Ira Forman, who led President Obama’s reelection campaign in the Jewish community, was appointed as the State Department’s envoy to combat anti-Semitism. The State Department announced the appointment on Monday—the same day it released its 2012 report on religious freedom that recorded a “continued global increase in anti-Semitism.” Secretary of State John Kerry tapped Forman to replace Hannah Rosenthal, who left last year to direct the Milwaukee Jewish federation. Kerry’s …More

A record number of complaints about hate crimes in the Swedish city of Malmo has not resulted in any convictions for such offenses in more than two years. The Swedish court system did not convict anyone of hate crimes in 2010 and 2011 despite 480 complaints, the local daily Sydsvenskan reported Monday. In total, only 16 cases formed the basis for an indictment, none of them for anti-Semitic behavior. Malmo Jewish community leaders say a few dozen anti-Semitic attacks occur annually in the city. Approximately …More

Hannah Rosenthal didn’t just fight anti-Semitism—she wrote the definition. Rosenthal, the state department’s anti-Semitism monitor for the last three years, resigned from the post earlier this month. During her tenure, she helped identify rising anti-Jewish sentiment in Europe, brought Muslim leaders into the fold of Holocaust education, and put together a streamlined definition of what anti-Semitism actually means. That definition, thanks to Rosenthal, can be conveniently printed on an 8 by 10 …More

Hours after the late-night explosion outside the Jewish community center in Malmo, Sweden, the scent of baking challah already was wafting from the center’s ovens into the chilly morning air, as it does every Friday morning. Later, the Jewish preschool at the site would open as usual. A smashed bulletproof glass window and two police officers standing watch were the only evidence of a September 28 attack in which assailants set off an explosive device and threw bricks at the center’s door, according …More

Across Scandinavia, the kippah is becoming a symbol of Jewish defiance. On Sunday, about 70 Danish Jews took a double-decker bus from Copenhagen on a 10-mile bridge across the Strait of Øresund, on the Baltic Sea, to go to Malmo in a show of solidarity with the embattled Jews of that Swedish city. All the men on the bus wore kippahs, a rarity in Scandinavia. Last December, a small group of Malmo Jews violated security protocol by keeping on their kippahs on while out on the street after attending …More

The State Department issued an official apology to passengers of the MS St. Louis, a German steamer carrying nearly 1,000 Jewish refugees that were denied entry into the US 73 years ago. A ceremony was held to remember those passengers, who were turned away from Cuba, America and Canada in 1939. The ship was forced back to Germany, where one-third of the refugees perished at Auschwitz. The State Department ceremony was attended by 200 guests, including 30 Holocaust survivors. Survivors from the St. Louis were in …More

The U.S. State Department’s report on religious freedom described a “global increase” in anti-Semitism and said the “rising tide of anti-Semitism” was among the key trends of last year. The executive summary of the report for 2011, released Monday, also detailed the “impact of political and demographic transitions on religious minorities” and “the effects of conflict on religious freedom.” The increased anti-Semitism was “manifested in Holocaust denial, …More

Dr. Shimon Samuels, international relations director for the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), has been doing his part to inform the public of a dangerous trend in Malmö. The Swedish city's Jewish population, amounting to just 700, receives a surprising amount of negative attention from one man in particular: the town’s mayor, Ilmar Reepalu. Reepalu has been at the center of controversy for years amid accusations of anti-Semitism, causing Samuels and the SWC to place a travel advisory on the city that was …More