was arrested after a violent antisemitic attack in a Walmart. The jewels of a Nazi billionaire’s wife are expected to fetch $150 million at auction (to be donated to charity). A Greek court upheld a ban on a party with neo-Nazi origins, and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center said the Ottawa “Liberation Conference” of the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path “cannot be tolerated at a time of rapidly escalating antisemitism.” An Al Jazeera column called on the United Nations to reject the Internation Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.
May 3
A new report links a New England neo-Nazi group with the distribution of antisemitic fliers last year on Cape Cod, Mass., and Australian legislators proposed a law criminalizing Nazi symbols in public. In “Ye” news, the rapper (formerly Kanye West) presented his “Yeezy Season 10” line in a secret fashion show with models with shaved heads; he also lost a $300,000 lawsuit after failing to appear in court. (Ye wore a “White Lives Matter” shirt to the launch of his Yeezy season nine.)
May 4
An increase has been noticed in antisemitic speech, evidently in connection with the trial of the man accused of murdering 11 Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue, announced the local Jewish Federation. A new ADL study reveals that 20% of Americans know a friend or relative who dislikes Jews. Two swastikas were drawn on a whiteboard at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania. A Florida man, Paul Nicholas Miller, was identified as the founder of an antisemitic and racist Telegram channel. A teenager pleaded guilty, and four others were charged, in a Kansas incident of antisemitic graffiti at a high school. Ye’s presidential campaign is evidently back on, with Milo Yiannopoulos managing. Several incidents took place in Australia: Nazi imagery targeted a Tasmanian official’s government office, a swastika was carved into a Sandringham College glass wall, a man on trial for a terrorist attack said his swastika tattoo and bedroom Nazi flag were “nothing political.” Jurors in a trial in the United Kingdom heard about the defendant setting up an athletics club to train fellow neo-Nazis.
May 5
The ADL reports a 155% increase in antisemitic incidents in Arizona since 2020. “A Hitler birthday party, that was a new one for me,” said the provost of a University of California college, who admitted “unfortunately” to being accustomed to antisemitic flyers. The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, and others, sponsored a billboard campaign in Nevada, where an autistic Jewish child reportedly had a swastika carved into his skin. Adidas remains stuck with $1.3 billion in Yeezy products. “Options are narrowing,” the CEO said. A suspect accused of killing eight people in Serbia was apprehended wearing a T-shirt with a Nazi slogan. At CPAC in Hungary, the country’s prime minister said his government had a “zero-tolerance policy on antisemitism and racism.” (Donald Trump attended.) Amsterdam’s mayor said antisemitism is rising in the Dutch city, calling antisemitic slogans projected on the Anne Frank House “a new low.”
