, , , , , ,

The wheels of justice turn slowly. CAA is here to give them a push.

We would like to update you on a number of cases that we have working on.

You may recall this video that was posted back in March and circulated on TikTok. It threatened violence against a named individual, saying that he was being hunted to “dish out the justice” and that once found, they would “drag him away from his family in front of his family”.

We reported the individual to counterterrorism police and commenced a private prosecution. We can now confirm that the CPS has taken up the case and the individual in the video has been charged with communications and terrorism offences and is awaiting trial.

In another case, last October, a social media user published these posts in the wake of a terrorist rocket that fell short and killed people in a Gaza hospital. The explosion was blamed by the BBC and other media outlets on Israel, fuelling antisemitic rhetoric like this. Apologies from the media, even after the damage was done, were few and far between.

One of the posts showed images of long knives. The posts threatened that “There won’t be a f***ing Jew walking the streets of London if this carries on!”

We argued that there is a direct link between inflammatory, unverified, incorrect reporting on Israel and this kind of reaction. We reported the case to the police and, after a considerable period of inaction by the police, we can now confirm that the individual has been charged.

The LGBTQ+ nightclub Adonis announced in its Instagram bio that “definitely no f***ing Zionists” were welcome at its club nights. The promoters also claimed that “Zionism has no place in queer spaces”. After an outcry, the bio was amended to read “no genocidal maniacs plz xx.”

We consider that Adonis’ ban on “Zionists” entering its events may breach criminal, equality, and licensing laws. We wrote to the co-Directors of DL Food and Drink Limited, the company that holds the licence for the premises, The Cause, that hosts Adonis at Silver Building in the Docklands. The company has now announced that Adonis’ event on 7th September will not take place on its premises.

Whilst Adonis sought to backtrack on its inflammatory online comments, the harm has already been done and our lawyers are examining various potential courses of action closely.

There have been several instances of Jewish people being actively or implicitly excluded from LGBTQ+ spaces and parades, and we will always act to ensure that all spaces — especially those that pride themselves on their “inclusivity” — understand that ostracising Jews carries consequences.

In addition, we continue to write to venues alerting them to Reginald D. Hunter’s recent conduct at the Edinburgh Fringe and his social media activity since then, and we are pleased to report that several have already cancelled his bookings. We are continuing to work with the victims and our lawyers are examining legal options.

These are only a selection of the cases that we are working on, and they represent only a fraction of the matters that we have reported to the police. These prosecutions are likely to take months, if not years, but we will see them through to the end.

Doing our part to help the hostages

We were delighted by the news today that one of the hostages, Qaid Farhan Al-Kadi, has been rescued from Gaza.

In just over a week’s time, 7th September 2024 will mark eleven months since Hamas abducted 251 Israelis and other nationals from Israel and took them into captivity in Gaza.

Of those 251 hostages, 117 have been returned alive, and 30 bodies have been repatriated. Over 100 still remain, including four who have been held by Hamas since before October 2023.

In a month’s time, on 7th October 2024, we will be marking the one-year anniversary of the massacre perpetrated by Hamas. We must do whatever we can to ensure that no hostage is still in captivity by that date.

That is why we are launching a campaign encouraging everyone to write to their MP to educate our Parliamentarians — including the hundreds of new MPs — about this issue and put the hostages back on the agenda.

You can write in two easy steps.

First, download this Word document, which contains a draft letter that you are welcome to use or amend as you please before sending either as a hard-copy letter, or as an e-mail attachment, or simply as text in the body of an e-mail. Remember to add your MP’s name and your name and postcode so that they know that you are a constituent and that they should respond.

Second, find out who your MP is and how to contact them, by clicking here.

If you get particularly supportive or hostile responses, you are welcome to share them with us by forwarding them to [email protected].

For those interested, we recently interviewed Eylon Keshet, a relative of the Bibas family, for our podcast. It has been over ten months since Hamas terrorists kidnapped Yarden and Shiri Bibas and their children, baby Kfir and Ariel. You can listen here.

Book now to hear Stories from Students

Since 7th October, Jewish student life on campus has been turned on its head.

CAA has therefore brought together current students and recent graduates from universities across the country to share their stories and answer questions from prospective students and their parents, as well as current students and other interested members of the Jewish community.

This event, taking place at 18:30 on Thursday 5th September in North London, is an important opportunity to hear directly from Jewish students.

It is also a chance for us to come together to show our support and solidarity with those who faced this new generation of hate head-on.

Booking is essential.

British Jews, how are you?

Do want to say your piece on antisemitism in Britain for one of our videos? If British Jews do not speak out about how we are feeling right now, we are less likely to get the action from the authorities that we need.

If you want to speak to camera or would like more information, please e-mail us now at [email protected] with the subject: “British Jews”.

Are you a medical professional, or a recent patient?

We are collecting testimonies on antisemitism in the medical field.

We are interested to hear from doctors and other medical practitioners, staff, patients and anyone else who has encountered antisemitism in medicine over the past year.

If you have been affected, please e-mail us confidentially at [email protected] with the subject: “Medical”.

Become a CAA Student Ambassador!

