JANUARY

Four Delta employees, detailing  a pattern of antisemitic abuse at the airline, file a suit against the airline in federal court for violating the Civil Rights Act.

 

Despite pressure from the BDS movement, Comedian Chris Rock performs in Israel.

 

The trustee charged with recovering the investments for victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme announces the recovery of about 73% of the lost principal of $17.5 billion.

 

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” about a 1950s Jewish housewife in New York, wins Best Television Series, comedy, at the Golden Globe Awards.

 

More than 100 artists – including actors Mark Ruffalo and John Cusack, film director Ken Loach, and writers Angela Davis and Alice Walker – sign an open letter published in The Guardiansupporting pop star Lorde’s cancellation of her show in Israel.

 

The Jewish Book Council announces the winners of the National Jewish Book Awards, including Book of the Year, Lioness: Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel by Francine Klagsbrun.

 

Two kosher shops are damaged in a fire near Paris on the third anniversary of the slaying of four Jews at another Parisian kosher supermarket. The fire comes two weeks after swastikas are painted on both stores.

 

On a 10-day visit to Israel with his family, where he gives several performances, comedian Jerry Seinfeld comes under fire for visiting a counter-terrorism academy in the Judea and Samaria community of Efrat.

 

Citing a “dangerous atmosphere” in France due to a rise in antisemitic attacks, the federation of French Jewish communities demands authorities take tough action to stop it.

 

Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman delivers a searing courtroom victim impact statement against Larry Nassar, the former USA gymnastics team physician guilty of sexually abusing more than 140 women, including Raisman.

 

Jewish singer-songwriter Neil Diamond announces he is giving up touring after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

 

In a World Zionist Organization survey conducted online, 27% of European Jews and 11% of Americans say they feel unsafe.

 

A wire service publishes a 2005 photo of then-Senator Barack Obama posing with the infamous antisemite Louis Farrakhan. The photographer claims the shot was taken at a Congressional Black Caucus meeting and suppressed at the request of a Caucus member.

 

The Polish Senate passes legislation making criminal accusations that accuse the Polish state of the crimes committed by the Nazis during World War II. The legislation is later signed by Polish President Andrzej Duda.

 

Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston names Rabbi Marc Baker to succeed top exec Barry Shrage, who retires in June after 30 years of service. The Boston federation boasts a $64 million budget.

 

President Trump, in a message marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, calls the Holocaust the “systematic persecution and brutal murder of six million Jewish people” – a departure from last year when his message omitted any reference to Jews.

 

One-third of Holocaust survivors in the U.S. continue to live at or below the poverty line, according to The Blue Card, an organization providing financial assistance to survivors.

 

 

 

FEBRUARY

Israeli officials at the Kerem Shalom crossing thwart an attempt to smuggle explosives into the Gaza Strip in a shipment of medical equipment.

 

Paul Simon, 76, announces that he will stop touring, save for the “occasional performance” for charity. Simon, who grew up Jewish in Queens, NY, rose to fame in the 1960s, along with his singing partner and fellow Jewish New Yorker Art Garfunkel.

 

Lawrence Bacow, the former president of Tufts University whose mother survived Auschwitz, is tapped to become the president of Harvard University.

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin inherits a one-and-a-half-bedroom apartment in downtown Tel Aviv from his deceased high school German teacher, Mina Yuditskaya Berliner.

 

A Republican congressman says he gave Chuck Johnson, a notorious right-wing troll who once denied the Holocaust, a ticket to the State of the Union because he seemed polite and was unaware of his notorious past.

 

The National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia receives a $1 million donation from the family of shoe designer and entrepreneur Stuart Weitzman.

 

Supporters of the Chelsea soccer team sing antisemitic songs during a game held five days after the British club launched a campaign to stamp out antisemitism among its fans.

 

A federal judge dismisses a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York filed by the estate of a German-Jewish businessman seeking the return of a Picasso painting sold in order to flee the Nazis.

 

Olympic gold medal gymnast Aly Raisman tells participants at a BBYO conference in Florida that she draws strength from her Jewish upbringing and is proud “to be a Jewish athlete.”

 

“Leonard Bernstein: The Power of Music,” an exhibit celebrating the 100th birthday of the late conductor/composer/pianist/bon vivant Leonard Bernstein opens at the national Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, setting off a two-year program of events throughout the country.

 

The Trump administration announces it will formally move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv in May to coincide with Israel’s 70th anniversary.

 

About 500 physicians in Iceland and some of Belgium’s top doctors come out in support of a bill proposing to criminalize non-medical circumcision of boys in the Scandinavian island nation.

