When I was growing up, it was always “antisemitism” and not “anti-semitism” and so it should be today. Ted Belman
By Tova Dvorin, INN
Minister of Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) is presenting to the government Sunday new statistics on anti-Semitism in Europe – and the results are revealing.The poll, which is due to be released the day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day Monday, notes that the rise in anti-Semitic activity had led many European Jews to avoid expressing their Judaism – and to refuse to report violent incident to authorities.
An online survey conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights revealed that in 2013, 23% of respondents refrained from attending Jewish events or religious services for fear of being attacked on their way there; 38% are afraid to wear religious symbols, like the yarmulke or kippah, in public; and 66% view anti-Semitism as having a major and constant impact on their lives.
Worse, European Jews believe that their governments view anti-Semitism as an inevitable part of life, without a means of escape or treatment, according to the poll. 77% of European Jews are unwilling to report any incident of anti-Semitic bullying or violence to authorities – whether governmental organizations or non-governmental religious groups.
33% are afraid they will become a victim of anti-Semitic violence; 29% are considering emigration because of it.
Anti-Semitism online was also a core issue; 75% of European Jews said they had been exposed to anti-Semitism online, in several different forms – through blog posts, social media, YouTube videos, and more.
The worst countries for anti-Semitism, according to the report, are Hungary, Belgium, Sweden, and France. Anti-Semitism was less virulent – on a relative scale – in the UK, Italy, Germany, and Latvia.
The news surfaces just one day after two high-profile anti-Semitic incidents made headlines worldwide. On Saturday, an employee of the Majdanek concentration camp museum in Poland was charged for hate crimes, after he distributed anti-Semitic and anti-Israel posters in Lublin; later that day, pigs’ heads were sent to the Israeli embassy and a synagogue in Rome – with derogatory messages about the Holocaust and references to Zionist figure Theodor Herzl inside.
Bennett: Assimilation the Primary Concern
In an interview on IDF Radio Sunday, Bennett noted that the trends are worrying not because of the physical threat to European Jews – but rather, because ofthe spiritual and cultural threat anti-Semitic attitudes present.
“Anti-Semitism continues to shut down and silence the Jews,” Bennett stated. “There is an increase in paralysis and fear, but not in the number of incidents reported [. . .] the most alarming result is the increase in assimilation.”
“In the end, European governments have expressed alarm over the trend – but what we really need to see is more efficient action [against the phenomenon],” Bennett stressed. “We as the State of Israel should endeavor to strengthen Jewish identity [abroad] in order to prevent more assimilation.”
Walla! notes Sunday that according to Bennett, anti-Semitism has nothing to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict, but is a phenomenon unto itself.
“Giving ‘reasons’ for anti-Semitism only legitimizes it,” the MK was quoted by the daily as saying. “Anti-Semitism does not have reason or justification.”
@ the phoenix:
How do you make the little smiley face?
@ honeybee:
We must be kindred spirits hb…
I just got a hell of a contusion to my ring finger from the snow blower (don’t ask)
Hope you’ll get better and do not reach for the percocets/ perccodans
🙂
Crowd Chants ‘Jew, France Is Not for You!’ (VIDEO)
http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/01/27/hate-filled-protest-in-france-attracts-thousands-crowd-chants-jew-france-is-not-for-you-video/
the phoenix Said:
Bisous,sorry if I’am cranky,fell down the stari Sat.,and I hurt!!!!!!!!!!!
@ honeybee:
Well hb, I apologize, maybe it’s my accent, that renders some of my comments to be misunderstood… 😉
I would be the LAST person to ‘go along to get along’….
And with that being said, all that is left, i guess, Is for me to truly wish you the best.
The Jews of Europe prefer what they have than trying somewhere else. Do they give a chance to their children? And it is going to get worst.
the phoenix Said:
You mean go along, to get along,sadly that ain’t me Cowboy!!!!!!!
@ honeybee:
Look up ‘internal strife’ hb.
the phoenix Said:
Which ,sadly ,is?????????? If you ,sadly, have one???????????/
@ honeybee:
Sadly, you have just proved my point……..
@ ArnoldHarris:
I visited Augusta,Gr. one spring and drove about looking for places of historic significance to visit. I happen upon the Old Augusta Cementary [1800-1900] in the middle of the old section of town. I was taught by my Father that cemtaries are the best recorders of history. One part of the cementary was walled off[a small wall of three crumbling red bricks] and there I found he Jewish section. In it were several Jewish Confederate Offices,all had died long after the War. There was also the grave of a young [35] Jewish woman, whom I assumed died of TB.
