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Jewish Journal

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November 15, 2021

Polish Nationalists Arrested for Chanting “Death to Jews”

Leave a Comment / News, Worldwide /

Organizers of a rally in Kalisz, Poland featuring far-right nationalists chanting “Death to Jews” were arrested on November 15, The Jerusalem Post reported.

The protesters at the November 11 rally, which took place during Poland’s Independence Day, can also be seen in footage burning a book about a document that protects the rights of Jews in Poland while chanting “No to Polin, Yes to Poland.” “Polin” is the Hebrew word for Poland, according to The Jerusalem Post. Those who led the rally also called for the expulsion of Zionists and the LGBTQ+ community, both of whom were called “enemies of Poland,” the Associated Press reported.

The rally also featured a sign stating “Polish Intifada” and “No more Zionism!”

Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski called the rally “shameful and scandalous” and vowed that those involved will face “legal consequences.” Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid tweeted in Hebrew, “The horrific antisemitic incident in Poland reminds every Jew in the world of the strength of hatred that exists in the world.”

Bishop Rafal Markowski, who chairs the Committee for Dialogue with Judaism of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, also said in a statement that the actions of the protestors undermine “the dignity of our brethren and destroy social order and peace” and “are in direct contradiction to the Gospel and the teaching of the Church.”

Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich and the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland said in a joint statement: “Poland is our homeland. We’re both Jewish and Polish. We’re asking why our right to regard Poland as our home is being questioned ever more often.”

B’nai Brith International tweeted that they were “troubled” by the rally. “We are disappointed in the national [government] for enabling this sorry display by helping to challenge a city ban on the far-right march.”

Stop Antisemitism tweeted, “From 1941 – 1945 nearly all of the Jews in Poland were gassed, starved and/or murdered.  In Poland 2021 they’re STILL screaming ‘Death to Jews.’”

Tray-Ann Oberman, a British actress, tweeted that the “Polish Intifada” sign was an example of how anti-Zionism is antisemitism, noting that Polish nationalists were “using Palestinian ‘activism’ to shout death to Jews. When [Members of Parliament] in the UK call for an intifada on OUR streets this is what they mean.”

Polish Nationalists Arrested for Chanting “Death to Jews” Read More »

NY Jewish Man Attacked, Called “Dirty Jew”

Leave a Comment / News, United States /

A Jewish man was attacked in the Crown Heights area of Brooklyn, NY and called a “dirty Jew” on the evening of November 11.

COLlive and Crownheights.info reported that the victim, 25, was wearing traditional Jewish paraphernalia when he was approached by five Black males; one of them punched the victim in the face. The victim purportedly heard one of the males say, “You dirty Jew!” before fleeing. The victim eventually lost sight of the five men. The victim’s injuries are not believed to be serious.

The New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force has been informed about the matter.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is offering a $10,000 reward for any information that will result in the arrest of the assailant.

“We are once again reeling in the wake of a possible antisemitic attack in Crown Heights, Brooklyn,” ADL New York / New Jersey Regional Director Scott Richman said in a statement. “These incidents have a profound impact on the entire community – causing trauma, fear, and substantial distress. We want all New Yorkers to know that these acts will not be tolerated or ignored.  We hope that this reward will bring about information that will lead to a swift arrest.”

The ADL also offered a separate $10,000 reward to find the assailant behind a November 3 attack of a pregnant Jewish woman; the suspect, an unidentified male, allegedly threw a drink in her face and issued a “derogatory” comment at her.

NY Jewish Man Attacked, Called “Dirty Jew” Read More »

Jewish Mag Criticized for Portraying Iran’s Jewish Community As “Blossoming”

Leave a Comment / News, United States /

Ami Magazine, an Orthodox Jewish magazine, has been criticized on social media for depicting the Jewish community in Iran as “blossoming” in its profile of Iranian Chief Rabbi Yehuda Gerami.

On November 9, Ami Magazine’s Twitter account wrote: “Few people realize that there’s a blossoming Jewish community in #Iran” and shared a cover of the week’s magazine featuring Gerami and how “his community is thriving in the Islamic Republic.” The article itself quotes Gerami stating that more than 20,000 Jews live in Iran and that antisemitism “is the exception rather than the rule” in the country.

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted, “Regardless of Rabbi Gerami’s personal character, his US visit is sanctioned by the Iranian regime. @Ami_Magazine’s decision to positively profile him and to falsely portray Iran’s Jewish community as ‘thriving’ is deeply troubling.”

Ami Magazine replied to Greenblatt, “Because his visit is sanctioned by Iran does not alter the fact that @HaravGerami’s work is vital for the continued growth of Jewish life in that Muslim state. There is much the average person doesn’t know!”