Are you a student at university in 2024-2025, or do you know somebody who is? CAA’s Student Ambassador programme is an exciting opportunity to work with us in a prestigious year-long initiative.

Student Ambassadors will work closely with our Education Officer and wider team to help us to expose and challenge the rising tide of antisemitism overwhelming UK university campuses.

The contributions of our students is more important now than ever before to the fight against antisemitism.

For further information and details about the programme please visit antisemitism.org/become-a-student-ambassador.

We are grateful to all of you who have answered our invitation to speak on camera about antisemitism or our call for evidence of antisemitism in the medical profession, or applied to become a Student Ambassador or have RSVPed to our Stories from Students event. It is only with the active help of the Jewish community and our allies that we can continue to raise awareness of antisemitism, confront it and deliver justice.

All of the legal cases that we are working on are likely to take months, if not years, before they reach an outcome. But, no matter how slowly the wheels of justice turn, CAA will be there to give them a push.

, , , , ,

Victims of antisemitism speak out

As part of our work making the voices of British Jews heard, we have begun publishing a unique series of powerful testimonials by members of the Jewish community and allies, detailing how they have been affected by the events of the past several months.

In the first of our testimonials, Lysa reveals the precautions that she feels that she must take to maintain her safety as a Jew in Britain.

When nearly 70% of British Jews say that they are less likely to show visible signs of their Judaism right now, this is what that looks like.

The second testimonial features Anatole, a Jewish student at University of Leeds. There are so many students who, like him, do not feel safe right now.

With so little being done by the universities about the intimidation on campus and antisemitic chanting by students and lecturers alike, can you blame them? As Anatole rightly says, this inaction by universities is a betrayal of their Jewish students.

Campaign Against Antisemitism stands up for Jewish students

We are continuing to monitor incidents on campuses across the country, including recently at Newcastle University and Central Saint Martins.

As a community, we can no longer tolerate how vulnerable Jewish students are feeling on campus. That is why we have produced an open letter for students to hold their universities accountable for the rise in hostility and intimidation exacerbated by the campus encampments.

As it is fashionable to make demands of university administrations these days, Jewish students make the following demands of their own in the letter:

  1. Vice-Chancellors must not accept any of the demands of the organisers of the encampments, and, making it clear that universities will not be pressured into action by this sort of conduct, they must pledge not to begin to consider any policy changes relating to such demands for at least three months after the encampments are removed.
  2. University policies must be applied on trespassing, property damage, bullying, racist conduct and other relevant provisions in order to bring the encampments to an end and punish participants to the full extent of student codes of conduct.
  3. The creation of a new paid staff position dedicated exclusively to tackling antisemitism and promoting Jewish inclusion at each university must be announced, where such a position does not yet exist.
  4. Every university must publicly reassure its community of its commitment to the International Definition of Antisemitism as its sole and unamended definition of antisemitism.
  5. All staff and faculty members, including campus security and welfare officers, must be required to undertake updated antisemitism training.

We are thrilled by how many students have signed the letter so far and had their voices finally heard. Students can sign at antisemitism.org/studentletter.

We have also visited campuses over the past several weeks, speaking directly to students and offering support. On our trip to UCL, we spoke directly with students and showed Jewish students that they are not alone. You can watch the video here.

If you like the t-shirts that the Jewish students in the video are wearing, you too can make a statement with our ‘Quite Openly Jewish’ and ‘Quite Openly Standing With Jews’ t-shirts. Some people also wore them at the march for the release of the hostages yesterday, which Campaign Against Antisemitism was proud to support.

Join the movement, wear the message, and stand proudly with us. Together, we can combat antisemitism.

Available now at antisemitism.org/shop.

Check out the latest episodes of Podcast Against Antisemitism

In our latest episodes, we spoke to two of the Jewish community’s best non-Jewish friends, the former MP Mike Freer and Rev. Hayley Ace.

Mike Freer announced his decision not to stand for re-election citing the “intolerable stress” that he and his family have been enduring from the several serious threats that he has received to his personal safety, including a recent arson attack on his constituency office. You can listen to our discussion about the impact of these threats and his decision.

Reverend Hayley Ace is the co-founder of the grassroots movement, Christian Action Against Antisemitism, along with her husband Timothy Gutmann. Both Hayley and Timothy have been standing firmly alongside the British Jewish community against antisemitism, using their perspective as Christians to educate people on racism against Jews. You can learn more about their work by listening to our conversation.

You can subscribe to the podcasts wherever you get your podcasts, or receive the podcast straight to your inbox by subscribing here.

With the General Election campaign now in full swing, we are working hard to expose candidates whose records concern us and calling attention to parties who are failing to act. We will have more on this in due course.

Whoever forms the next Government, they must be left in no doubt about what British Jews think and need right now. That is why it is so important that as many of you as possible complete the surveys above, so that we can convey your wishes and concerns to our lawmakers.

Once you have made your voice heard to us, we will stop at nothing to make sure that everybody else hears it too.

, , , , , , ,

Will policing of antisemitism finally change?

Under the leadership of Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Service’s policing of the anti-Israel protests and campaigns has been an expensive shambles.

Practically nothing has been done to curtail them, with marchers being given two-mile routes though the centre of our capital. For over seven months, Sir Mark has claimed that he requires additional legal powers to curtail the marches even though the law already plainly gives him the powers he needs.

