Twelve Hours of Antisemitic Incidents

Elder of Ziyon has collected a small but telling sample of antisemitic incidents that took place during the day — twelve hours — on October 29, and he has posted them at his website. Just a glimpse into the widening miasma of hate. You can find his list here: “12 hours of antisemitic incidents in the news,” Elder of Ziyon, October 30, 2024:

In Brooklyn:

A visibly Jewish man was slashed in the face in a random attack as he was walking on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn on Tuesday morning by an attacker who yelled hateful rhetoric before slashing him.

The Jewish community of Chicago urged the mayor to act as if he cared in the wake of the shooting of a Jewish man on Saturday. The mayor released a statement that didn’t even mention that the victim was Jewish.

What Brandon Johnson, the Mayor of Chicago, ignored was that this shooting was directed at the victim precisely because he was visibly Jewish. Not mentioning the victim’s identity, nor that the shooting was an antisemitic hate crime, was unforgivable. An obvious attempt by the mayor to minimize the dangers Jews face in Chicago today.

Speaking of the Chicago mayor, he just appointed a president of the Chicago Board of Education who has posted antisemitic and pro-Hamas posts on social media.

Twenty-six Chicago “alders” (formerly “aldermen”) asked Mayor Brandon Johnson to rescind his recent appointment of Rev. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson as head of Chicago’s Public Schools, now that the dozens of antisemitic and anti-Israel messages he has been posting on Facebook since Oct. 7 have come to light. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson resigned Thursday.

The Communist Student League a the University of Buffalo had written a letter last week with a list of demands, including that all “Zionists” be expelled from the school. Buffalo SUNY BDS, another unofficial group, agreed.

Why stop there? Since over 90% of Jews in America are “Zionists” — that is, they have declared their support for Israel, wouldn’t it be easier to expel all the Jews who are either students or faculty at the University of Buffalo? Any Jew who affirmatively declares that he, or she, does not support the state of Israel should, of course, be allowed to remain.

 A West Palm Beach man is being charged with voter intimidation after he was caught on camera by a news crew allegedly yelling antisemitic slurs at a campaign worker at a polling site.

This was not “voter intimidation.” It was aimed at someone who was being yelled at not because he was a campaign worker, but because he was perceived as being a Jewish campaign worker, and was the victim of antisemitic slurs.

A Jewish family has sued a San Jose charter school, two Santa Clara County education organizations and the California Department of Education for what they say was a pattern of antisemitic bullying, harassment and public humiliation that their 13-year-old daughter experienced while at school in the wake of October 7. The girl is now going to a private Jewish school….

Nothing was done by those running the San Jose charter school to punish those who were engaged after October 7 in antisemitic bullying and harassment of a 13-year-old Jewish girl. The bullying thus continued, making the girl so miserable that her parents took her out of the school and, at great expense, enrolled her in a private Jewish school.

In Delhi, NY:

An Oneonta man has been sentenced to probation after being involved in a hate crime against a child of the Jewish faith.

Zachary Hoffman Kowatch, 23, was sentenced to five years of probation for Attempted Reckless Endangerment in the First Degree, a Class E Felony.

Kowatch previously admitted that on May 9, he swerved his vehicle at the teenager while he was riding his bike. He also yelled several antisemitic slurs as he passed the victim. Kowatch then turned his vehicle around, revved his engine, and drove back towards the victim. He made further antisemitic remarks as he drove off.

Kowatch swerved his vehicle so as to narrowly miss hitting a Jewish teenager riding his bike, and turned his car around to aim it at the boy a second time. The boy was in fear for his life. Why wasn’t this “reckless endangerment” deserving of more than merely five years of probation? Why not give Kowatch a year in jail, to make sure that others so inclined will think twice before emulating him.

Online:

Hasan Piker, among the most-watched streamers on the platform Twitch, is coming under fire for anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric that has escalated in recent weeks.

In one recent stream, Piker declared that “it doesn’t matter if rapes f***ing happened on Oct. 7, like that doesn’t change the dynamic for me even this much,” holding his fingers up in a pinching gesture. He had previously denied those atrocities….

Piker, who once denied the October 7 atrocities, now admits that they took place, but he makes clear he doesn’t give a damn if they did. He is among the most watched “streamers” on Twitch. Given his indifference to the torture, rape, and murder of Israelis on October 7, should he continue be given a platform to spread his hate on Twitch? Why don’t those who own Twitch ban him from the site?

In London, a group cheerfully chanted for ethnically cleansing all Jews from Israel….

This took place on the Underground. No one was arrested, no one was even admonished for what was, after all, a call for the expulsion or killing of all Israeli Jews.

Elder of Ziyon believes that at least one news story about antisemitic acts appears “every hour.” I’m convinced that is a great underestimate. I’d wager that there is an antisemitic act taking place somewhere in the world, whether with swastikas daubed on synagogue walls, or Jewish pupils subject to taunts by classmates, or Jews wearing kippahs beaten up or slashed with a knife on the streets of the US and France, Turkey and the UK, Germany and Italy, Argentina and South Africa, Russia and Sweden — not every hour, but every few minutes.