Reporting on the latest antisemitic incident or attack often feels like an exercise in futility amid a global surge in hatred toward Israel and Jews. By the time a story on the latest random “Free Palestine” confrontation involving someone wearing a Star of David is published, several more incidents have already taken place.
So it is this week. As I sat down to write about one of the swastika vandalism stories in this column, I realized that there were many others that had occurred afterward or that I had overlooked. Thus, this roundup feels like the most effective way to convey the staggering spread of the oldest hatred we've witnessed in the aftermath of October 7.
What better country to start with this week than Spain, which has found itself in the headlines in recent days after tens of thousands of Moroccans — mostly young men — crossed the border into the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta. While "invasion" is the correct word to describe what transpired, videos of the new arrivals showed them feeling most welcome, shouting "Viva Pedro Sanchez" and "Viva España" amid chants of "Allahu Akbar" — almost like they'd been invited in. And why shouldn't they feel that way? Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has not only granted amnesty to 500,000 illegal migrants, but has displayed solidarity with Iran and Palestine while expressing hostility toward Israel.
A group not feeling as welcome in Spain of late is the Jews. There's been a 321% rise in antisemitic incidents in the country since 2023 — and a 567% rise since 2022 according to a report published by Spain's Observatory against Antisemitism. PJ Media has reported on the desecration of a Jewish cemetery in Barcelona, a mob chasing Israelis through the streets of Barcelona, and two Jewish women being kicked out of a spa in, yes, Barcelona because one of them was wearing a Star of David necklace.
The antisemitism in Spain isn't limited to Catalonia. On Aug. 1, in the Andalusian city of Cordoba, a graffitied swastika was found on the base of a bronze statue of the medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides, who was born in the city in 1135. The European Jewish Congress said on X that it was “a stark reminder that antisemitism continues to target not only Jewish people, but also Jewish history, memory and culture."
The history of the Jews in Spain has been tragic. According to Chabad.org, at the age of 13, Maimonides, also known as the Rambam, "was forced to flee Cordoba when a fanatic Islamic sect took control of the city; the Jews were attacked by rioters and many synagogues were destroyed." This was centuries before Ferdinand and Isabella signed the Edict of Expulsion, requiring Jews to leave the country; the last Jews left on August 2, 1492.
An estimated 70,000 Jews live in Spain today. The riots and synagogue destructions of Maimonides' time don't seem too far removed when you read about mobs chasing Jews and about the many Spanish synagogues that have been vandalized since October 7, 2023. Will we one day soon be forced to talk about the last Jews leaving Spain again?
Related: Is It Time to Offer Spain's Jews Asylum?
Next we turn to America, and the state of New Jersey, where Adam Hamawy's supporters celebrated his victory in the June Democrat primary for a congressional seat in the 12th District with the same chant so many of the Moroccan migrants screamed in Ceuta: "Allahu akbar." And why did they express their enthusiasm this way? As my PJ Media colleague Catherine Salgado wrote, Hamawy "not only testified on behalf of a convicted terrorist, but he also worked with an organization later shuttered for being an Al-Qaida front."
That's just the background for another swastika vandalism story. On the morning of July 29, a worshiper found several swastikas made of yellow tape inside an Orthodox synagogue in Lakewood, N.J., whose population is more than half Orthodox Jewish. It was yet another antisemitic incident in a state where such incidents are occurring at historic highs.
While the perpetrators of the crimes in Cordoba and Lakewood have not been captured yet, the final story in this roundup involves an NYU student from Connecticut who appeared in court on Tuesday after being arrested and accused of raising a flag with two swastikas next to a Star of David outside a campus building honoring a Jewish donor. The New York Post reports:
Alexander Stepnowsky, 23, wore a baby-blue button-down shirt and tan khakis to his routine preliminary Manhattan court hearing Tuesday in his hate-crimes case stemming from the disturbing May incident.
The pupil hoisted the troubling banner — which also included a New York University logo and was designed to look like one of the prestigious school’s purple-and-white flags — during this year’s graduation festivities, prosecutors claim.
The Fairfield resident admitted to the conduct, claiming he raised the flag because he was upset with how NYU handled political issues around Israel, law-enforcement sources told The Post.
To borrow words from my PJ Media colleague Robert Spencer, "in Mamdani’s New York, it’s 1933 all over again."
