Upon further review, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown’s office stated that it did not have the authority to suspend Zainab Chaudry from the state’s Commission on Hate Crime Response and Prevention. It reinstated Chaudry, who has praised Hamas terrorists and compared Israel to Nazi Germany.
There was a bomb threat at the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, according to reports in Jewish media. The center was the site of a 1994 bombing that killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
After a Jewish woman complained about antisemitic graffiti in a restroom in Oakland, Calif., employees of the coffee shop initially barred her from entering, apparently to document the hatred, per a film she recorded. One is documented saying “Israel loves taking private property and saying it’s their own.” Farley’s East offered a “sincere apology” on X, Facebook and Instagram. “We’ve taken corrective measures with our staff and removed the offensive graffiti,” it stated. “We’re not antisemitic; we value diversity and inclusivity.”
“Does the testimony of their president under oath in front of Congress represent the values of the University of Pennsylvania and the views of the board of the University of Pennsylvania?” questioned Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, who has a nonvoting role on the school’s board. “I think they need to meet and meet soon to make that determination,” he said of Penn president Liz Magill. (She has since sought to clarify her remarks.)
Two students at the University of Pennsylvania sued the Philadelphia school for failing to prevent antisemitism on campus.
“For every 30 minutes that someone watches TikTok every day they become 17% more antisemitic, more pro-Hamas based on doing that,” claimed Nikki Haley, a former U.S. ambassador and former South Carolina governor, during the Republican presidential primary debate.
Haley “isn’t accurately stating what a study found, though she wasn’t far off,” according to MarketWatch. “The study, a pretty decent sample of some 1,323 Americans under the age of 30, found that spending 30 minutes a day on TikTok was associated with a 17% increase in the likelihood they were to hold antisemitic or anti-Israel views compared to people who don’t use it at all.”
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom rescheduled a Christmas tree-lighting at the Capitol in Sacramento and made it a digital event out of concern for disruption by protesters. “Pro-Palestinian protesters wanted Newsom to hear them at tree-lighting. He moved the event online,” read a Los Angeles Times headline. The governor’s office said in a statement that it made the decision “for the safety and security of all participating members and guests, including children and families.”
University of Hawaii students held a “die-in” outside a Honolulu Starbucks calling for a ceasefire.
Members of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jews for Ceasefire at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., led a rally accusing the university of supporting genocide. “We condemn the Biden administration for their continued support of genocide, and we call out the college’s callous refusal to condemn the violence in Gaza,” one student leader said.
Some 70 antisemitic posters were plastered around the campus of the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. The academic institution in Canada said “the messages on the posters contained antisemitic language and defamatory statements against the late Israel Asper,” the business school’s namesake, CBC reported.
In Swampscott, Mass., someone vandalized swastikas onto a “We Stand with Israel” yard sign.
The European Commission pledged nearly $32 billion to increase security at synagogues and mosques. “If you visit a mosque or a synagogue in any European city, most likely you will see that there is a security perimeter. And this is the most un-European state, this is not part of our Europe. Europe should not look like this,” said Margaritis Schinas, vice president of the commission.
A man suspected of being affiliated with Hezbollah and arrested by Brazilian police last month is said to have taken photos and videos of two synagogues, and a Jewish cemetery, he may have planned to attack.