Bryan Leib, who heads Iranian Americans for Liberty, tweeted, “I’m really at a loss for words as to why they would give a cover to someone who is part of the propaganda machine in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). Jews are not thriving inside the IRI. That’s regime propaganda.”

Ami Magazine replied that Gerami “is a very good Jew who is doing very good things for the Iranian Jewish community. You may do your own research if you don’t trust ours.” Leib tweeted in response that Ami Mag’s Instagram “posted an IRI propaganda picture with the text: ‘The Iranians have agreed to come back to the nuclear negotiating table but nobody trusts them.’ Nobody trusts them because they are terrorists whose core ideology is ‘Death to America.’”

Siamak Kordestani, West Coast Director of the European Leadership Network and board member of Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, tweeted out his letter to Ami Mag criticizing their cover story on Gerami. Kordestani, who was born in Iran, asked in the letter why the article made no mention of the scores of Jews who have fled Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He also asked why the article omitted the fact that Jews have been wrongly arrested and executed in Iran as well as the fact that the Iranian government promulgates antisemitism and Holocaust denial.

“Ami Magazine should publicly apologize and post a new article about the harm the Islamic Republic has done to Jews in Iran and globally for more than four decades,” Kordestani wrote.

Others weighed in.

“The Iranian regime sends ‘Chief Rabbi’ Gerami to the US on a charm offensive,” Ellie Cohanim, former Deputy Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, tweeted. “How charming.”

Jerusalem Post Senior Contributing Editor Lahov Harkov tweeted, “Rabbi Gerami lives under an antisemitic, authoritarian regime, so he can’t say anything bad about it. But what’s Ami’s excuse for uncritically amplifying his whitewash of a regime that openly threatens genocide of the Jewish people?”

Mediaite writer Jackson Richman similarly tweeted: “A Jewish publication regurgitating Iranian talking points — talking points of the enemy — is inexplicable and disgusting. Shame on @Ami_Magazine.”

Ami Magazine did not respond to the Journal’s request for comment.

Gerami has been visiting the U.S. for the International Conference on Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries. He has previously said that “Zionists don’t represent Judaism or the Jewish people, You only represent an idea of a political movement, whose ideas and values contrasted the ideas and values of our Torah and the Jewish religion,” according to Ynet News.

Jewish Mag Criticized for Portraying Iran’s Jewish Community As “Blossoming” Read More »

Kansas Protesters Wear Yellow Stars to Protest Vaccine Mandates

Leave a Comment / Featured, News, United States /

Three people protesting COVID-19 vaccine mandates wore yellow stars while in the Kansas state legislature on November 12.

The protesters wore the yellow stars during a Special Committee on Government Overreach hearing discussing proposals for those who have lost their jobs as a result of the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate to receive unemployment insurance and for employers to accept religious exemptions to getting the vaccine. One of the protesters, Daran Duffy, said during public comment that the star signifies that Adolf Hitler acted “in accordance with the laws of his country” and that the star is not meant to be offensive.

During the hearing, Democratic State Senator Pat Pettey denounced Duffy’s use of the yellow star, accusing him of “desecrating” the memory of those who perished during the Holocaust. “Millions of people were killed,” she said. “We are not talking about millions of people being killed here.”

Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, a Democrat, denounced the use of the yellow stars as “profoundly offensive” and “an insult to those who died in the Holocaust” in a tweet. “Antisemitism has no place in Kansas.”

State Republican lawmakers also rebuked the use of the yellow stars.

“Senate Republicans reject, in the strongest possible terms, any analogies to the Holocaust,” Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson tweeted. “Such comparisons are inappropriate and bear no resemblance to the issues we are debating today.”

Speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives Ron Ryckman similarly tweeted, “It’s disappointing that analogies to the Holocaust are being perpetuated. Let me be clear: the issues being debated today are important to [Kansas], but they are in no way comparable to what millions of Jews endured who were ripped from their families, & marked for death by the Nazis.”

Jewish groups also condemned the use of the yellow stars.

“The appropriation of the Yellow Star of David by anti-vaxx protesters is repulsive and should be condemned by all,” the American Jewish Committee tweeted. “There is no comparison between public safety measures and the genocide of six million Jews.”

Anti-Defamation League Plain States Regional Director Gary Nachman told The Kansas City Star, “To use the analogy of a genocide that you have no control over to a mandate that helps the betterment of all people is just a bizarre stretch.”

Lucy Lipiner, a Holocaust survivor, tweeted that she was “repulsed” by the use of the yellow stars. “They went to that meeting at their own free will. They appear well fed! They can go back to their comfortable homes [and] are free to refuse the vaccine. How dare they pretend their so-called plight is comparable to the Holocaust!”

Kansas Protesters Wear Yellow Stars to Protest Vaccine Mandates Read More »