Spate of anti-Semitic incidents recorded in Eastern Europe
Published March 20, 2013
(JTA) — A string of anti-Semitic events and incidents have been recorded in Ukraine, Poland and Hungary in recent days.
Unidentified individuals last week spray-painted a swastika and neo-Nazi symbols on a monument in Mykolaiv near Odessa for Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the venerated sixth leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.
In Kiev, anti-Semitic flyers on Monday were placed on a synagogue and other Jewish heritage sites, including a monument for the Jewish author Sholom Aleichem and the former home of the late Israeli premier Golda Meir.
According to Jewish News, a news website about Ukraine, the posters contained profanities and calls to violence against Jews, who were referred to as “trash.” The posters were signed by “Svodoba” — the name of a nationalist movement whose prominent members include people who have been accused of anti-Semitism. Svoboda spokesperson Ruslan Koshulinsky denied the party was behind the posters.
In Lviv, in western Ukraine, soccer fans last week handed out leaflets ahead of a match between their team, Carpathians, and a team from Odessa, Chernomorets, whose players are often referred to as “Jews.” The posters were titled “Death to the Jews” and featured a picture of the main entrance to the Auschwitz death camp, according to the Coordination Forum for Countering Anti-Semitism.
In Poland, unidentified individuals spray-painted “Murder the Jews” on the walls of a newly-dedicated Jewish cemetery in Myslenice near Krakow, along with a swastika and the symbol of the elite Nazi SS unit, the news website miasto-info.pl reported.
On March 16, anti-Semitic slogans were chanted at an anti-Communist demonstration in Krakow, including: “Down with Judaism,” and “hit them once with a sickle and twice with the hammer.”
In Hungary, stickers reading “Jews, the university is ours, not yours” were placed on the doors of two lecturers at the University of Budapest, György Péter and Gruberné Welker Ágnes. Earlier this month, a young woman wearing a T-shirt with the logo: “Auschwitz Holiday Camp” was filmed attending a nationalist demonstration in Budapest.
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