Volume 4 No 1 - Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

2012] ANTISEMITIC INCIDENTS, JANUARY–JUNE 2012 11
arson attack, and in December, two temples were vandalized. No arrests have been
made. “We don’t know if we’re looking at one person or a group of people,” said
Bryan Travers of the FBI’s Newark division. In November, vandals smashed windows
at five stores owned by Jewish merchants in Middlesex County.
Swastika Earriings—The Perfect Gift
New York, January 11: The sale of swastika earrings at a Brooklyn jewelry store is
the latest example of antisemitism in New York and New Jersey, politicians and
advocates told FoxNews.com. Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer
demanded that the store—Bejeweled, on Manhattan Avenue in the Greenpoint section
of Brooklyn—immediately remove the earrings. “Let me be clear—a swastika
is not a fashion statement,” Stringer said in a statement to FoxNews.com. “It is the
most hateful symbol in our culture, and an insult to any civilized person.” But the
store’s manager, Young Kim, defended the $5.99 earrings, saying the swastika is a
symbol of eternity in Tibetan Buddhism, not just a symbol popularized by Nazi
Germany.
London, January 16: London School of Economics students are facing disciplinary
action after participating in a Nazi-themed drinking game during the Athletics
Union’s ski trip, held at a French mountainside resort in December 2011. Later that
night, two students were involved in an altercation; one of them sustained a broken
nose from the incident. Nazi Ring of Fire involved arranging cards on the table in
the shape of a swastika, and required players to “Salute the Fuhrer.” A video featuring
students making antisemitic comments was uploaded to Facebook, but has
since been removed. “LSE Students’ Union Jewish Society (J-Soc) and the Union
of Jewish Students (UJS) are appalled by a reported antisemitic assault that
occurred after a Jewish student objected to a Nazi-themed drinking game that was
being played by his fellow students on a recent LSE ski trip in France.”
London, January 17: Less than a month after Britain’s biggest bookstore chain,
Waterstones, had to apologize because branches in Yorkshire, Manchester, Liverpool,
and Cheshire “pushed Adolf Hitler’s manifesto Mein Kampf as the ‘perfect’
Christmas present” (as reported in the Guardian), the book is back in the news with
yet another British company promoting it. According to a report in the Telegraph
by Matthew Day, London-based publishing house Albertas Press has decided to
publish the book in Germany—even though it’s been effectively banned there by