An elergy was on the gravestone and had been written by a man who diescribe himself as “non-Jewish”. It was so beautiful,she was a wife a mother. a lady and a woman of charity. And from the way it was written and “reading between the lines” you could tell the author was much in love with her and suffered her loss deeply. Very touching.
I also visited the local history museam and say the photos of the dead Confereate Officers.
@ dove:
@ the phoenix:
Give me a break!!!!!!!!
@ honeybee:
Hb dear,
PLEASE understand. I am not picking a fight, nor trying to be a wise guy.
But by these criteria, this blog could/should only have comments posted by Ted, yamit and shy guy….
As I said above, it is the voice that says “I CARE” that talks… And that is not the voice of the ‘armchair general’
@ honeybee:
It is not Hashems desire that I pack my bags and move to Israel today. However, there is no doubt that the way is being paved for me. I know you may not understand that but I do and that is what matters!
Actually I would probably be safer in Israel than here in Canada. Hashem will sustain me here in Canada until I can arrive safely in Israel.
dove Said:
” The road to hell is paved with good intentions”
@ honeybee:
I understand where your coming from HB. There are Jews who live in Canada that are very distanced from our homeland and there are Jews (like myself) who have an ‘Israeli heart’ and are destined for the homeland. Similar thought to African Americans as opposed to Americans who are black.
the phoenix Said:
You think I don’t believe that!!!! But you and I are not the ones under attack, or the ones who fight ,or the ones who could die! So we should , as my Aunt Annie would say, butt out and not be unless nattering Yentas!
1
dove Said:
What are the consequences that your a prepared to pay??????? You don’t live in Israel! You’re not in the IDF! Your nice and safe in North Pole! “He laughts at wounds who never felt a blow”.
@ honeybee:
How so? I was agreeing with Yamit that we need to have a war and WIN it! It is customary for Jews to discuss and debate how and when to win the war!
@ the phoenix:
Thanks the phoenix. You description was quite eloquent!
@ the phoenix:
I agree with you above statement. I back Israel in whatever decision The Israelis agree upon. However Dove was making a “dig” at Yamit82, and I won’t allow that to happen. I forgive you for being a Canadian!!! Maple Leaf Forever.
@ honeybee:
Dear hb,
I do believe that this is a very delicate issue, where, members of the very same team, could mistakenly be at each other’s throats.
Without any shadow of a doubt, I believe that none of us, that do not live in Israel (for the time being) should have our opinions interpreted as being those of armchair generals.
We ALL care about Israel. Love the country. THE LAND, and its people, with all their quirks and mishigas…. But they are OUR people.
I do share in dove’s sentiment, and if I may refine it, for better clarity,
When Israel strikes, and she will strike, the strike should be SO HARD that there would be zero chance for the musloids that were just hit, to live to see another day, and that there should be an unmistakeable message of ‘do not mess with us’.
As Caroline Glick put it in the title to her book, Israel is a “shackled warrior”…
All this restrain…for what purpose?
For winning hearts and minds?
In fact, striking hard from distance, would even DIMINISH the casualties that you have alluded to. (Read some back posts of yamit , napalm is cheap! …. 😉 )
dove Said:
You’re not going to war, the Israelis are the ones to decide. You live safly in Canada,or are you going volunteer.!!!!!!! What do Canadians know about war and seeing body bags come home. To paraphase Ydovocate “STUPID CANADIANS”!!!!!!!!!!!
@ yamit82:
Like duh? When THEY strike is when we should hit back HARD. Technically they already have with the recent rockets being fired from Gaza. The ball IS in Israel’s court but I agree with Bear Kline that we want to be able to minimize as many Israeli casualties as possible. We need Hashem at the helm. This is far too big an undertaking without being girded with the strength, power and might of Hashem!
@ ArnoldHarris:
I have a response for you,must wait for morning, cleaning up after dinner!!!!!!!
@ honeybee:
This is something I’ve been waiting more than 20 years to relate to some Southerner or another.
My wife and I, along with our then four young children, were touring around Biloxi, Mississippi. We stopped to visit the last home of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America, and his wife Varina. After his imprisonment by the Federal government following the surrenders of the various generals of the Confederate armies in spring and summer 1865, some wealthy family donated their large villa, located near just inland of the Gulf of Mexico, to the Davis family.
