Anti-Semitism 80 Years After Kristallnacht

November 9, 2018

Today, marks the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass in Nazi Germany on November 9/10, 1938, the beginning of the end for European Jewry. It comes as we still mourn the murder of 11 American Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue and a spate of anti-Semitic attacks targeting Jews on both sides of the Atlantic. It comes as Nazis and Holocaust deniers vied for seats in Congress.

Photo: Germany, November 1938

After the Pittsburgh massacre, SWC Founder and Dean, Rabbi Marvin Hier told The New York Times, "We may be at the beginning of what happened to Europe, the consistent anti-Semitic attacks. If it is not nipped in the bud ... I am afraid the worst is yet to come.”

A newly commissioned Simon Wiesenthal Center poll of nearly 2,000 registered voters taken before the mass murder in Pittsburgh found that more than 70 percent of the survey’s American Jewish respondents believe anti-Semitism is on the rise.

Rabbi Hier and SWC Associate Dean and Director, Global Social Action Agenda, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, cautioned in an op-ed in Washington's influential newspaper, The Hill, "Extremists from the alt-Right and from Antifa on the Left” must be taken on and "If we fail to take on the bullies and extremists, we may be at the beginning of what has happened to Europe".

Photo: Irvine, October 2018

The SWC convened bi-partisan press conferences in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, with Democrats and Republicans, law enforcement, Christian clergy and Muslim leaders to push back against anti-Semitism. And, will do more.

Every day we educate tens of thousands of students about the dangers of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust at the Museum of Tolerance and in schools around the country.

The SWC's traveling exhibition chronicling the events of the Holocaust, The Courage to Remember, has been in venues around the world where it has been seen by millions of people who have never been exposed to the Shoah.

Films from the SWC's Academy Award®-winning Moriah Films can be seen on Netflix and other streaming platforms, and have introduced new generations to the lessons of the Holocaust.

The SWC continues to monitor and fight back against anti-Semitic incidents in hot spots across the world: Germany, France, Spain, Austria, The Netherlands and the US and continues to leverage its relationships with political, diplomatic and religious leaders on three continents, as well at at the UN, to ensure the safety of all Jews.

Please support our work during these challenging and difficult times…..