Anti-Semitism up in Czech Republic

PRAGUE, May 3 (JTA) — Anti-Semitic actions and attitudes in the Czech Republic rose markedly in 2004, according to a new report. The second annual report from the League Against Anti-Semitism in Prague looks at both active and passive forms of anti-Semitism, from physical attacks on Jews to more subtle everyday slurs. “The increase, at least a doubling of incidents, can be partly attributed to improved monitoring on our part. But even so, it does seem that anti-Semitism in general is up,” said Johanka Lomova, a league spokeswoman. She noted, though, that the number of physical or verbal attacks was relatively small in the Czech Republic compared to such neighboring countries as Poland and Germany. Tomas Kraus, director of the Federation of Czech Jewish Communities, said most Czechs don’t realize that some of their perceptions of Jews might be problematic. “Anti-Semitism is a constant in the Czech Republic, but it is mostly in a way that people aren’t even aware they feel it,” he said. There were six assaults on Jews in 2004, according to the report, mostly involving attacks on Jews near synagogues by skinheads or teenagers using anti-Semitic epithets. None of the attacks resulted in serious injuries. No such attacks were recorded in the 2003 report. Lomova noted that the skinhead/neo-Nazi movement is small in the Czech Republic. Public attitudes toward Jews are strongly influenced by people’s perceptions of Israel, the report said. A poll last summer by the country’s most read newspaper named Israel as the country Czechs most disliked. But Lomova says that poll was biased, since readers were given only a handful of countries to choose from. Still, the report includes both anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli incidents. The league used a definition set at the Global Forum against Anti-Semitism conference held last year in Israel, which counts as anti-Semitism criticism that implies Israel is held to a lesser legal and human rights standard than other countries, the demonization of Israel or the questioning of Israel’s right to exist. Lomova said there had been a rise in anti-Semitic activity after a car bombing in front of a casino in central Prague last summer. The owner of the casino and the alleged bomber both hold Israeli passports. The league recorded nine instances of desecration of Jewish monuments or cemeteries, more than double the previous year’s figures. Painting swastikas and knocking over Jewish headstones were the most common elements of such desecrations. The report notes a dramatic rise in neo-Nazi concerts, where the use of swastikas and anti-Semitic slurs are common. In addition, soccer fans often insult one another by calling each other “Polish Jew.” Among the anti-Semitic literature cited in the report was an article seeking to connect Bolshevism and Judaism, a frequent accusation by the extreme right wing in Europe. The article appeared in Catholic Review, a fringe Internet magazine that Catholic authorities in Prague say has nothing to do with the church or with mainstream Catholicism. Catholic Review also organized a lecture on Judaism by an American, E. Michael Jones, a purported historian who equated Jews to sons of Satan in his speech. In other publications, anti-Israel commentaries are a staple of the Communist magazine Halo Noviny. Since nearly one fourth of the lower house of Parliament is Communist, the newspaper’s readership is relatively large. Lomova pointed out several trends in Czech anti-Semitism that she found particularly alarming, such as the recent opening of a Czech branch of Blood and Honor, a global skinhead movement promoting anti-Semitism and racism. “What I really find alarming is the relativization of the Holocaust,” Lomova said. “Within the framework of anti-Americanism, the Holocaust is being interpreted as a way that the Israeli and American governments achieve their political goals.” One of the only university courses about the Holocaust taught in the Czech Republic is given by a professor who tells his students that the tragedy is used as a political weapon, Lomova said. As in many European societies where few Jews survived the Holocaust, the perception of what is Jewish is based more on myth than reality, Lomova said. “People feel Jews are strange and must have a black coat, black hat and big nose,” she said. A commercial earlier this year for a gardening company that portrayed an Orthodox Jew as a greedy bargain hunter was taken off the air only after the intervention of the Israeli ambassador. Even then, many commentators felt the Jewish community had overreacted, and claimed it likely would result in more anti-Semitism. The report also offers many anecdotes about what it called latent anti-Semitism. The report notes that Leo Pavlat, who heads the Jewish Museum of Prague, told the BBC about a fashion magazine in which a man complained that gyms are run by “mean Jews.” A host on a Czech Television presentation informed viewers that Orthodox Jews bathe only once a week, after his guest complained about sitting next to a “smelly Orthodox Jew.” At a folklore carnival, one of the main costumes was presented as the outfit of a Jew. “Ranking Jews among curious characters shows that Jews continue to be strangers, weird creatures,” the report said.