Out in back of the mansion was a small graveyard containing the body of the Unknown Soldier of the Confederacy. I pondered the gravesite briefly, gave it some serious thought, then snapped to attention and saluted him and the memory of what he had represented and fought for.
I suppose, being an Illinois Yankee from birth, I would have served in the US Army against him, had I lived in his time and had been of military age. But when all the shooting ended, the whole country got reassembled, and we were all Americans again. So I saluted him for his service to his southern state, and mourned the fact that nobody even knew his name to put on a memorial someplace.
By the way: There were many thousands of Jews who loyally served the Confederate States in that war. Charleston, South Carolina, where it all started, had the largest Jewish community in the USA before that war, along with many other in Southern cities such as New Orleans, St Louis, and other places. And Judah P Benjamin, who served as Secretary of War and later as Secretary of State in the cabinet of President David, was a slaveholder who had served in the US Senate from Louisiana. After hiding out in South-Central Florida, he escaped Federal captivity by sailing in a small boat to Bimini, from there to Havana, and then to Great Britain. There, he studied for and won a significant position as a jurist on the Queen’s Bench, and made a new name for himself in a lifelong career that few men ever have been able to equal in terms of significance.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
@ yamit82:
Wrote something semi-wicked,got modified! So I join you and Shy Guy in shame!
@ yamit82:
Swedes & Danes & circumcisium, what would Frued say,penis envy!!!!!!!!!!!
Swedes and Danes Want to Permit Circumcision – for Bar Mitzvah
Circumcision might make the perfect pre-Bar Mitzvah gift in Denmark and Sweden if doctors get their way.
Circumcision might make the perfect pre-Bar Mitzvah gift in Denmark and Sweden if doctors get their way. Doctors in Sweden and Norway are on their anti-circumcision binge again, but this time they only want to ban the Jewish rite until the age of 12, when they figure a boy is old enough to be able to give his consent. Wouldn’t cicumcision be a nice gift for a good Jewish boy a year or less before his Bar Mitzvah? Large medical associations in Sweden and Denmark have recommended a policy that would ban non-medical circumcision of boys before the age of 12. In Sweden, the recommendation came in a resolution that was unanimously adopted last week by the ethics council of the Sweden Medical Association – a union whose members constitute 85 percent of the country’s physicians.
It recommended setting 12 as the minimum age for the procedure and the boy’s consent, which comes about 11 years, 11 months and three weeks after the usual date for Jewish ritual circumcision, or brit milah, which has been performed for more than 3,000 years before modern doctors have discovered it is detrimental. In Denmark, the Danish College of General Practitioners – a group with 3,000 members – said in statement that non-medical circumcision of boys amounted to abuse and mutilation, the Danish BT tabloid reported Sunday. “We are not religious experts, but for medical reasons, we cannot approve a procedure that removes tissue from the genitals in which the risk is so great for serious complications,” the Swedish association’s ethics officer, Thomas Flodin, said. Jews have been practicing circumcision since the time of the forefather Abraham 3,500 years ago. Jews have survived Pharaoh, pogroms, the Crusades, the Holocaust, persecution and even the United Nations.
Jews even have survived circumcision, and now the good doctors apparently figure that Jews would even be better off without circumcision, although the United States still will remain. Funny how God never thought about that, but then again, at least Dr. Flodin admitted, “We are not religious experts.” In Sweden, non-medical and medical circumcision may be performed only by licensed professionals, as per legislation from 2001. Under the legislation, Jewish ritual circumcisers, or mohelim, in Sweden receive their licenses from the country’s health board, but a nurse or doctor must still be present when they perform the procedure. Sweden’s minister for integration, Erik Ullenhag, said existing rules that allow for ritual circumcision would not be changed. “I have never met any adult man who experienced circumcision as an assault. The procedure is not very intensive and parents have the right to raise their children according to their faith and tradition,” Ullenhag said. “If we prohibit it, we must also address the issue of the Christian ritual of baptism.” Christians have survived baptism for a couple of thousands of years, not counting those who accidentally drowned. There must be a good psychologist out there who could categorically state that baptism is a traumatic experience that causes long-term suffering. But that won’t work because the psychologist probably would be Jewish and accused of being anti-Christian.
