AJC, USC Shoah Foundation Partner to Document and Map Global Antisemitism

 

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the USC Shoah Foundation (University of Southern California) announced on April 27th at the AJC Global Forum their newly formed partnership to give voice to, document, and map modern-day antisemitism around the world. Harnessing AJC’s global reach and the USC Shoah Foundation’s expertise in testimony collection, AJC will contribute to the USC Shoah Foundation’s ambitious and visionary goal of collecting 10,000 testimonies from across the U.S. and around the world to document incidents of antisemitism post-1945, and bring voice to the worldwide persistence of antisemitism and its many manifestations. This multi-year, international testimony collection is part of the USC Shoah Foundation’s Contemporary Antisemitism Collection.

“We must clearly show to the world - and preserve for the future - what antisemitism is, what it looks like, and the personal toll it takes on Jews around the world. AJC has seen, firsthand, the way antisemitism has morphed and manifested itself in different ways since the end of the Holocaust,” said AJC CEO Ted Deutch. “Through AJC’s work all over the globe combating antisemitism, we have also seen the power of personal testimonies in not only changing hearts and minds but also in winning support for policies that protect Jewish communities. The USC Shoah Foundation’s collection of testimonies will forever capture the personal experiences of thousands of Jewish people, enabling us to tell our story, and share it with generations to come.”

“Our partnership with AJC will enable us to reach survivors of antisemitic violence from all over the globe. In turn, this is a powerful statement that bringing the world’s attention to antisemitism requires partnerships built on a shared commitment to giving voice to the personal histories of those who have and continue to experience one of humanity’s oldest and most enduring forms of hatred. This ambitious project, namely building a Contemporary Antisemitism Collection at the USC Shoah Foundation, will add tremendous value to the study of antisemitism and hate and help Jewish and non-Jewish communities become more resilient against these forces, both now and into the future,” said Dr. Robert J. Williams, CEO and Finci-Viterbi Chair of the USC Shoah Foundation.

During the announcement, Daniel Pomerantz, now executive director of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA; transl. "Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, a Jewish Community Center), and a survivor of the July 18, 1994 terror attack, explained, “the [Hezbollah] terrorists killed 85 and injured 300. These were my friends and colleagues. They were Argentinian Jews and Argentinians of all backgrounds. Thirty-one years later, those responsible for orchestrating that horrible day - for attacking my place of work, my community’s gathering place, and for murdering and maiming dozens - have still not been brought to justice or held accountable for their crimes.”

The Contemporary Antisemitism Collection focuses on five categories, including: (1) Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Yemenite Jewish communities, many of which were displaced or left the Mediterranean basin, North Africa, and the Middle East in the 1940s and 1950s; (2) Ethiopian Jewish communities, including those which made Aliyah and those that entered the diaspora in Europe and North America; (3) North American Jewish experiences since 1945; (4) The experiences of Jewish communities under communist rule, including Jewish life in the Soviet Union, in Warsaw Pact states, and in the former Yugoslavia; and (5) Victims of antisemitic terror attacks, beginning with the 1994 bombing of the AMIA, the worst antisemitic attack since the Holocaust until October 7, 2023. Once completed, the collection will be the largest archive ever assembled of testimonies on contemporary antisemitism. 

AJC, the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people, has long utilized research, policy, and advocacy to address this hatred. The USC Shoah Foundation, the Institute for Visual History and Education, is home to over 61,000 testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust, contemporary antisemitism, the Armenian Genocide, and other mass atrocities and genocidal crimes of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It is the largest such collection in the world. 

Read the April 27, 2025 AJC article.

House Committee on Education and the Workforce Grills Universities "Beyond the Ivy League" About Antisemitism

On May 7th, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce questioned three college presidents in a hearing called “Beyond the Ivy League: Stopping the Spread of Antisemitism on American Campuses.” The hearing focused on schools that received F grades from the Anti-Defamation League. While three college presidents apologized for not acting more aggressively to curb antisemitism on their campuses, the president of Haverford College Wendy Raymond was berated by Republican lawmakers on campus antisemitism for when asked repeatedly, Raymond said her institution does not publicize the outcomes of disciplinary processes. 

Some Committee members suggested the school should lose federal funding because of her refusal to discuss student discipline in the wake of pro-Palestinian protests. Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah) compared the antisemitism to the racism of the 1960s in the Deep South. “What we’re seeing on college campuses today isn’t activism. It’s intimidation, it’s harassment, in many cases, pure, unfiltered hatred of Jewish people.” “This is not a free-speech issue. It’s a public safety issue. It’s a moral issue. And every school that allows this chaos to continue needs to lose all federal funds.”

On May 6th, the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the Association of American Universities (AAU), and the American Council on Education (ACE) released a joint statement, affirming the seriousness of antisemitism on campus and a pledge from these organizations, representing the full breadth of American higher educational institutions, to “continuing consequential reform and transparent action.” Also co-signing the statement were the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), and American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU).

