Edited by: Fern Sidman

On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day 2023, the Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University presented the Annual Report on Anti-Semitism Worldwide – 2022, in collaboration with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), as was reported by World Israel News.

According to the report, attacks on Jews skyrocketed, particularly in the U.S., and ultra-Orthodox (haredi) Jews were the most targeted.

WIN also reported that the ADL recorded 3,697 anti-Semitic incidents in the United States, compared to 2,717 in 2021. The New York Police Department registered 261 hate crimes against Jews in 2022 compared to 214 in 2021, the LA Police recorded 86 in 2022 compared to 79 in 2021, and the Chicago Police 38 in 2022 compared to eight in 2021.

The Times of Israel reported on Monday that the newly released report triggered an acrimonious exchange of allegations between the ADL and the current Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

The minister accused the ADL of politicizing the fight against anti-Semitism and the Holocaust after the ADL implicitly compared Ben Gvir to European fascists in the new report, according to the Times of Israel.

Ben Gvir’s advisor told The Times of Israel that the ADL was abusing the “sacrosanct” memory of the Holocaust and the fight against anti-Semitism for partisan score-settling.

The TOI also reported that the foreword of the ADL report features a thinly veiled comparison between Ben Gvir, leader of the staunchly Zionist Otzma Yehudit party, and European “fascists.”

“This year saw the former disciples of the late racist Rabbi Meir Kahane, who introduced Nazi-like legislation to the Knesset, enter government,” reads the report.

The ADL report went on to say that, “In an earlier report, we wrote that Israeli governments were always reserved in their engagements with European parties with fascist roots and that Israeli political parties with similar roots cannot be expected to be treated differently by other governments. Since then, members of the Jewish Strength party have polluted Israeli public discourse with chilling racist expressions that would have led to the immediate termination of their political careers in other democracies.

“The obvious must be stated: Racism is racism, and Jewish racism is as deplorable as other forms of racism, and should never be excused or tolerated,” reads the report, as was reported by the TOI.

Ben Gvir, the chairman of the Otzma Yehudit, or Jewish Strength party was a long time follower of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, ztk’l and was a dedicated and loyal member of the late Jewish Defense League founder’s Kach party in Israel.  During his lifetime, Rabbi Kahane, ztk’l, staunchly advocated for the transfer of hostile Arabs to any one of their 22 countries in order to clamp down on rampant terror attacks initiated by Arabs against Jews in Israel and to preserve the demographic integrity of the country by ensuring a Jewish majority.

The TOI also reported that Arutz Sheva’s Yishai Fleisher, an advisor of Ben Gvir, responded to the ADL’s criticism of Ben Gvir by saying that under CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, an ex-staffer of former United States president Barack Obama, the ADL “has for a long time now used its remaining influence to attack Jewish nationalism — which means attacking the Israeli voter — instead of fighting the real enemy of the Jewish people and Israel which is the Progressive-Jihad axis.”

“There are things that should be kept out of the political fray — the Israel Defense Forces is one and the Shoah is another,” Fleisher added, using the Hebrew-language word for the Holocaust, as was reported by the TOI. “The latter is sacrosanct and should not be used cynically to sow hate and divide Jews against one another.”

World Israel News reported that Prof. Uriya Shavit, head of the Center that compiled the 2022 anti-Semitism report, concluded it with the following statement:

“Soul-searching is required in Israel as well. In recent months, several Jewish Members of Knesset have made chilling racist remarks that would have immediately terminated their careers in any other Western democracy. It is sad that this needs to be said on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, but Jewish racism is no better than any other kind of racism. It must be condemned, banned, and eradicated.”

Also weighing in on the political opining of the report was civil rights attorney Brooke Goldstein, founder of the End Jew Hatred movement. WIN reported that she strongly condemned the decision to conclude the report with a statement about racism in Israel.

“Jew-hatred is a unique and distinct phenomenon that has reached frightening levels worldwide, as noted in the report,” she told World Israel News.

“Adding criticism of Israeli Knesset members in a report that is meant to be taken seriously about rising Jew-hatred, particularly ahead of Yom Hashoah, is shameful and undermines the entire message. It is indicative of an inability to understand the gravity of the situation.

“There is no systemic, pervasive racism in the Jewish community that rises even close to the level of what has happened to Jews. Making this moral equivalence shows intellectual dishonesty. We’ve been subjected to two-thousand years of Jew-hatred. We don’t have to prove that we are anti-racist to put out a report on genocidal Jew-hatred.”