To break the deadlock, we have provided Home Secretary James Cleverly and Minister of State for Crime and Policing Chris Philp concrete measures that will give the Met nowhere to hide:

  1. Issue regulations to make the meaning of “serious disruption to the life of the community” even clearer under sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986, to force the Met and other forces to take into account the cumulative effect of protests and whether they cause intimidation to a particular community. The police must finally be made to treat the weekly marches as one single campaign, rather than as numerous discrete protests, and judge their impact on the rights of others accordingly.
  2. Issue directions to the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, under section 40 of the Police Act 1996, to require the Mayor to work with the Met to ensure that sufficient police are at the marches to effect arrests for unlawful behaviour immediately, and keep Jews and others in the vicinity safe. There must be enough officers present to police the protests in real time, not after the fact.
  3. Make orders under section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2000 to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Ansar Allah (the Houthi rebels) and various terrorist organisations involved in the 7th October atrocity which have not already been proscribed. This would render illegal the display of various terrorist flags and chants such as “Yemen, Yemen, make us proud, turn another ship around.”

These measures do not require any new laws to be passed, and if they are adopted, they will have an immediate and profound impact on the policing of processions and public assemblies.

No more excuses instead of arrests. No more ‘contextualising’ offences away instead of enforcing the law.

The proposals have been positively received by the Home Office, which said in a statement: “The right to protest is a cornerstone of our democracy, but there are clear concerns about the cumulative impact protests are having on some of our communities which we are looking at.

“All communities should be able to go about their daily lives without fear. We have been clear with the police that they must use all the powers available to them to police protests appropriately and will always have our backing in doing so.

“We thank the Campaign Against Antisemitism for their proposals and we will be looking closely at them alongside Lord Walney’s recommendations which will be published this week.”

Our proposals were then echoed in a major report published today by Lord Walney, the Government’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption, titled “Protecting our Democracy from Coercion”.

Lord Walney’s review of antisemitism within the current anti-Israel protests represents a damning assessment of the police and Crown Prosecution Service for failing to apply their existing powers and politicising their response. The report lays bare how far our branches of law enforcement have fallen behind these extremist groups and the expectations of the British public, which abhors extremism and the use of illegal or intimidatory tactics to accomplish goals that cannot be secured at the ballot box.

One only has to look at the footage recorded by our Demonstration and Events Monitoring Unit from this past weekend’s march or the previous march, when a masked protester shouted “Go back to Poland!” at a Christian reverend whom he mistook for a Jew.

Where will this all end? In Manchester, three men have appeared in court, charged with planning an ISIS-style attack against Jews on British soil, while in Stamford Hill in North London, a woman allegedly brandishing a knife at Jews in the street was stopped by police and Shomrim.

She allegedly told a Jewish man that he is a “provocation” before specifying “you people, you Jewish…all the trouble you’re creating in the world.” When asked what she meant, she allegedly replied: “Who do you think started the Second World War? You, the Jewish, started the Second World War.”

These events do not occur in a vacuum. Policing in the UK must change course now, before it is too late.

Those who ignore the lessons of history

For a recent anti-Israel weekly march passing nearby, the Royal Parks covered up the Holocaust memorial in Hyde Park, a new low. At every turn, the authorities seem to be trying to keep Jews and anything Jewish out of sight to appease these mobs.

Concerns over the safety of the memorial are not, however, unfounded. Since 7th October, Holocaust memorials and museums around the world have been vandalised, blockaded, covered up or otherwise targeted in some way. Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Drancy…the list goes on and on.

Then, on Yom HaShoah, anti-Israel demonstrators wore yellow stars – akin to the sort that Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust – and picketed outside Auschwitz concentration camp.

Whether by tearing down posters of the hostages or targeting Holocaust memorials, the supporters of Hamas not only support the antisemitic slaughter of Jews but they also oppose any remembrance for the victims. They want them forgotten. But we will not forget.

Campaign Against Antisemitism funds another successful appeal for Iranian dissident

For the second time this year, we have funded a successful appeal by Iranian dissident Niyak Ghorbani against excessive bail conditions imposed by the Metropolitan Police.

This time, the police wished to restrict Mr Ghorbani from attending or participating in “any protest demonstration related to the Palestinian cause or events occurring in Gaza”, and force him to refrain from any “behaviour aimed at inciting or disturbing participants of any protest demonstration in support of the Palestinian cause or against events in Gaza”, and from entering Camden or the City of Westminster for anything but medical or legal appointments.

However, following a successful appeal that was funded by Campaign Against Antisemitism, the court has rejected the Met’s conditions, with a judge saying that “they are not necessary let alone proportionate.” Mr Ghorbani is now free again to continue pointing out the legal fact that Hamas is a terrorist organisation and expressing his right to protest and counter-protest.

You may recall that we created t-shirts and hoodies emblazoned with the same message that Hamas are terrorists, which we have made available for sale. Many of you have already bought them, wearing them to protests and posting pictures on social media.