According to AJC’s State of Antisemitism in America 2024 Report, 35% of current American Jewish college students and recent graduates report having personally experienced antisemitism at least once during their time on campus, with 20% reporting that it happened more than once. 22% of Jewish students report feeling or being excluded from a group or an event on campus because they are Jewish. AJC previously published Confronting Campus Antisemitism: An Action Plan for University Administrators, which includes concrete steps to meet both the immediate needs of Jewish campus citizens and foster sustained, real change that will improve the learning and living environment for all students, faculty, and staff - including Jewish community members.

The statement, which included those representing public universities and community colleges, noted that the federal government had recently taken steps in the name of combating antisemitism that endanger research grants, academic freedom and institutional autonomy.“ AJC, the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people, believes that when these actions are overly broad, they imperil science and innovation, and ultimately detract from the necessary fight against antisemitism while threatening the global preeminence of America’s research universities and colleges,” they wrote.

Reaad the May 6, 2025 Washington Post article.

Read the May 7, 2025 New York Times article.

(Image creator: Ethan Pann.)

Bipartisan Antisemitism Awareness Act (S. 558) Considered by Congress

On February 13, 2025, the bipartisan Antisemitism Awareness Act (S. 558) was re-introduced in Congress  by sponsor Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) to require the Department of Education to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism when enforcing federal anti-discrimination laws. On April 30, 2025, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Committee held a mark up session. The legislation is co-sponsored by 41 Representatives, and endorsed by: ADL (Anti-Defamation League), American Jewish Committee (AJC), Conference of Presidents of American Jewish Organizations (COP), Christians United for Israel (CUFI), Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), National Jewish Advocacy Center, Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), Hadassah, The Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (OU), The Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, and B’nai B’rith. 

On May 2, 2025, the Interfaith Alliance announced its opposition to the Antisemitism Awareness Act (AAA). The Alliance stated that the AAA "would needlessly stifle political free speech and empower the administration’s repressive agenda." The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), American Muslims for Palestine, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Center for Constitutional Rights, Defending Rights and Dissent, Jewish Voice for Peace, National Lawyers Guild, Palestine Legal, and US Campaign for Palestinian Rights also oppose the Act.

On February 5, 2025, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) applauded the re-introduction of the Act. The bipartisan bill, reintroduced in Congress by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) and Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) will ensure the Department of Education has a  clear framework for identifying and addressing antisemitic discrimination, particularly on college and university campuses. “As ADL data shows, antisemitism is at crisis levels in the U.S., creating the urgent need for decisive action,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL. “The Antisemitism Awareness Act makes clear that antisemitism, including anti-Zionist harassment, has no place in our schools or society and, importantly, reinforces the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism as a critical tool for the U.S. Department of Education. We urge Congress to act swiftly and send a powerful message that combating antisemitism remains a national priority and deeply appreciate the efforts by Reps. Mike Lawler, Josh Gottheimer, Max Miller, and Jared Moskowitz and Sens. Tim Scott and Jacky Rosen to quickly reintroduce this bipartisan bill.”

The AAA would broaden the definition of antisemitism, essentially by defining anti-Zionism as antisemitic for the purposes of civil rights law. The IHRA definition underscores that antisemitism includes denying Jewish self-determination to their ancestral homeland of Israel, holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the State of Israel, and applying double standards to Israel. The IHRA definition is the most widely recognized definition of antisemitism in the world, having been adopted by more than 40 countries and 35 states across the United States. The bipartisan legislation also provides clear protections for the First Amendment.

Last Congress, the Antisemitism Awareness Act overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 320-91. The Senate subsequently did not consider the legislation. On November 14, 2024, the ACLU urged senators to reject the Act because it would "censor political speech critical of Israel on college campuses under the guise of addressing antisemitism."

“Since the heinous October 7th attacks on Israel, we have seen an explosion of antisemitic violence and intimidation on college campuses and in communities across New Jersey and the nation. Far too many in our community no longer feel safe in their own homes or classrooms,” said Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5). “That’s why I’m reintroducing the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which will give state officials and law enforcement a clear framework for identifying and addressing antisemitism to hold harassers accountable. Our bipartisan bill adopts the most widely recognized definition of antisemitism in the world, already used by more than 40 countries and 35 states. Hate and discrimination have no place in New Jersey or the country, and we must act now to protect our Jewish students and families from threats, intimidation, and violence.”

“With Jewish college students still facing unprecedented levels of discrimination, intimidation, harassment, and violence, the need for the Antisemitism Awareness Act remains as urgent as when it was first introduced. CAM has proudly supported the bill from the start, and we commend Representative Lawler for his dogged commitment to seeing the legislative process to the finish and Speaker Johnson for his strong leadership in the fight against rising antisemitism. We urge the new Congress to prioritize rapid passage of the act, and look forward to seeing its positive impact on campuses across the United States,” said the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM).

