This timeline of antisemitism chronicles the facts of antisemitism, hostile actions or discrimination against Jews as a religious or ethnic group, in the 21st century. It includes events in the history of antisemitic thought, actions taken to combat or relieve the effects of antisemitism, and events that affected the prevalence of antisemitism in later years. The history of antisemitism can be traced from ancient times to the present day.
2000 2000s Craig Raine, in his books In Defence of T. S. Eliot (2001) and T. S. Eliot (2006), sought to defend Eliot from the charge of antisemitism. Reviewing the 2006 book, Paul Dean stated that he was not convinced by Raine's argument. Nevertheless, he concluded, "Ultimately, as both Raine and, to do him justice, Julius insist, however much Eliot may have been compromised as a person, as we all are in our several ways, his greatness as a poet remains." In another review of Raine's 2006 book, the literary critic Terry Eagleton also questioned the validity of Raine's defense of Eliot's character flaws as well as the entire basis for Raine's book, writing, "Why do critics feel a need to defend the authors they write on, like doting parents deaf to all criticism of their obnoxious children? Eliot's well-earned reputation [as a poet] is established beyond all doubt, and making him out to be as unflawed as the Archangel Gabriel does him no favours."Eagleton, Terry. "Raine's Sterile Thunder". The Prospect Magazine. 22 March 2007. 2000 Richard Baumhammers walked to the home of his next-door neighbor, a 63-year-old Jewish woman named Anita "Nicki" Gordon and fatally shot her, then set her house on fire. Some time after that, he drove to the Beth El Congregation in Scott Township, where Gordon was a member of the synagogue. There, he fired into the windows of the synagogue, then exited his vehicle and spray-painted two red swastikas on the building. Baumhammers later drove to the Ahavath Achim Congregation in Carnegie where he shattered the synagogue's glass windows with gunfire. 2000 In April 2000 the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism and Union des étudiants juifs de France (the Union of French Jewish Students) brought a case against Yahoo! in which it objected to the auctioning of Nazi memorabilia, in France, via Yahoo!'s website on the basis that it contravened Article R645-1. Though a French judge initially ordered Yahoo! to take measures to make it impossible for users in France to purchase any Nazi memorabilia through the Yahoo! site, in December 2001, the US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that Yahoo! would be shielded from the judgement of the French court. 2000 The Temple Beth El building, but not the sanctuary, was heavily damaged in an arson attack on 13 October 2000. Palestinian-American Ramsi Uthman was convicted in the attack. Ahed Shehadeh was convicted of aiding and abetting the arson. According to Shehadeh's testimony, after Uthman set fire to the Temple, he yelled "I did this for you, God!" In exchange for his testimony Shehadeh received a five-year prison sentence, and was released in 2008. Uthman received the maximum possible sentence of 25 years, to be served in New York's Attica Correctional Facility, although he will be eligible for parole in 2021.Trends in Hate The building reopened in 2001 after repairing some $700,000 of damage from the attack. 2000 Firebombing of a New York synagogue (Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverdale), 2000 New York terror attack. 2000 The Canadian provinces of Alberta,Documents: Acts at qp.Alberta.ca Manitoba and Nova Scotia enacted legislation to recognize Holocaust Memorial Day in 2000.Laws: Statutes at web2.Gov. MB.ca 2000 October 31 Beth Israel Synagogue (Edmonton) is firebombed.Abugov, Marvin; Shoctor, Debby. "Congregation Beth Israel, 100 year chronology (1906–2006)", History, About Beth Israel, Beth Israel Synagogue website. Accessed 4 November 2010. 2000 On 22 November 2000, Judge Edward R. Korman announced a settlement of the World Jewish Congress lawsuit against Swiss banks with his approval of a plan featuring the payment of $1.25 billion into funds controlled by the Israeli Banking Trust. Judah Gribetz was appointed Special Master to administer the plan, which is sometimes called the Gribetz Plan after its chief author.Finkelstein, Norman. The Holocaust Industry. Verso, New York, second paperback edition 2003, p. 154. 2000 David Irving v Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt is a case in English law, decided in 2000, against American author Deborah Lipstadt and her publisher Penguin Books, filed in an English court by the British author David Irving in 1996, asserting that Lipstadt had libeled him in her book Denying the Holocaust. The court ruled that the Irving's claim of libel relating to English defamation law and Holocaust denial was not valid because his deliberate distortion of evidence has been shown to be substantially true. English libel law puts the burden of proof on the defence, meaning that it was up to Lipstadt and her publisher to prove that her claims of Irving's deliberate misrepresentation of evidence to conform to his ideological viewpoints were substantially true. Lipstadt hired British-Jewish lawyer Anthony Julius while Penguin hired libel experts Kevin Bays and Mark Bateman of media law firm Davenport Lyons. Richard J. Evans, an established historian, was hired by the defence to serve as an expert witness. Evans spent two years examining Irving's work, and presented evidence of Irving's misrepresentations, including evidence that Irving had knowingly used forged documents as source material. Upon mutual agreement, the case was argued as a bench trial before Mr. Justice Charles Gray, who produced a written judgment 333 pages long in favour of the defendants, in which he detailed Irving's systematic distortion of the historical record of World War II. 2000 During the 2000 Presidential election, Lee Alcorn, president of the Dallas NAACP branch, criticized Al Gore's selection of Senator Joe Lieberman for his Vice-Presidential candidate because Lieberman was Jewish. On a gospel talk radio show on station KHVN, Alcorn stated, "If we get a Jew person, then what I'm wondering is, I mean, what is this movement for, you know? Does it have anything to do with the failed peace talks?"