@ yamit82:
You’re damned right those Afrikaners are my kind of Jews, on the same standing as if they were my brothers and sisters by blood. My own wife, Stefi was born in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia (Hrvatska, is their name for their own country. I met Stefi in Chicago in 1969, when we both were studying elementary Hebrew. She spent considerable time formally studying Judaism under Rav Aaron Rine of the Chicago Rabbinical Council (strictly Orthodox), after which she was formally accepted among the Jewish nation, followed by a real Jewish wedding, and after that, our overseas voyage to Israel by way of Croatia, for what proved to be an 18-month residency in 1973-1974,
We ought to have been foresighted enough to spit out western civilization and stay there, maybe in some nice little place such as Ma’ale Efraim overlooking the Jordan Valley. But we didn’t, and now were are both too old to start over.
I think the time will come when the Jewish nation attracts the best of the best of hundreds of nations and cultures, all under the banners of haShem, Avraham Avinu, our prophet Moshe, and the great Jewish leaders who have made their appearance from time to time.
So screw the world, its not-infrequent Jew-hatred, and these Middle East wars that never shall end. The Jewish nation shall overcome all that, and future generations of Jews shall have shucked off western liberalism and Jewish subservience, and shall redeem our historic lands and even more beyond that.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
@ yamit82:
And there isn’t a Southerner alive who doesn’t believe the South won the Civil War!!!!!!!!!!!!!
honeybee Said:
Big problem the Arabs are like dweller after they get their butts kicked they declare victory.
yamit82 Said:
I thought is is the Swedish Govt that make that determination,Nobel was Swedish.
@ Shy Guy:
Netanyahu under fire over son’s gentile girlfriend
Hardliners slam prime minister following reports his son is dating a non-Jew
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was under fire Sunday from religious lawmakers following a report that his son was dating a non-Jewish woman, media said.
Norwegian newspaper Dagen reported that Yair Netanyahu, 23, was dating 25-year-old Norwegian Sandra Leikanger, currently studying in Israel.
Dagen said that at a meeting in Davos, Netanyahu had told his Norwegian counterpart Erna Solberg the two had recently holidayed in Norway.
MP Moshe Feiglin, a hardline member of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, told the Jerusalem Post the relationship “is very unfortunate”.
The paper cited a source close to Netanyahu’s son as confirming that Leikanger is not Jewish.
The extremist Israeli organisation Lehava, which says it aims “to prevent assimilation in the Holy Land”, called on Netanyahu “to prevent this relationship”.
Judaism is traditionally matrilineal, in which a child’s religion is determined by that of its mother.
Yair is the son of Netanyahu’s third wife, Sara. Netanyahu was himself married to a non-Jewish woman, Fleur Cates, between 1981 and 1984.
Netanyahu’s office refused to comment on Yair’s reported relationship
Shy Guy Said:
Netanyahu’s Son Dating Norwegian Gentile By: Tibbi Singer
Read more at: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/netanyahus-son-dating-non-jewish-daughter-from-norway/2014/01/26/
Yair Netanyahu, son of the Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, is dating a non-Jewish girl from Norway, media in Sweden reported after the Prime Minister informed Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg of the relationship at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Yair and Leikanger met at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, where both of them are studying. Her family is from an evangelical Christian community, and Sandra’s sister lives in Israel. After the Norwegian press had picked up the scoop, Leikanger removed the couple’s pictures from her Facebook page. The press also couldn’t find out whether there had been special security arrangement in place while Netanyahu Jr. was visiting her in Norway. The newspaper Grimstad Adressetidende asked Conrad Myrland, head of the With Israel for Peace (MIFF) organization what he thought about the young couple’s relationship, and he said, “This is good news and it’s nice that Netanyahu could tell Norwegian journalists about it” during his visit. Myrland also said he did not think this would have any political significance. Wanna’ bet? If Prime Minister Netanyahu really wants Israel to be recognized as a Jewish state, and if Yair and his blonde girlfriend Sandra Leikanger become husband and wife one day, she may have to go through an Orthodox Jewish conversion. Also, it’s the Norwegian parliament that decides who gets the Nobel prizes; if Netanyahu now has the inside track in Norway, he could actually arrange for the peace prize to go to John Kerry, provided he walks away and doesn’t come back. So, as always, crisis creates opportunity.
Gratulerer. Google says it means Mazal Tov in Norwegian.
yamit82 Said:
It’s Israel’s “hand to play” I think the USA citizen would like to see some Arab butt kicked, we sure seem unable to do it.
honeybee Said:
Have a war and win it.