“Hadassah is proud to support the Antisemitism Awareness Act and believes that the Department of Education should leverage the widely used and respected International Holocaust Remembrance Association definition of antisemitism when enforcing anti-discrimination laws. Antisemitism has reached alarming heights and is impacting the lives of Jews young and old. In Hadassah’s recent report, From Fear to Resilience: Women Facing Antisemitism, Jewish women shared stories of how antisemitism is making them feel unsafe and prompting them to drop out of school. We applaud Representatives Lawler, Gottheimer, Miller and Moskowitz for their bipartisan leadership in fighting hatred. We urge Congress to pass this critical legislation,” said Carol Ann Schwartz, National President of Hadassah.

‘We commend Congressman Gottheimer for introducing the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which will help states like New Jersey align with more than 35 other states in adopting a clear, uniform definition of antisemitism. Without this standard, institutions and individuals can evade accountability for fostering hostile environments that target Jews based on their beliefs, values, practices, or heritage. This legislation is a crucial step in ensuring a consistent and effective approach to identifying, addressing, and preventing antisemitism,” said Jason M. Shames, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey.

Read the Congress.gov summary of the Act.

Read the May 2, 2025 Interfaith Alliance article.

Read the November 14, 2024 ACLU letter opposing the Act.

U.S. Justice Department Accuses Wikipedia of Antisemitic Bias, Threatens Nonprofit Legal Status

 

The U.S. Justice Department accused the Wikimedia Foundation of being influenced by “foreign actors” seeking “to manipulate information and spread propaganda to the American public.” The Wikimedia Foundation, based in St. Petersburg, Florida, is a nonprofit organization that supports the widely used online encyclopedia Wikipedia and other Wiki-affiliated projects. The Trump administration has warned that the organization’s nonprofit status could be at risk due to its alleged conduct.

Last week, Ed Martin, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, accused Wikimedia in an official letter of “subverting the interests of American taxpayers.” Martin warned that this “masked propaganda” is incompatible with Wikimedia’s official education mission profile. The senior attorney assessed that the organization’s current board is “composed primarily of foreign nationals,” which he believes threatens the interests of American taxpayers. Martin further argued that Wikimedia is involved in “a series of activities” that potentially violate U.S. nonprofit legislation. Conservative pundits have accused Wikimedia of embracing liberal and left-wing bias. In a June 2024 report, the conservative-leaning Manhattan Institute reported it had identified “suggestive evidence” of “slight to moderate” left-leaning bias in Wikimedia’s content. 

Wikimedia responded by claiming that its Wikipedia platform’s over 65 million articles are designed “to inform, not persuade.” “Our vision is a world where every person can freely share in the sum of all knowledge,” Wikimedia claimed in its official statement. 

However, critics dispute Wikimedia’s official claim of neutrality. In March, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish-American watchdog that combats antisemitism, accused 30 Wikipedia editors of cooperating to promote anti-Israel online content. The ADL report argued that anti-Israel Wikipedia editors “coordinate to change pages related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, downplaying Palestinian antisemitism, violence, and calls to destroy Israel while promoting criticism of Israel.”

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said that Wikipedia’s biased content undermines the online platform’s credibility. “Most readers assume Wikipedia is a reliable online encyclopedia, but in reality, it has become a biased platform manipulated by agenda-driven editors on many topics,” Greenblatt stated. 

Wikipedia’s Arabic language content, in particular, has escalated its propaganda against the Jewish state since the Hamas October 7th massacre in 2023. The Arabic language Wikipedia has falsely accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza as the Jewish state defends itself against Hamas terrorists who do not believe in Israel's right to exist. Arabic Wikipedia has denied the many well-documented cases of Hamas terrorists raping Israeli women, claiming that it is an “Israeli propaganda lie.” “Each phrase… ‘genocide in Gaza,’ ‘killing civilians,’ ‘targeting hospitals and schools,’ and ‘mislead and double standards,’ leads to its own Arabic-language article," the American magazine National Review pointed out in March 2024. 

“There is not even a pretense of objectivity there. It is pure incitement against Israel aimed at the Arabic-speaking audience,” the Jewish blogger Elder of Ziyon stated regarding Arab Wikipedia’s banner. 

Read the April 29, 2025 All Israel News article.

Read the April 25,2025 Washington Post article.

Read the March 18, 2025 ADL article.

(Image by freepik.com.)

Marian Turski, Holocaust Survivor Who Warned Against Silence, 98

 

Marian Turski was a Polish Jew who survived Auschwitz and two death marches as a teenager and later became a resolute memory-keeper, civil rights advocate. and journalist, gathering testimony from other Holocaust survivors while warning younger generations against silence and indifference. For decades, Turski was among Poland’s most prominent living Holocaust survivors, recounting his story - and those of other Polish Jews he interviewed - while speaking out against hate and reminding the world of the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. He battled against historical amnesia. 

Turski studied history at the University of Wroclaw and later traveled to the U.S. on a scholarship, joining the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights activists in Alabama for the 1965 marches from Selma to Montgomery.

Just before his death, he returned to Auschwitz to address world leaders and European royals and warned in his speech against “a huge rise in antisemitism.” He said he felt a duty to confront neo-Nazis, including some he said he encountered at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in the 1960s, and to combat historical lies and revisionism, notably through an open letter he wrote to Mark Zuckerberg in 2020, urging the Facebook chief executive to ban Holocaust denial from his social media platform.