... "So I think we need to be very suspicious of any kind of partnerships between the Jews at that kind of level because we know that their interest primarily has to do with money and these kind of things."NAACP President Kweisi Mfume immediately suspended Alcorn and condemned his remarks. Mfume stated, "I strongly condemn those remarks. I find them to be repulsive, anti-Semitic, anti-NAACP and anti-American. Mr. Alcorn does not speak for the NAACP, its board, its staff or its membership. We are proud of our long-standing relationship with the Jewish community and I personally will not tolerate statements that run counter to the history and beliefs of the NAACP in that regard." Alcorn, who had been suspended three times in the previous five years for misconduct, subsequently resigned from the NAACP and started his own organization called the Coalition for the Advancement of Civil Rights. Alcorn criticized the NAACP, saying, "I can't support the leadership of the NAACP. Large amounts of money are being given to them by large corporations that I have a problem with." Alcorn also said, "I cannot be bought. For this reason I gladly offer my resignation and my membership to the NAACP because I cannot work under these constraints." Alcorn's remarks were also condemned by the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Jewish groups and George W. Bush's rival Republican presidential campaign. Jackson said he strongly supported Lieberman's addition to the Democratic ticket, saying, "When we live our faith, we live under the law. He [Lieberman] is a firewall of exemplary behavior." Al Sharpton, another prominent African-American leader, said, "The appointment of Mr. Lieberman was to be welcomed as a positive step." The leaders of the American Jewish Congress praised the NAACP for its quick response, stating that: "It will take more than one bigot like Alcorn to shake the sense of fellowship of American Jews with the NAACP and black America.... Our common concerns are too urgent, our history too long, our connection too sturdy, to let anything like this disturb our relationship."AJCongress on Statement by NAACP Chapter Director on Lieberman , American Jewish Congress (AJC), 9 August 2000.
2001 2001 During the World Conference against Racism 2001, in Durban, two delegations, the United States and Israel, withdraw from the conference due to their objections to a draft document equating Zionism with racism. 2001 Every year since 2001, there has been an annual national memorial to the victims of the Holocaust in the United Kingdom. 2001 In Belgium in 2001, Roeland Raes, the ideologue and vice-president of one of the country's largest political parties, the Vlaams Belang (formerly named Vlaams Blok, Flemish Bloc), gave an interview on Dutch TV where he cast doubt over the number of Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. In the same interview he questioned the scale of the Nazis' use of gas chambers and the authenticity of Anne Frank's diary. In response to the media assault following the interview, Raes was forced to resign his position but vowed to remain active within the party.Belgium's far right party in Holocaust controversy, The Guardian, Friday, 9 March 2001. Three years later, the Vlaams Blok was convicted of racism and chose to disband. Immediately afterwards, it legally reformed under the new name Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) with the same leaders and the same membership.Court rules Vlaams Blok is racist, BBC News, 9 November 2004. 2001 Slovakia criminalized denial of fascist crimes in general in late 2001; in May 2005, the term "Holocaust" was explicitly adopted by the penal code and in 2009, it became illegal to deny any act regarded by an international criminal court as genocide. 2001 Untersturmführer Julius Viel was convicted in 2001 of shooting seven Jewish prisoners from the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1945.Segev, Tom (2010). Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends. pgs. 406–407. New York: Doubleday. 2001 May 4 At the 17th meeting of the International Liaison Committee in New York City, Catholic Church officials state that they will change how Judaism is dealt with in Catholic seminaries and schools. In part, they state:
The curricula of Catholic seminaries and schools of theology should reflect the central importance of the Church's new understanding of its relationship to Jews....Courses on Bible, developments by which both the Church and rabbinic Judaism emerged from early Judaism will establish a substantial foundation for ameliorating "the painful ignorance of the history and traditions of Judaism of which only negative aspects and often caricature seem to form part of the stock ideas of many Christians". (See notes on the Correct Way to Present Jews and Judaism in Catholic Preaching and Catechesis, No. 27, 1985)