Supporting Jewish students in hostile campus environments

Over the last couple of weeks, we have seen anti-Israel thugs swarm university campuses with calls for intifada, the eradication of the State of Israel, and references to Hamas as “freedom fighters”. The growing number of encampments comes against a backdrop of escalating antisemitism, with Jewish students facing verbal abuse, receiving death threats and enduring physical violence.

We have met with the Department for Education and been on the forefront of exposing these incidents on campuses across the country, including in University College London, SOAS, University of Leeds, The University of Manchester, Newcastle University and elsewhere.

The hostile environment for Jews that has been created on British campuses challenges the very foundations of academia. Bastions of inclusivity and diversity operating in pursuit of truth are becoming cesspits of racist hate and intimidation.

We are assisting students around the country who are facing antisemitism where they live and study. Any student or faculty member can e-mail us in confidence at [email protected].

The Prime Minister has recently made it clear that antisemitism has no place in our universities. We thank the Prime Minister for doing so. It is now up to vice-chancellors to show that they agree. If they do not, we will do everything that we can to hold them and their institutions to account.

Podcast Against Antisemitism is back!

Season Five of our podcast is now streaming.

In the first episode, marking Yom HaShoah, we spoke to Mervyn Kersh, a distinguished WWII veteran. Now 99 years old, he joined the army in 1943 at the age of eighteen, and you can listen or watch as we discuss his conversations with survivors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp just days after its liberation.

Our guest in episode two was Elad Poterman, who, along with his baby daughter and wife Maria, are survivors of the Kibbutz Nahal Oz massacre on 7th October. Nahal Oz sits just 800 metres from the Gaza border and was one of the first targets in the early hours of the Hamas terrorist attacks. Listen or watch as Elad takes us through how he and his family spent seventeen hours in the safe room of his home hiding from Hamas terrorists.

For our third episode we interviewed the acclaimed actor, writer, and comedian Brett Gelman, known for his roles in BBC’s “Fleabag,” FX’s “Married” and Netflix’s “Stranger Things”. Brett is not only known for his impressive performances but also for his outspoken stance against antisemitism. You can listen or watch Brett dive into his Jewish identity and speaking on the silencing of Jewish voices.

You can subscribe to the podcasts wherever you get your podcasts, or receive the podcast straight to your inbox by subscribing here.

Some of our additional recent work includes:

  • We have led the coverage of newly-elected local councillors with concerning records, especially in the Green Party, and we are assisting in a police investigation into an independent councillor.
  • We have reported the comedian Dane Baptiste to the police over serious threats to a Jewish individual, with whom we are in touch.
  • We are writing to Ofcom about Hamas atrocity-denial by Natasha Devon on LBC (for which she has apologised).
  • We reported Dana Abuqamar, the President of Manchester Friends of Palestine and final year law student, to the Home Office after she said that “We are full of pride. We are really, really full of joy of what has happened” in apparent reference to 7th October. Her visa has now been revoked.
  • We are writing to the BBC after presenter Eddie Nester MBE asked “Why is [the Jewish lobby] so much more powerful than people with disabilities?” and we are also writing to the broadcaster after Gary Lineker appeared to dismiss the 7th October massacre as “the Hamas thing”.
  • A few weeks ago, to mark Pesach, our digital van drove around London with a message to “let our people go” in reference to the hostages who remain in Hamas captivity.

The Met’s policing of the anti-Israel protests and campaigns has been an expensive shambles, supposedly because the force needs additional legal powers. We have now provided a blueprint for moving forward. Our criminal justice system must be brought into line, and the laws on which it operates must be brought up to date. For the Jewish community, action cannot come soon enough.

, , , , ,

The police must uphold the law, but they need to hear it from you

Since last weekend, we have been leading a campaign to raise awareness of the plight of the hostages held by Hamas, including through billboards and digital vans that travel around London displaying the images of some of the child captives. We have also taken action against those who tear down or deface the leaflets and posters that have been put up around the city.

We expected that there may be pockets of opposition to the vans from terrorist-sympathisers and their fellow travellers in London. What we did not anticipate was opposition from the Metropolitan Police Service.

For the full story of this outrageous incident, join the millions who have watched our Chief Executive recount the episode, which was also covered across the national media.

Since the incident, we have engaged with the Metropolitan Police — in addition to our work with the Government — but the outcomes with the police have been unsatisfactory. This adds to our disappointment with current policing policy. It is time to take action.

The volunteers of our Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit continue to gather evidence from the demonstrations around the country, bearing witness to the Metropolitan Police’s own findings that antisemitic hate crime in London is up by a scandalous 1,350%.

Instead of arrests, however, the Met has been making excuses for hate. The force permitted a rally by Hizb ut-Tahrir to go ahead; it announced, contrary to the view of the Home Secretary, that the chant “From the River to the Sea Palestine will be free” is not hate speech unless it expressly targets a Jewish institution; and it ignores calls for “Jihad” and “Intifada” by demonstrators; among other shortcomings.

While failing to take action against those expressing sympathy for terrorists or calling for violence, as shown here, the Met did find the time to order that our vans shut down their display of the faces of children taken hostage by a proscribed terrorist group. The protesters hurling abuse at our volunteers, just feet from watching police officers, were not apprehended.

