Volume 4 No 1 - Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

Antisemitic Incidents from Around the World,
January–June 2012
A Partial List
JANUARY
Plainville, NY, January 3: State and Nassau County public officials, along with
local religious leaders, will stand on a lawn in Plainview and denounce hatred and
antisemitism. The office of state assemblyman Charles Lavine, D-Glen Cove, along
with Nassau County legislator Judy Jacobs, D-Woodbury, will join Plainview-area
clergy members and other community leaders at the home of Burton Radish, a
retired school administrator whose outdoor menorah was desecrated by vandals
during Hanukkah. “This desecration of a religious symbol under the cover of darkness
is a cowardly act,” Lavine said. “An attack on any religion is an attack against
every religion. Prejudice is un-American and must neither be tolerated nor enabled.”
“Vandals in the dead of night” destroyed the five-foot-high menorah that
stood at Radish’s front yard on Gerhard Road,” Lavine’s office said in a statement.
“The ancient symbol of Judaism and the emblem of the State of Israel . . . was
ripped from his yard, thrown into the street, run over and destroyed.” Nassau
County police are investigating the vandalism. There have been no arrests.
“You know how to make the Jew jealous? Have some money, honey.
You go to LA and they own all the Rolex and diamond places. Walk
down a part of LA where we live and it is so rich it smells. You ever
smell rich? They are all Jews, hallelujah. Amen.”
—Minister Keith Hudson, estranged father of U.S. pop singer Katy Perry
Santiago, Chile, January 5: Antisemitic conspiracy theories have appeared on Chilean
Web sites following the arrest of an Israeli tourist in connection with a devastating
forest fire. Rotem Singer, 23, has been questioned by police for allegedly
starting the blaze at the Torres del Paine National Park (Patagonia) by failing to
extinguish burning toilet paper. He has denied any involvement, but has been
ordered to remain in Chile while the investigation is carried out. If convicted, he
could face a fine and up to 60 days in jail. His arrest has been fruit for conspiracy
theorists, who are blaming Israel for this fire and a wave of similar ones that swept
Chile over the last week. According to the New York-based Anti-Defamation
League, Chilean Web sites have suggested that Israel and the Jews deliberately
started the fire. The hate monitor said that users had posted “hate-filled comments,”
linking the fires to an old antisemitic trope known as the “Andinia Plan.” The
“plan” is based on the idea that Jews want to create a state in Patagonia by any
means possible. A Chilean congressman, Fuad Chahin, asked his Twitter followers
to consider the possibility that Singer had been sent to Argentina by Israel after
“killing Palestinian children.”
Great Neck, NY, January 4: Nassau County police are investigating swastikas on a
1998 Mercedes-Benz parked at the Babylonian Jewish Center in Great Neck. “This
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