Turski and his parents were incarcerated in the Lodz Ghetto, an open-air prison and forced-labor site that eventually had 210,000 people, before being sent to the camps in 1944. Separated from his family, Turski was selected for forced labor at Auschwitz, the concentration and death camp complex in the south of German-occupied Poland. In January 1945, in what would be the waning months of the war in Europe, he and other prisoners were forcibly evacuated ahead of approaching Soviet forces, ordered on a death march toward the German interior.

Turski went on a second death march, this time to Theresienstadt, also known as Terezín, in German-occupied Czechoslovakia. When liberated by the Allies, he had contracted typhus and was near death, weighing 70 pounds. Unlike other survivors who immigrated to the U.S. or the British Mandate of Palestine, soon to become Israel, Turski stayed in Poland, where an estimated 90% of the country’s Jewish population had perished in the Holocaust. Among the dead were several dozen of his relatives, including his brother and father, who had both been killed in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. “I wanted to build a new society, to rebuild the country,” Turski recalled.

He became a member of the Polish Workers’ Party and served as an organizer, recruiting young people to the communist cause. While working as an editor at Polityka, a popular center-left newsmagazine, he grew disillusioned by the communist regime, accelerated when government officials waged an antisemitic campaign in 1968 and when Polish forces participated in a Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia later.

Turski published testimony from Holocaust survivors and worked with groups including the Jewish Historical Institute in Poland. To fill a “vacuum” of Jewish life in the country, he helped spearhead the creation of the POLIN Museum, showcasing 1,000 years of Jewish history in Poland. 

Into his 90s, Turski served as a member of the International Auschwitz Council, which advises the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, and as president of the International Auschwitz Committee, a survivor-led advocacy and education group that promotes awareness of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where 1.1 million people were murdered, including nearly 1 million Jews.

“Marian dedicated his life to ensuring that the world never forgets the horrors of the past,” Ronald Lauder, the cosmetics heir and president of the World Jewish Congress, said in a tribute. Turski, he added, “was a man who led by example, choosing good over evil, dialogue over conflict, and understanding over hostility.”

At a ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation, he urged the gathered dignitaries to remember that “Auschwitz did not fall from the sky” but “began with small forms of persecution.” He went on to cite what he called “the 11th Commandment”: “Don’t be indifferent.” “Do not be indifferent when you hear lies, historical lies,” he said. “Do not be indifferent when you see the past is stretched to fit the current political needs. Do not be indifferent when any minority is discriminated against.”

Read the February 20, 2025 Washington Post article.

(Photograph courtesy of the POLIN Museum.)

102-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor is Vogue Germany’s Cover Star

A 102-year-old Holocaust survivor whose family was murdered at Auschwitz is the cover star for the July/August edition of Vogue Germany. Margot Friedländer, née Bendheim, was born in Berlin in 1921. According to a brief bio on the website of Berlin’s Jewish Museum, Friedländer spent the early part of the war with her mother and younger brother Ralph after her parents separated. They had plans to flee the country but in 1943 her brother was arrested by the Gestapo. Their mother confronted the Gestapo, which led to her being deported to Auschwitz with her son, where they were both murdered. But before leaving, she left behind a message for her daughter that read: “Try to make your life.” Friedländer, then just 21 years old, went into hiding but was ultimately betrayed by “catchers” and was sent to Theresienstadt camp in the then-Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia in 1944, according to the museum.

Kerstin Weng, head of editorial content at the magazine, said that the theme of the issue was love, featuring their “favorite pieces, favorite people.” The front of the collector’s issue includes the word “love” written by Friedländer, as well as her signature. The multi-page piece, which includes numerous shots of Friedländer, covers a range of topics, from growing up in Nazi Germany to her commitment as a Holocaust survivor today. The collector's issue of Vogue Germany is available on newsstands from June 22.

Friedländer met her future husband, Adolf, while in the Nazi concentration camp, and married him soon after liberation. The pair emigrated to the US in 1946 and lived in New York for more than six decades. But in 2010, following her husband’s death aged 88, Friedländer moved back to Berlin. Ever since, she has been campaigning as a Holocaust educator. Her tireless efforts have earnt her numerous awards, including the Federal Cross of Merit First Class.

Friedländer told Vogue Germany that she was “appalled” by the growth of right-wing populism and the rise of antisemitic attacks. When addressing the issue of society becoming more polarized, she said: “Look not toward what separates us. Look towards what bring us together. Be People. Be sensible.” Grateful for the opportunity to pass on her message, she said: “You will carry my story onward. That this never comes to happen again.”

Read the June 20, 2024 CNN.com article.

Upcoming ICJS Events on Religious Bias and Hate

"Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.” 

- Coretta Scott King.

Major religious holidays converge this spring as Muslims observe Ramadan, Christians mark Lent and Easter, and Jews observe Passover. This convergence doesn’t happen every year, as these holidays follow different calendars. But it offers us a golden opportunity for interreligious learning about religious traditions and rituals, an opportunity the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies (ICJS) takes with its original video, Lived Diversity: How We Observe and Celebrate Passover, Easter, and Ramadan.