In 2014, Campaign Against Antisemitism was founded when the community witnessed that the authorities barely lifted a finger to combat antisemitism on our streets. We made our voices heard then outside the Royal Courts of Justice, but only towards the end of that surge in antisemitic incidents. This time, we must make our voices heard earlier, to shape how the Met polices our streets over the coming weeks.

We will be rallying outside New Scotland Yard this Wednesday at 18:30. The rally will be held at New Scotland Yard, London SW1A 2JL, and the nearest Underground stations are Westminster and Embankment.

The BBC

We have been among those at the forefront of the campaign to pressure the BBC to report accurately and impartially, including by calling Hamas what they are: terrorists.

The BBC must be made to understand that not only is it doing a disservice to viewers, listeners and readers by not reporting in accordance with its guidelines, but its coverage has a real-life, adverse impact on British Jews.

We co-sponsored a rally outside Broadcasting House, which was covered by all the major broadcasters and press, backed a petition signed by tens of thousands (please do sign if you haven’t already), physically projected a powerful message onto Broadcasting House itself to shame the BBC, and recorded a special episode of our podcast with Noah Abrahams, a courageous and principled young sports journalist who has quit the BBC in protest at its failure to describe Hamas as a terrorist organisation (listen now).

We also called out the BBC for referring to the recent Brussels attack as terrorism while refusing to do the same for Hamas. After its hypocrisy was exposed, rather than accept that it must finally describe Hamas as a terror group, the Corporation quietly and disgracefully changed its Brussels coverage instead.

The BBC is not the only media outlet that we have held to account in recent days. Among the most egregious was the satirical magazine Private Eye. Perhaps appropriately, our response to its appalling front cover involved satirising their unfunny attempt at satire.

We have also reviewed material and submitted complaints relating to other broadcasters and newspapers, and continue to do so.

It is time for the BBC to hear the strength of feeling directly from the Jewish community and to justify its appalling coverage. Courtesy of Campaign Against Antisemitism, for the first time, a member of the BBC’s Executive Committee will be speaking at an open event for the Jewish community, and you are invited. To book tickets, visit antisemitism.org/bbc.

We are fighting back. Now it is the turn of the police to rise to the occasion in these challenging times and uphold the law against those who want to harm the Jewish community.

, , ,

Blake Flayton: “They connect Jews with hot-button issues to whip up outrage”

Blake Flayton, a columnist for the Jewish Journal and a social media commentator on American-Jewish and Israeli political issues, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he spoke about anti-Zionist antisemitism.

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

“There’s a lot of misconceptions about Zionism, whether they come from within the Jewish community or outside the Jewish community,” he said. “The Jews have a right to live in the land in which they’ve always been associated with. We have been known as Jews, and in different languages, it’s just a variation on the word ‘Jew’. We have been named after this piece of land for the last 2,000 years, if not more so.”

Mr Flayton explained how, during the first 30 years of Israel’s existence, neighbouring Arab countries would denigrate the country, even going as far as to assert that they would “push the Jews into the sea” and that “Jews are cockroaches.” 

The activist said how that in the shadow of the just-passed Nazi era, these statements were ones that “nobody in the West who could ever call themselves ‘liberal’ or ‘progressive’ could support”.

“Standing up for the Jews was a good, progressive cause overseas. And then, the Soviet Union enters stage-left somewhere in the mid-to-late ‘70s and basically flips the language of anti-Zionism in order to make it more palatable to people in the West, to journalists and academics and activists,” Mr Flayton said.

The Soviet Union would then “make the language of anti-Zionism sound as though it was a progressive fight for justice, a call for righteousness, and it’s been going ever since because it’s believable,” he said.

“They use the lingo, they use the words, that connect with people who style themselves as activists. In reality, it’s the same Nazi-like war against the Jewish right to self-determination that’s been going on since 1948. The goal is the same, and that’s from the river to the sea, there will not be a Jewish state.”

When asked why university campuses have seen an increase in anti-Zionist rhetoric, he said: “This is actually in-line with how antisemitism has worked forever, because the antisemites take advantage of the hot-button issues of the day, and they connect Jews with those hot-button issues in order to whip up outrage among their supporters and get closer to their goals on campus.”

Elaborating on the goals in question, Mr Flayton said that some examples might be the “passing of BDS resolutions or isolating Jewish organisations, or simply just making individual Jews feel uncomfortable.” 

Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.

, , , ,

Rep. Alma Hernandez on how she and her first-grade teacher brought Holocaust education to Arizona, despite attempts to slow it down

Alma Hernandez, a Jewish Mexican-American politician serving as a Democratic member of the Arizona House of Representatives for the 20th district, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where she passionately addressed how she brought Holocaust education to Arizona.  

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

In 2021, a bill that Rep. Hernandez introduced requiring Holocaust education in Arizona public schools was passed by the State Legislature. This made Arizona the sixteenth state in the United States to make Holocaust education mandatory.

“The process was very long. It took about three years to get it done,” she said. “Not because it wasn’t a good policy, and not because I was doing anything wrong. It was really politics, that’s what it came down to. We had people on both sides using this bill to play politics.”

She revealed that certain politicians intentionally held up the process in order to ensure that Rep. Hernandez would cast her vote on specific policies, even if they did not align with her own views. However, Rep. Hernandez refused.