@ ArnoldHarris:
Your kind of Jews?
@ NormanF:
@ yamit82:
@ ArnoldHarris:
We have all decided that true peace only comes through victory,now what?
@ yamit82:
Peace is only a consequence of power, which, on a national level, must be built and maintained in accordance — as you clearly state — of the right goals and objectives.
Jew-hatred — like you, I prefer that term because it is much more straightforward and unambiguous than “anti-Semitism” — is at least partially a result of some three millenia of Jewish subserviance to every power other than haShem. That subserviance has long been bred into the Jewish social culture, as a psychological trait which none-Jews have come to expect of us.
I learned to despise that behavior at an early age, and as a result, I have few Jewish friends or even acquaintances. Most of the people I get along with best are right-wing conservatives, such as one finds in and around Tea Party circles. In fact, they tend more to accept me precisely because I lack typically Jewish subserviance, and because I am too proud to hide or obscure my Jewish heritage. On the other hand, they hate liberals above all else, and anyone on their side in terms of politics and social culture is welcomed by them. I don’t know which of those two factors outweighs the other.
One thing for certain. The Jewish nation, in order to achieve self-sustaining power, must undergo a revolutionary change in its social and political character. And a good place to start that is right in Jerusalem itself. I hope one day that young Jews will be reading about the exploits of their brethren, masked and armed with US-style Louisville Slugger baseball bats, smacking the heads of Arab rioters who will make the mistake of attempting to bar Jewish access to the Temple Mount. Am I in favor of street gangs? As long as they are tough, ruthless and unafraid, you can bet your ass I approve of them.
Am I the kind of Jew you would want as a fellow Israeli? I don’t know and I don’t care. But one thing is certain. Israel needs the development of the kind of Jewish temperament I have described here. Because peace-worship, timidity and trying to see your enemy’s point of view is no way to win a protracted conflict such as we may never escape from. Their is only victory, or there is death at the hands of someone tougher than you.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
NormanF Said:
Maybe the opposite of compromise will have the opposite effect like respect, even fear?
‘Peace’, should never be a national goal but a consequence of pursuing the right goals and policies.
dove Said:
I prefer Jew hatred and Jew haters, why use a term which leaves room for discourse and debate over meanings and definitions?
Shy Guy Said:
A chip off the old (Daddy’s) block… Like father like son.
I wonder who arranged for him a comfortable (SAFE)Job in the IDF Spokespersons Office??? 😉
Asshole BB is proud of his son. 🙁 Says it all!!!!
Yair Netanyahu: I don’t see a problem.
Good points, Norman.
What’s your point?
One of the things that I don’t like about this label is that it infers that anti-Semites only hate Jews.
I simply believe Jews have both human and national rights.
Compromising on them won’t make Jews any less hated nor will it lead to real peace.
@ NormanF:
Sorry to say Norman, you have made a very strong point in your comment.
@ NormanF:
Quite well written, Norman. The government of Israel should never have turned over control of the great Temple Mount in the old city of Jerusalem to the Islamic Waqf of that city. That is one of the first agreements that should be nullified, so that Jews have right of access to the place where our remote forefather Avraham first brought monotheism to the perhaps less than deserving human population of this planet. Moreover,the day must and shall come when no building on the mount shall have no purpose other than celebration of haShem and his commandments, as fully prescribed in cafeful, complete and majestic detail in Tora.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
The Israeli government itself has made anti-Semitism respectable:
1) It denies Jews freedom of religious worship on the Temple Mount
2) It has released from its own prisons people who have murdered Jews and in effect has declared a Jew is not a human being worthy of respect.
3) It “negotiates” with anti-Semites who make clear their hatred of Jews and who vow to see Israel destroyed.
I believe these facts are grave. This does not exculpate Europe from its age-old anti-Semitism; but its harder to counter when Jews are filled with a loathing for their own humanity and the national rights of their own country. In a word, when Jews show no respect for themselves, they should not be surprised when others fail to accord it to them.
Israel cannot effectively fight anti-Semitism abroad as long as it practices and promotes it at home. The fight against anti-Semitism begins and ends with the Jewish people themselves. All the rest is really commentary. Its a lesson not about the world’s response to the Holocaust but with the Jewish people setting an example to the world. This is what we so badly need in our time.