But these observances also remind us that throughout history into the present day, some of our brothers and sisters have been the targets of hate because of their religious identities. In this environment of political polarization, exacerbated by violence in the Middle East, incidents of both antisemitism and Islamophobia are on the rise. Dismantling religious bias and bigotry lies at the heart of ICJS’ mission. 

This month, ICJS offer several events and resources that address religious bias and hate, including:

• A February 24, 2025 Event (noon-1 p.m. online) about multifaith coalitions opposing Islamophobia: Shoulder to Shoulder: Building Coalitions to Challenge Islamophobia. Join Nina M. Fernando, Executive Director of Shoulder to Shoulder, as she speaks with ICJS Muslim Scholar Zeyneb Sayilgan  about her organization's efforts to challenge Islamophobia and its shared commitment with ICJS to foster greater interreligious understanding. Register Now.

• A Presentation by Matthew D. Taylor about addressing anti-Judaism in Christian ritual and tradition entitled Journeying Through Lent with an Interreligious Lens: A Workshop. Taylor examines the passion narrative in the Gospel of Mark, reading it in its proper Jewish context that has too often been stripped away. “The consequence of that [reading] is ‘the Jews’ have become this abstracted, monolithic community that is treated as guilty, or at least complicit, in killing the Jewish Messiah. Watch video.

• A February 26, 2025 Panel (7 p.m. online), that includes Heather Miller Rubens and Celene Ibrahim, marking the 60th anniversary of the Vatican document, Nostra Aetate, that advanced interfaith relations: Nostra Aetate at 60: Imagining Muslim-Christian Relations for the Next 60 Years. Nostra Aetate is often cited as a landmark document in Catholic-Jewish relations, but it also commented on other non-Christian religions, including Islam. Nostra Aetate expressed respect for Muslims, called for dialogue and cooperation between Christians and Muslims, and  condemned discrimination and hatred based on religion. 

Please join us as we redouble our commitment to counter religious bias and bigotry. And whatever holiday you are celebrating or observing this season, may it be meaningful and joyous.

Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies

956 Dulaney Valley Road, Towson, MD 21204

410.494.7161 / info@icjs.org

Yehuda Bauer, Preeminent Historian of the Holocaust and Antisemitism, 98

 

Bauer, who fled Nazi Europe shortly before World War II and became one of the foremost historians of the Holocaust, combined academic rigor with humanity as he confronted an unfathomable event and sought to discern its meaning for the future. As a young Israeli historian, he did not set out to become an authority on the Holocaust, or the Shoah, another term used to describe the murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators. Over the next half-century, Dr. Bauer wrote dozens of books that helped form the foundation of modern understanding of the Holocaust and antisemitism. He had lost his extended family in the slaughter, and his work served, in part, to document what had befallen them and so many other victims of Nazi persecution. But he did not regard it as his role simply to “memorialize” the dead, he wrote in his book Rethinking the Holocaust (2001). Instead, he wrote, “I ask questions about what happened and why.” That line of inquiry led him to move beyond existing Holocaust scholarship, which relied in large part on the Nazi bureaucracy’s paper trail and centered on the perpetrators. No true understanding of the Holocaust would ever be reached, Bauer maintained, without studying the victims.

In books including They Chose Life: Jewish Resistance in the Holocaust (1973), Bauer challenged a pernicious notion circulating at the time that Jews went “like sheep to the slaughter.” Citing diaries, correspondence, and oral histories, he showed that the Warsaw ghetto uprising of 1943 - when hundreds of Jewish fighters mounted the best known revolt against the Nazis - was far from the only act of insurrection by Jews in ghettos or elsewhere. He also highlighted on the everyday efforts by Jews to retain the dignity that the Nazis tried to strip away.

Bauer wrote extensively about the American response to the Holocaust, including in the book American Jewry and the Holocaust: The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, 1939-1945 (1981), and was among scholars who argued that President Franklin D. Roosevelt was unfairly condemned for what critics regarded as his insufficient efforts to stop the Holocaust as it was in progress. Later, Bauer had the painful experience of observing the emergence of pseudo-historians who sought to deny that the Holocaust had occurred or to suggest that the killing had been more limited than was generally understood.

Bauer taught for years at Hebrew University; served as an academic adviser to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust remembrance center in Jerusalem; and helped found the journal Holocaust and Genocide Studies. He explored topics including the founding of the state of Israel and the nature of modern antisemitism. His final books included The Jews: A Contrary People (2014). Bauer’s honors included the Israel Prize, one of the country’s highest honors, bestowed on him in 1998. He spoke critically of Israeli leaders, particularly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he accused of using the Holocaust for nationalistic purposes and as a “tool for politics.”

Read the October 22, 2024 Washington Post article.

Read the entry on Bauer in the Jewish Virtual Library.