“I said, ‘Look, we can get it done this year. This is what the ask is of me,’ and I had many [Holocaust] survivors tell me, ‘We will wait as long as we need to wait so that you do what you need to do and what is right,’ so at the end of the day, I didn’t have to compromise my values and I didn’t have to do something I was going to feel morally wrong for doing,” she said.

While the bill was eventually passed, the length of time that it took, unfortunately, had severe consequences.

“We were able to get it done, but it took three years. It was a long process…at the forefront of all of this were the survivors. We had three survivors that passed away, unfortunately, during the three years who were very involved but didn’t get to see it happen.

“That was very difficult because I really wish that they could have all been here to be able to witness a historic moment, but because of politics, we couldn’t get it done.” 

Despite this, Rep. Hernandez’s sense of achievement over such a monumental accomplishment was clear, stating: “I’m just really grateful we finally got it done. I’m really proud of it.”

Many of the survivors were close with the Arizona representative even prior to her election, with one in particular — Theresa Dulgov — who was not only a “friend and a mentor” to Rep. Hernandez, but was also her first-grade teacher.

She said: “She used to teach about the Holocaust when we were younger. She was my brother’s and sister’s reading teacher as well, and I just never forgot her story, and as I got older, we kept in touch. I found her on Facebook.

“She had such a big impact on my life because I met her when I was so young and we just kept in touch over the years. We reconnected through the Holocaust survivor’s network here in Tucson and she was able to come testify on behalf of my bill, and that was really moving for me; having her support and knowing that she’s someone who I personally have known literally my entire life now, and has supported me throughout the years…just seeing her, how happy she was to finally see this done, was really rewarding.”

Speaking on how the implementation of Holocaust education in Arizona has been going, Rep. Hernandez said: “I know that the schools have been implementing different curriculums. They’re allowed to select the curriculum that works best for them through the Department of Education…It’s going to start with the children and educating the future generation, because they are the ones who are hopefully going to be breaking the cycle of hate and bigotry in our communities.”

Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.

, , , ,

Netflix comedian Judy Gold on how to properly joke about antisemitism

Judy Gold, a Jewish comedian, actor, writer, and podcaster whose comedy addresses antisemitism, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where she spoke about fighting antisemitism through comedy.

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

“You can joke about anything,” the Netflix and Comedy Central comedian said. “I have jokes about the Holocaust, but they’re good, well-thought-out, well-crafted jokes that make you think.” 

On the difference between comedians who joke about antisemitism in a considered way versus those who mock Jews and incidents of antisemitism in a cheap and tactless way, she said: “If you’re going to take the easy way out and just disparage just to disparage people and get a laugh, that’s not comedy to me.”

The comedian and actress addressed the idea that comedians should always “punch up” rather than “punch down”, meaning that a comedian’s jokes should be aimed at those in power carrying out harm rather than the victims of it.

“Punching up, to me, is real comedy…Jews have used comedy as a weapon, as a coping mechanism, as a way to disarm people. It’s a powerful weapon. Mark Twain said ‘Under the assault of laughter, nothing can stand,’ because you can have whatever weapon you want but humiliation is extremely powerful.

“I don’t know if a lot of people know this, but during the rise of the Third Reich, it was comedians who were getting on stage and telling the truth about what was really happening in Germany. They were speaking the truth to power, which is one of the things a comedian does, so Hitler passed the Treachery Act — those jokes weakened Nazi propaganda — Hitler passed the Treachery Act of 1934, which made telling or listening to an anti-Nazi joke an act of treason punishable by imprisonment or death.” 

“That is how powerful comedy is,” she added. “It’s a huge part of our culture.”

Ms Gold said: “It is a tool, and people who are full of hate don’t want to be disarmed, because their hate is their armour.”

However, Ms Gold is careful about how she intertwines antisemitism into her act.

Asked about her own craft, she told us: “When I’m doing material, especially about Jews and antisemitism, and I think [the audience] is laughing for the wrong reason, that’s my line. People are like ‘How can you tell?’ You can tell, believe me.

“There’s ways of talking about antisemitism in a way that is hilarious and enlighting.”

Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.

, , ,

Goldsmiths Senior Lecturer David Hirsh says being called a “far-right white supremacist” was “utterly humiliating”

David Hirsh, an expert in antisemitism and the Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he spoke candidly about his experiences of being called a “far-right white supremacist” by the University’s then-Students’ Union President.

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

Initially, the Students’ Union apparently refused to investigate Sara Bafo, its now-former President, following allegations of antisemitism, despite being requested to do so by the University.

She is to said to have tweeted: “D*vid H*rsch is a far right white supremacist. All you have to do is read his work and tweets and that’s all the confirmation needed.” 

Ms Bafo’s tweet was said to have been written in response to a tweet from Mr Hirsh which said: “There is an antisemitic edge to official, institutional, university campaigns to ‘decolonise’ education.”

Ms Bafo later tweeted that the University “has tried to get the SU trustee board to investigate me for a tweet I made in response to a Zionist Goldsmiths academic’s explicit racist history & his delegitimisation of ‘Decolonisation’ campaigns,” adding: “This was a dirty tactic from the institution to silence me further as I was leaving.”

