US President Joe Biden led international leaders in paying tribute to the victims of the Nazi Holocaust with a long.
“Seeing the rise in basically all forms of antisemitism, all expressions of antisemitism that are available to people during the lockdown climate really reinforces that this is a challenge that hasn’t gone anywhere this year,” he continued. “And certainly there are there are greater and more serious threats that we’ve got to look in the eye and face strongly.”
The report also analyzed content circulating on the dark web online spaces that hide the identity of the user and found that “while in the open networks about 70 percent of the antisemitic messages deal with new antisemitism, and about a quarter express classic antisemitism, this ratio is reversed in the darknet: about 70 percent manifest classic antisemitism and only about 20 percent display new antisemitism.”
04-08-2021
In this Dec. 4, 2019 file photo, Strasbourg chief Rabbi Harold Abraham Weill looks at vandalized tombs in the Jewish cemetery of Westhoffen in eastern France. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, File)
JERUSALEM, Israel – A new report says the coronavirus pandemic gave birth to a rise in “blatant” anti-Semitism on the internet and especially on social media sites. Many of the conspiracy theories blame Jews for the global outbreak, raising fears that there could be an increase in violence against Jews in the post-pandemic world.
The report was released by Israeli researchers at Tel Aviv University’s Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry.
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A municipal worker cleans swastikas spray painted on columns of the Rivoli Street in central Paris on October 11, 2020. (STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP)
Coronavirus lockdowns last year shifted some anti-Semitic hatred online, where conspiracy theories blaming Jews for the pandemic’s medical and economic devastation abounded, including likening Israeli and Jewish executives in vaccine companies to the Nazis, Israeli researchers reported Wednesday. That has raised concerns about a rise in anti-Semitism in the post-pandemic world.
The findings, which came in an annual report by Tel Aviv University’s researchers on anti-Semitism, show that the social isolation of the pandemic meant that Jews weren’t generally in close physical proximity to people who wished to harm them.
The research team found that anti-Semitic conspiracy theories blossomed as soon as the coronavirus began spreading around the world in February 2020.
When the world s health authorities declared a pandemic in March, people were forced inside and away from each other. But there, they went online and many were were exposed to conspiracy theories blaming an array of ethnic and religious groups for the catastrophe, including Jews.
The false theories generally went like this, according to the report: Jews and Israelis created and spread the virus so that they could rescue the world with lucrative vaccines.
Credit: AP
In this Dec. 4, 2019 file photo, Strasbourg chief Rabbi Harold Abraham Weill looks at vandalized tombs in the Jewish cemetery of Westhoffen, west of the city of Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, File)
Report: Pandemic amped up anti-Semitism, forced it online
LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press
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FILE - In this Dec. 4, 2019 file photo, Strasbourg chief Rabbi Harold Abraham Weill looks at vandalized tombs in the Jewish cemetery of Westhoffen, west of the city of Strasbourg, eastern France. Coronavirus lockdowns in 2020 shifted some anti-Semitic hatred online, where conspiracy theories blaming Jews for the pandemic’s medical and economic devastation abounded, Israeli researchers at Tel Aviv University s Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry in an annual report Wednesday, April 7, 2021.Jean-Francois Badias/AP
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) Coronavirus lockdowns last year shifted some anti-Semitic hatred online, where conspiracy theories blaming Jews for the pandemic’s medical and economic devastation abounded, Israeli researchers reported Wednesday. That’s raised concerns about a rise in anti-Semitism in the post-pandemic world.