Lily Ebert, Who Kept Holocaust Memory Alive on TikTok, 100

Ebert, a Hungarian-born Auschwitz survivor who devoted herself to keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive, including on TikTok, where she drew millions of viewers with her testimonials. She also wrote a best-selling memoir, Lily’s Promise.

The title of Ebert’s book referenced a pledge that she made to herself on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, as a 20-year-old prisoner at Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp in occupied Poland, in 1944. Her mother and her two youngest siblings had been sent directly to the gas chamber. Beneath the heavy smoke from the crematorium, Ebert vowed that she would “tell the world what had happened” not only to her “but to all the people who could not tell their stories.”

Ebert spoke to students, to historians, to politicians, and to journalists. In February 2021, her TikTok account started and it made her an unexpected social media celebrity. In one video, she showed the tattoo branded on her arm upon her arrival at Auschwitz, number A-10572. The TikTok account attracted 2 million followers. In 2023, Ebert was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire by King Charles III in recognition of her efforts to educate the public about the Holocaust. 

In Auschwitz, she wrote, “a pall hung over everything, blocking out the sun. The foul smell that had choked us on our arrival, the most sickening and overwhelming smell I had ever experienced, was getting stronger and stronger. Not far away was a tall chimney, smoking furiously, with flames emerging red and bright.” “What kind of factory is that?” she asked another prisoner. “What are they making here? What’s this horrible smell?” “They’re burning your families there,” the woman replied. “Your parents, your sisters, your brothers. They’re burning them.”

After Ebert’s death, King Charles offered his condolences, as did British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. In a statement recalling Ebert’s vow to speak of what she had witnessed, Starmer said that she had kept her promise “in the most remarkable way,” and that now “we must keep our promise to her” by carrying forward the memory of the Holocaust.

Image Credit: Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.

Read the October 11, 2024 Washington Post article.

FBI 2023 Crime in the Nation Statistics Find Hate Crime Incidents Reached a Record High of 11,862 - 15% were Anti-Jewish

 

The FBI just released detailed data on over 14 million criminal offenses for 2023 reported to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program by participating law enforcement agencies. Over 16,000 state, county, city, university and college, and tribal agencies, covering a combined population of 94.3% inhabitants, submitted data to the UCR Program through the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and the Summary Reporting System.

The data reveals that reported hate crime incidents were a new high of 11,862 in 2023. Although Jews only make up around 2% of the U.S. population, reported single-bias anti-Jewish hate crimes were 15% of all hate crimes reported and 68% of all reported religion-based hate crimes. Hate crimes were defined as offenses being motivated by bias toward race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity.  

The FBI’s crime statistics estimates, based on reported data for 2023, show that national violent crime decreased an estimated 3.0% in 2023 compared to 2022:  

• Murder and non-negligent manslaughter recorded a 2023 estimated nationwide decrease of 11.6% compared to 2022.  
• In 2023, the estimated number of offenses in the revised rape category saw an estimated 9.4% decrease.  
• Aggravated assault decreased an estimated 2.8% in 2023. 
• Robbery decreased 0.3% nationally.  

To publish a national trend, the FBI’s UCR Program used a dataset of reported hate crime incidents and zero reports submitted by agencies reporting six or more common months or two or more common quarters (six months) of hate crime data to the FBI UCR Program for 2022 and 2023. According to this dataset, reported hate crime incidents decreased 0.6% from 10,687 in 2022 to 10,627 in 2023.  

The complete analysis is located on the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer.

Read the September 23, 2024 FBI article.

US Antisemitic Incidents Surge to Record High

Reports of antisemitic incidents in the US have reached a record high since last year's Hamas attack in Israel, according to a preliminary report from the Anti-Defamation League Center for Extremism (ADL). The group found over10,000 incidents from 7 October 2023 to 24 September of this year, more than a 200% increase compared to the same period last year. It is the highest ever since the ADL began tracking such incidents in 1979.

The report is days after the FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a joint statement warning of possible violent threats amid the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East. Since last October’s Hamas attack on Israel which saw around 1,200 people killed "Jewish Americans haven’t had a single moment of respite,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “Instead, we’ve faced a shocking number of antisemitic threats and experienced calls for more violence against Israelis and Jews everywhere.”

The antisemitism episodes reported by the ADL included about 8,015 incidents of verbal or written harassment, 1,840 incidents of vandalism, and 150 incidents of physical assault. The states with the highest number of recorded cases were California, with 1,266 incidents, New York 1,218, New Jersey  830, and Florida 463. The ADL expects its preliminary numbers to increase as it receives more data. The final report for 2024 will be published in the spring of 2025.

Part of the overall increase comes from a change in methodology to include "expressions of opposition to Zionism, as well as support for resistance against Israel or Zionists that could be perceived as supporting terrorism", the ADL said. The ADL's preliminary report counted over 3,000 of incidents during anti-Israel rallies "which featured regular explicit expressions of support for terrorist groups", including Hamas and Hezbollah. Excluding these incidents, the ADL counted 7,523 episodes of antisemitism, a 103% increase from 2022.

