(Sunday, April 28, 2019) – The European Jewish Congress (EJC) expresses condemnation and sorrow after a gunman opened fire inside a Chabad synagogue outside of San Diego, California, during Saturday morning service, killing a woman and wounding three more people.
“Unfortunately, this attack, coming exactly six months after the mass murder in Pittsburgh, demonstrates a very worrying trend in antisemitism in the U.S.,” Dr. Moshe Kantor, President of the EJC, said. “This, coupled with the horrifically antisemitic caricature in the New York Times over the weekend and the repeated attempts by local political leaders to diminish, belittle and even in some instances, justify antisemitism, means that sadly the U.S. is moving towards European levels of antisemitism. When Jews are targeted, the ruling power is targeted, with the aim to destabilise and weaken its basis in civil society.”
These attacks are changing the face of Jewish life in the U.S., just as we have faced in Europe for some time now. They also demonstrates how important it is that our synagogues, schools and community centres across the world, continue to receive protection from the authorities and local volunteer groups. We must never be complacent about the threat our communities face.”
“There is a Europeanisation of antisemitism in the U.S. which is affecting our right to life, to congregate and to pray as a community. This right is further jeopardised by those who mimicking Nazi propaganda,” Dr. Kantor continued.
“We have learned the hard way in Europe that extremism, whether Left or Right, is connected in its disdain for Jews and one continually feeds off the other. We call on all leaders of the world to take the fight against antisemitism more seriously and clamp down on those who spread hate because eventually it becomes a problem for society as a whole.”