Shortly after, an “independent review into antisemitism at the College” was announced by the University.

Mr Hirsh revealed on the podcast that when he brought up the incident to his department’s union at Goldsmiths, little was done about it.

“There was a little bit of sympathy and warmth and support. I mean, there’s always a little bit, there are always people who are solid. It’s not unanimous by any means.” he said. 

However, he added that after department representatives said that they would speak to members of the union branch, a period followed “where there was a fight going on about whether it was legitimate to say David Hirsh is a far-right white supremacist or not.”

He said: “Just the fact that there’s a fight going on between my colleagues about that is already utterly humiliating, and even more humiliating is that my department colleagues in the union lost, and the union stood firm and refused to do anything about it.

“When I’m at a union meeting now, I’m sitting there thinking, ‘The official position of this branch is that I’m a Nazi’.”

When the topic of mental health arose, he stated that “evidently, it must have” had an impact on him.

“I’ve been dealing with this stuff for twenty years now, for the main part of my adult life, and the main part of my career, and sometimes it’s really hard,” he said. “Sometimes, I get treated with great respect. Sometimes I get treated with nothing but contempt.”

Speaking on the University’s antisemitism investigation, led by senior barrister Mohinderpal Sethi KC, he said that it was “really interesting” and “a real surprise”.

“We’ll see. We’ll see what happens. We’ll see what evidence emerges. We’ll see what the report says. I hope that people who have had experiences of antisemitism at Goldsmiths make submissions,” Mr Hirsh urged. 

Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.

, , , ,

“I was so terrified all the time”: Australian artist fights internalised antisemitism through art

Avraham Vofsi, a Jewish artist based in Melbourne, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he described how his art had been influenced by his experiences of internal antisemitism.

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

“I always knew I was Jewish,” he said, “but I think the way [internalised antisemitism] manifested for me was that I literally couldn’t be around other Jews. There was something about it where some part of it was too hard to face.”

He continued: “When it was just me, I could control it in a way, like, ‘This is what it means to be Jewish,’ and that’s how I’d present myself. But as soon as I’m around other Jews, or I’m doing Jewish programmes, or I’m going to synagogue, or whatever it is, all of a sudden…did I have these feelings of animosity? I don’t know.”

Mr Vofsi went on to describe how at his school, he was one of four Jewish students in his year, a source of great anxiety. Judaism as a subject was understood to be taboo among them. 

“We never talked about being Jewish with each other. Ever. And I don’t know if any of us were friends, because we all had to distance ourselves,” he said. 

Taking off his glasses to rub his eyes, he said: “Sorry, it just makes me a bit uncomfortable to think about. There was something really intense about it in this hard-to-articulate way…I was so terrified all the time.”

At one point, he considered whether his anxiety about being with other Jews stemmed from the idea that “the more Jews I was around, the more possible it was that [antisemitic incidents] would happen.”

In his most recent art exhibit, B’Aretz: Portrait of a Land, Mr Vofsi used his experiences to focus on Jewish identity and building a connection to Israel, where he spent five months honing a connection with the country for inspiration.

“The show is six portraits and four landscapes…I was like, ‘I need to explore my Jewish identity’,” he told us, adding that the process of creating his newest exhibition was what helped him work through much of his internalised antisemitism.

Mr Vofsi is one of those interviewed in the book Reclaiming Our Story: The Pursuit of Jewish Pride by author Ben M. Freeman, the second instalment of his seminal manifesto of the modern Jewish Pride movement.

Earlier this year, Campaign Against Antisemitism hosted a first-of-its-kind sold-out event, “CAA presents…An evening with Ben M. Freeman”, which attracted a room full of Jewish young professionals to an east London venue to watch a live interview with Mr Freeman, followed by a question and answers session.

Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.

Image credit: Avraham Vofsi

, , , ,

“One need not be Jewish to condemn antisemitism”: Rep. Ritchie Torres backs International Definition of Antisemitism in new podcast interview

Rep. Ritchie Torres, the United States representative for New York’s 15th congressional district, acting for the Bronx, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he spoke candidly of his dedication to fighting antisemitism and acting as an ally to Jewish people, which includes his commitment to the International Definition of Antisemitism.

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

Rep. Torres told our podcast host: “One need not be Jewish to condemn antisemitism, any more than one need be Black to condemn anti-Black racism. I operate under the belief that we all have a moral obligation to fight extremism.”

Rep. Torres, who at 25 became the youngest elected official in New York City, said that he was reminded of a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

He said: “‘History will record that the greatest tragedy was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people,’ and at a time of rising antisemitism, we are all confronted with the simple moral choice; either we remain appallingly silent, or we speak out. Either we remain part of the problem, or we become part of the solution, and I feel deeply that I have a moral obligation to speak out and become part of the solution.”

However, the Congressman revealed that his activism on behalf of the Jewish people has led to his share of detractors, though he remains undeterred. 

“I do have critics who claim that I speak out too often about antisemitism, but the problem is not that I speak out too often but that society does not speak out often enough,” he said.

Recent FBI Hate Crime Statistics revealed that antisemitic incidents comprised 51.4% of religion-related incidents in the United States, despite the Jewish population making up less than 3% of the population. 