The continued violence in the Middle East region has led to a surge in anti-Muslim and Islamophobic incidents across the US. Anti-Muslim incidents were 8,061 in 2023, according to a report from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released this April. This was the highest level since CAIR began tallying almost 30 years ago, with nearly half coming after the 7 October attack.

Read the October 6, 2024 BBC News article.

Montgomery County Board of Education Strongly Criticized by Congressmen for Allowing Antisemitism

 

The president of the Montgomery County Board of Education (MCBE) was strongly criticized by members of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education during a hearing focused on antisemitism in K-12 schools alleged within county schools, and as the U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation into the district earlier this year.

In defending the district, the MCBE President said they do not “shy away from imposing consequences for hate-based behavior, including antisemitism.” She said the district’s policy is to “initiate an investigation each time the school system receives a complaint or we witness particular antisemitic, hate-filled or racist language or actions.” She said county school officials have not fired anybody but have “taken disciplinary action” against some teachers. She also cited efforts the school system is taking to combat antisemitism in its schools, such as imposing mandatory hate-based training for all staff starting this summer and enhancing the curriculum in K-12 schools to expand on topics surrounding the Jewish experience.

The hearing also featured testimony from two other school district leaders, including David Banks, chancellor for New York City Public Schools, and Enikia Ford Morthel, superintendent of Berkeley Unified School District in California.

U.S. Rep. Aaron Bean (R-Florida), subcommittee chair, said what has occurred since the attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7th “has revealed some of the ugliest, most depraved ideas once marginalized from polite society, and our education system has failed to stop it.” He said all three leaders “represent public school districts that have allowed vile antisemitism to spread unchecked.” The school officials all rejected allegations that they tolerate antisemitism within their districts.

In addition, Montgomery County Public Schools is at the center of a federal Title VI investigation started in February, 2024, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The investigation was based on an opinion piece posted on a hyperlocal news site. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin in programs or activities that receive federal funding.

Last month, the Zionist Organization of America filed a civil rights complaint against the district over allegations of “severe, persistent and pervasive antisemitism in the schools that district officials have failed to address.” The complaint alleges intimidation and harassment.

Read the May 8, 2024 Maryland Matters article. 

ADL Alleges Philadelphia School District has not Protected Jewish Students from Antisemitism

 

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has filed a formal complaint to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights alleging that the Philadelphia school district has failed to protect Jewish students from “a virulent wave of antisemitism” that swept through classrooms after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th.

The district, among the largest public school systems in the U.S., has ignored persistent harassment and bullying of Jewish students, some of whom have been forced to drop out, lawyers wrote in the complaint. Some teachers and administrators have spread inflammatory anti-Jewish and anti-Israel messages on social media and even in the classroom without repercussion, the complaint said.

The ADL asked the Office of Civil Rights to order the district: (1) to issue a statement denouncing antisemitism, and (2) to take disciplinary action against teachers and students who engage in discrimination and harassment. The ADL also argued that it was necessary to provide training for faculty, staff, and students and the removal of antisemitic posters, flags, and other material on school property.

A school district spokesperson declined to comment on an active investigation, but said in a statement Tuesday night that the district “seeks to create safe learning spaces while navigating diverse perspectives and how students and staff are experiencing complex current events.” 

A recent congressional hearing on antisemitism in K-12 education, with the leaders of New York City Public Schools, the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, and the Berkeley Unified School District in California all denying they had failed to address hostility toward Jewish people.

 

Read the July 23, 2024 AP news article. 

Ben Stern, Holocaust survivor who challenged neo-Nazis, 102

Stern, who survived the Warsaw Ghetto, nine Nazi concentration camps, and two death marches, helped rally opposition to a planned neo-Nazi demonstration in Skokie, Illinois, in the 1970s. He also spoke to hundreds of audiences about Antisemitism and prejudice. Stern, a Polish-born Jew, lost his parents, his sister, and six of his seven brothers in the Holocaust. He evaded the gas chambers at Auschwitz, Treblinka, and other Nazi camps and was marched for weeks before his liberation in 1945.

In the US, Stern established a chain of laundromats across Chicago and settled with his family in the suburb of Skokie, home to a large Jewish community and an estimated 6,000 Holocaust survivors.

In 1977, the National Socialist Party of America, a small group of neo-Nazis led by Frank Collin, announced plans for a rally in Skokie. In a legal battle that ultimately landed in the U.S. Supreme Court, Stern joined other activists to try to stop them.

The neo-Nazis were represented in court by the American Civil Liberties Union, whose principal lawyer faced death threats for arguing that even speech as abhorrent as that of neo-Nazis must be defended if the First Amendment protection of free speech is to last. The neo-Nazis won their legal proceedings because their speech was rules to be protected under the First Amendment. But they canceled their rally in Skokie, partially because they were faced with a massive counter-demonstration organized by Jewish groups and activists including Stern, who had written letters to the editor, appeared on television, gathered petitions, and rallied people to the cause.

Stern later spoke to hundreds of audiences about his experience in the Holocaust. He also protested anti-Muslim bigotry in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the Trump administration policy of separating immigrant children from their parents at the U.S. border.

