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France Riots: Synagogue Vandalized Amidst Online Hate Surge · Antisemitism Watch

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to Antisemitism Watch, I'm Rachel Adler. We're also
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  Speaker 1: launching Antisemitism Watch, Mid-Atlantic, for focused coverage from New York,
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  Speaker 1: New Jersey, Connecticut, and the Philadelphia region. Find out more
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  Speaker 1: at clockworkmedia.org slash MA across France this past weekend. Widespread
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  Speaker 1: riots protesting the rising cost of living saw significant property damage,
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  Speaker 1: including the burning of Jewish-owned shops in Marseille and the
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  Speaker 1: vandalism of a synagogue in Paris. according to reporting by
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  Speaker 1: the Jewish Community Protection Service, or SPCJ. In Paris' 19th arrondissement,
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  Speaker 1: vandals broke into the Ohelei Yaakov Synagogue, a temporary place
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  Speaker 1: of worship, scattering prayer books to fill in and other items.
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  Speaker 1: A member of the synagogue committee told reporters that the
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  Speaker 1: incident appeared to be an attempted theft, with no evidence
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  Speaker 1: that Jewish institutions or businesses were deliberately targeted, according to
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  Speaker 1: the SPCJ. However, other reports, including from the Combat Antisemitism Movement,
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  Speaker 1: or CAM, viewed the desecration as a clear warning sign. Naipos.com
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  Speaker 1: noted that Jewish leaders are calling for a state of emergency,
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  Speaker 1: citing these incidents as potentially antisemitic targets, with one congregant stating,
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  Speaker 1: It can't be a coincidence that they chose to target
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  Speaker 1: a Jewish place of worship. Palestinian flags and keffiyahs were
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  Speaker 1: frequently seen during the protests, acts of vandalism and looting.
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  Speaker 1: which spanned from Lille to Marseille, affecting an estimated 2,000 shops. Simultaneously,
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  Speaker 1: online platforms amplified anti-Semitic rhetoric concerning the unrest. A report
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  Speaker 1: by CAM examined X-slash-Twitter activity between October 16th and 18th,
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  Speaker 1: identifying 1,384 posts that blamed Israel, Mossad, and Jews for
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  Speaker 1: the violence and destruction in France. These posts included conspiracy
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  Speaker 1: theories such as Mossad is burning France right now, and
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  Speaker 1: claims of a civil war orchestrated by Jewish elites. According
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  Speaker 1: to jpost.com, the report noted that ex-premium verified accounts were
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  Speaker 1: among those spreading extreme messages, with millions of views. CAM
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  Speaker 1: CEO Sacha Reutemann warned of the connection between online incitement
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  Speaker 1: and violence, stating, Once again, we are witnessing the same
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  Speaker 1: distorted pattern in which hatred of Jews and Israel becomes
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  Speaker 1: the automatic explanation for every national crisis. On U.S. campuses,
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  Speaker 1: a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist student group at UC Davis, the revolutionary student organization,
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  Speaker 1: gathered to recognize the ongoing genocide in Palestine. According to thecollegefx.com,
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  Speaker 1: the group commemorated the October 2023 Hamas attack as a
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  Speaker 1: struggle of Palestinians fighting Israeli forces, displaying signs like Intifada
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  Speaker 1: Revolution and chanting support for rockets. Their posts indicated facing
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  Speaker 1: repression from administration, police, Zionists, and opportunists. Meanwhile, a statement
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  Speaker 1: on Facebook suggests Harvard University ranks first in antisemitism, with
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  Speaker 1: students experiencing or witnessing it since October 7th. In politics
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  Speaker 1: and media, Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America,
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  Speaker 1: accused Democratic leaders of failing to condemn figures like Ilhan
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  Speaker 1: Omar and Rashida Tlaib, whom he calls vicious Jew-haters. As
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  Speaker 1: reported by FoxNews.com, Klein stated that these figures and others,
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  Speaker 1: including Abdel El-Sayed and Zoran Mamdani, are not merely pro-Palestinian,
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  Speaker 1: but are anti-Israel and hate Jews. Prominent constitutional attorney Alan
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  Speaker 1: Dershowitz echoed these concerns, warning in an interview with VIN
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  Speaker 1: News that the Democratic Party has undergone a dangerous transformation
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  Speaker 1: and embraced anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. criticizing leaders like Chuck Schumer
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  Speaker 1: and blaming universities for normalizing hostility toward Israel. A separate
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  Speaker 1: report from the Australian Online Hate Prevention Institute, or OHPI,
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  Speaker 1: confirms that online antisemitism reached record levels globally in the
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  Speaker 1: third quarter of 2026, with classic tropes such as conspiracy
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  Speaker 1: theories about Jewish power and collective blame remaining common, according
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  Speaker 1: to MIFSI. Additionally, reporting from MichaelWest.como indicates that planning for
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  Speaker 1: an Australian CAM conference in January 2025 became public, with
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  Speaker 1: the site claiming Israelis misled a royal commission into antisemitism. Finally,
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  Speaker 1: in community responses, ijwishphilanthropy.com highlights initiatives like Global Jury, aiming
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  Speaker 1: to strengthen connections among Jewish communities worldwide. As rising antisemitism
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  Speaker 1: and internal disagreements create new fault lines, This effort seeks
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  Speaker 1: to foster greater understanding and collaboration, emphasizing that shared destiny
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  Speaker 1: is greater than divisive issues. I'm Rachel Adler, thank you
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  Speaker 1: report was generated with AI assistance and may contain inaccuracies.
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  Speaker 1: Please verify important details with primary sources.