“There has certainly been a tidal wave of antisemitism that has swept American society, British society, and elsewhere in the world…There is a long and ugly history of scapegoating Jews,” he said. “We see that scapegoating rear its ugly head, sometimes against the Jewish community, sometimes against the State of Israel, and we have to speak out against it.”

The representative for the Bronx turned his attention to antisemitism in his home city of New York. According to police data, New York City saw 263 antisemitic attacks in 2022, which translates as one every 33 hours on average.

He said of the attacks: “New York City is supposed to be a cosmopolitan city, where everyone is welcome, where more than 200 languages are spoken, and I consider the prevalence of antisemitic to be a stain of the soul of our city, to be a moral indictment.

“All of us have a human right to live freely without fear of intimation and harassment and violence.”

Rep. Torres commented on how the media’s portrayal of Israel can influence antisemitic incidents, an issue on which he has been outspoken. Recently, in addition to Campaign Against Antisemitism and other Jewish groups, he called out a BBC journalist who said that Israel is “happy to kill children.” Following the complaints, an apology was issued by the Corporation.

Rep. Torres said: “I find that anti-Zionism in the real world often rises to the level of antisemitism, and one clear-cut example is the BBC anchor who casually said that Israel is happy to kill children, which to me is a modern manifestation of the medieval blood libel, and we know that the blood libel has a long history of provoking antisemitic violence.

“Casual antisemitism permeates our culture so deeply it appears under the guise of objective journalism. I have found that Israel is often a blank slate on which antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes are projected.” 

The International Definition of Antisemitism has been another topic on which Rep. Torres has vocalised his support. Britain was the first country in the world to adopt the Definition, something for which Campaign Against Antisemitism worked hard over many meetings with officials. Since then, numerous national, state and local governments have adopted the Definition.

“I not only accept, but I embrace, the Definition as the most complex definition of a complex phenomenon that is antisemitism, and it ought to command universal acceptance. I find that the attempt to discredit the Definition is based more on a caricature than a fair characterisation of the Definition,” he said. “Questioning the right of the Jewish state to exist, questioning the legitimacy of the Jewish state, holding the Jewish state to double standards, that’s not mere criticism, it’s extremism. That’s the nuance that the Definition is attempting to capture.

“If the majority of leading Jewish organisations are telling me that the most comprehensive definition of antisemitism is [the Definition], then I’m going to be deferential. I’m not going to presume I know what’s best. I happen to believe that on my own, but who cares what I believe? I care more about ‘What does the leadership of the Jewish believe?’ And that warrants deference and respect from allies like myself.”

Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.

, , , ,

“It’s never fun getting death threats”: Celebrity chef Eitan Bernath opens up about fighting antisemitism

Eitan Bernath, the award-winning celebrity chef, entertainer, author, television personality, and content creator, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he spoke about using his platform to fight antisemitism.

This podcast can be listened to here, or watched here.

“I haven’t always, on my platform, been as loud about combatting antisemitism,” he said. “Now, to be fair, I was a teenager! So, I also wasn’t as knowledgeable. I was still in high school and figuring out life and gaining confidence, but as I’ve grown into myself as a young adult, this is something that’s very important to me.”

The 21-year-old continued: “The way I see it with combating antisemitism and standing up for the Jewish people, I will be Jewish until the day I die and antisemitism will affect me until the day I die, and it will affect my children and grandchildren, and so on.”

The TikTok star revealed that speaking up about antisemitism has, unfortunately, come at a price. However, he says that it “comes with the territory.”

“Most times when I post, whether it’s about Holocaust education, or about combatting antisemitism, I lose many, many thousands of followers, and get thousands and thousands of hateful messages. I have grown a very thick skin.”

Asked whether the backlash to his activism affects him, he said: “I am 100% of the time okay with the ramifications that come with me posting on social media in support of my fellow Jews and combating antisemitism because that hate exists out there, and when I receive that, it’s not something I take personally. 

“It’s a large, systemic issue that is perpetrated by all sorts of things, whether its media, whether its fictional stories that portray Jews negatively.”

Mr Bernath revealed that at times, he has received hateful messages to the point of death threats.

“It’s never fun getting messages or getting death threats for various things I’ve posted about. Very scary, awful messages and comments aren’t enjoyable at all and it’s sad that it exists out there, but I believe the positive effects of advocating severely outweigh any negative effects it has,” he said. 

Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.

We are seeking to recruit a General Counsel a Video and Content Creator to join our London office

Join the fight

Subscribe
Volunteer
Donate

Campaign Against Antisemitism is a volunteer-led charity dedicated to exposing and countering antisemitism through education and zero-tolerance enforcement of the law. Everything that we do is done by people who volunteer their time, using donations contributed by members of the public. Join the fight against antisemitism by subscribing to our updates, volunteering, or donating.

Justice, justice, you shall pursue - צדק צדק תרדף
© Copyright - Campaign Against Antisemitism, all rights reserved. Our logo is a registered trademark.
Campaign Against Antisemitism is a charitable incorporated organisation registered with the Charity Commission (number 1163790).
Use of our website is subject to our terms. Trees are planted every year to keep our work carbon neutral.