Stern once talked with Ira Glasser, who, after becoming executive director of the ACLU in 1978, had strongly defended its representation of the neo-Nazis in their petition to gather in Skokie. Scheduled to speak together on a panel in California, Stern and Glasser met at the airport and Stern extended to him a hand and said, “We’re not going to agree, but we’re going to be friends.” “There was no meeting of the minds,” Glasser later commented. “His agony was too imprinted on his soul by what happened to him. And I remember thinking that if I were in his [place], I would probably be taking the same position.” Stern’s defiance, Glasser said, had been “heroic.”

Stern and his daughter wrote his 2022 memoir, Near Normal Man: Survival with Courage, Kindness and Hope (Redwood Publishing). She also produced a documentary based on the book, which is available on YouTube. 

*****

Read the March 12, 2024 Washington Post article.

Read the February 5, 2023 Berkeleyside article.

Hate Crimes Against Jewish and Muslim Americans Continue to Surge

Reports of hate crimes and bias incidents targeting Jews, Muslims and Arabs continue to surge across the U. S. New data from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) indicate a marked rise in reported incidents of both antisemitism and anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias.

The ADL said it recorded 2,031 antisemitic incidents in the two months after the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel, including reports of physical assault, vandalism, and “anti-Israel rallies that included classically antisemitic, anti-Zionist and/or terror-supportive rhetoric.” The organization said it received reports of 465 antisemitic incidents during the same two-month period in 2022. The new data constitutes an over 330% increase in reported incidents of antisemitism from the 2022 time period. “This is historic but can be directly linked back to the Israel-Hamas war as a majority of the incidents referenced the conflict in one form or another,” said Jake Hyman, a spokesperson for the ADL.

CAIR said it has tracked a similarly serious rise in requests for help and reports of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias. After recording an “unprecedented” spike in bias incidents during the first month of the war, the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy group said 2,171 requests for help and reports of bias have been made to its  U. S. national headquarters and chapters since October 7. Those reports include incidents of hate crimes and hate speech, as well as workplace discrimination and incidents described as “violations of an individual’s right to free speech and expression." 

Attorney General Merrick Garland instructed law enforcement officials across the country to “remain vigilant in the face of risks of terrorism and hate-fueled violence” at the recent National Violent Crime Reduction Summit in Indianapolis. Garland discussed how the U. S. Department of Justice is “closely monitoring” the impact of the Israel-Hamas war, and how the conflict in the Middle East is inspiring extremists both at home and abroad. He also noted the spike in hate-fueled violence “comes at a time when law enforcement agencies and communities across the country have already been facing significant challenges regarding violent crime.”

The increase in reported hate and bias motivated incidents has produced a climate of fear for many Jewish, Muslim, and Arab people living in America. Jews across the country told CNN they are changing the way they celebrate Hanukkah this year. Some have broken with yearslong traditions and removed the menorah from their windows. Others have grown more defiant and have chosen to boldly declare their Jewish identity despite the rise in antisemitism.

*****

Read the December 11, 2023 CNN article.

Signs Again Vandalized at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation

 

The noxious hate crime of antisemitism has surfaced yet again in Baltimore. Two signs at the front of the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation on Park Heights Avenue in Pikesville were destroyed by being slashed multiple times on December 24th. The signs were replacements for the original ones that were vandalized on December 10th. The Baltimore Hebrew Congregation has displayed the two signs – "We Stand with the People of Israel" and "Bring the Hostages Home" at the corner of Park Heights and Slade avenues for just over two months.

"I am simultaneously deeply disturbed and not surprised at all," Rabbi Andrew Busch said. "Deeply disturbed that someone would impinge on our right to speak our mind. Deeply disturbed that anyone would object to a statement of bringing hostages home. Deeply disturbed that the property of a synagogue would be vandalized." 

Congregation leaders said another nearby religious institution reported an Israeli flag was slashed Thursday. "Suburban Orthodox congregation right behind us had an Israeli flag that was also slashed with a knife or some kind of sharp object," Busch said. He also commented that they are not letting hate stop them from expressing their beliefs. 

The congregation plans to launch a campaign to encourage people to report antisemitism. "We have new signs. They're going to be going up in schools and synagogues and across the community, telling (people) to go to our websites to report when acts occur to stand against hate," Busch said.

A camera was installed at the site after the first vandalism case, and Congregation leaders hope it captured the person or people who are responsible.

BHC filed a police report about the incident. Busch noted that the police responded quickly, as they did when the signs were vandalized the first time. According to Howard Libit, executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council, Baltimore County Police have said that they are going to increase patrols around the area and review camera footage, especially from neighbors in the community who may have captured something about this crime. “It is gratifying to know how seriously Baltimore County Police are taking this,” Libit said.

BHC plans on replacing the signs again.

If you know anything about what happened, call Baltimore County Police at 410-307-2020.

*****

Read the December 29, 2023 WBALTV story.

Above photo of sign taken from cited WBALTV article.

Read the December 29, 2023 Baltimore Jewish Times article.

Baltimore City police said they are investigating.

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