 

Malcolm Hoenlein, 73, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, announces his intention to step aside after more than three decades of helming the umbrella foreign policy group for the U.S. Jewish community.

 

Aly Raisman sues the U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Gymnastics, alleging negligence for not stopping former U.S. Olympics gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar from sexually abusing young athletes.

 

Ruth Beckerman, an Austrian-Jewish filmmaker, wins the top prize at the 68th Berlinale International Film Festival for “The Waldheim Waltz,” her documentary about the 1986 campaign to unearth the Nazi-era past of Kurt Waldheim.

 

 

 

MARCH

California Democrats endorse Ammar Campa-Najjar for Congress. Campa-Najjar is the grandson of the mastermind of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre. But Campa-Najjar earns high praise from the Jewish community.

 

Cynthia Nixon, the former “Sex and the City” star, announces her campaign to be New York’s next governor, thereby unseating Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Nixon isn’t Jewish, but her two eldest children from her first marriage are.

 

Trayon White Sr., a Washington, D.C. city council member, apologizes for accusing “the Rothschilds” of controlling the weather, the World Bank and the federal government. Later, he is criticized for leaving a tour of the U.S. Holocaust Museum early.

 

Approximately 2,000 people gather outside the houses of Parliament in London to protest antisemitism in the British Labour Party, charging its leader Jeremy Corbyn with enabling antisemitism in the party.

 

An arts festival focusing on femininity and gender identity in Oslo, Norway rejects the participation of six Israeli choreographers, saying Israel uses culture to “whitewash” its treatment of the Palestinians.

The IDF acknowledges that in 2007 it destroyed a nuclear reactor in its last stages of construction in Syria. Israeli media has never reported on the bombing, though it has been reported on for the last decade in international media.

 

 

 

APRIL

New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon is criticized for signing a 2010 petition in support of Israeli artists refusing to perform in the West Bank settlement of Ariel, which some view as supporting the BDS movement against Israel.

 

Cathy Bekerman, a Colombian Jewish journalist, is ordered to resign from her anchor post on a daily TV newscast after she refuses to cross herself while she was on the air.

 

Seth Meyers’ newborn baby boy is named Axel Strahl Meyers, partly after his wife’s grandparents, who were both Holocaust survivors.

 

Former NBA All-Star Amar’e Stoudemire, who claims to have “Hebrew roots” and has studied Judaism and practiced its cultural customs, announces that he is “in the process” of converting.

 

Omri Casspi, the first Israeli to play in the National Basketball Association, is waived by the Golden State Warriors, with whom he signed a one-year contract, after being sidelined by an ankle injury.

 

A boycott campaign threatens the friendly soccer match between the national teams of Israel and Argentina. The boycott campaign sponsored by BDS Argentina is using the motto “Argentina don’t go” to Israel, or #ArgentinaNoVayas.

 

Four young Israeli athletes are banned from competing in the tae kwon do world junior championship event in Tunisia.

 

“When Heroes Fly,” an Israeli television series, wins best series at the first Canneseries festival – a competition aimed at highlighting international television shows.

 

A new study reveals that more than a fifth of U.S. millennials have not heard of or are unsure if they have heard of the Holocaust, and that many Americans are unaware of basic facts about the Holocaust.

 

Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, shares a Facebook post blaming the Holocaust in part on gun control.

 

Palestinians in Gaza begin flying Molotov cocktail-laden kites bearing the colors of the Palestinian flag over the border into Israel carrying a fire bomb. The kites start fires when they touch down.

 

Jerry Silverman announces that he will step down next year as president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, the umbrella body of local community Jewish philanthropies.

 

A Women’s March leader mired in controversy because of her association with the virulently antisemitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has attacked Starbucks for including the Anti-Defamation League among its advisers on bias. Tamika Mallory in a tweet Tuesday, April 17 accused the Jewish group of “constantly attacking black and brown people.”

 

After announcing that she will travel to Jerusalem to accept the Genesis Prize, actress Natalie Portman cancels her participation in the award ceremony, citing her displeasure with Israel’s actions in quelling Palestinian demonstrations in Gaza.

 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren calls on the Israeli government to “exercise restraint and respect the rights of Palestinians to peacefully protest.” This follows a tweet from Sen. Bernie Sanders criticizing Israel’s use of force during border demonstrations and calling the killing of Gaza protesters “tragic.”

 

The Arizona Cardinals choose UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen as the 10th overall pick in the National Football League draft.

 

Syracuse University suspends a campus fraternity after a video surfaces of members using racist, antisemitic, homophobic and ableist slurs.

 

Czech Republic President Milos Zeman announces the pending appointment of an honorary consul in Jerusalem, the first in a three-step process to move the country’s embassy to Jerusalem.

 

The jail sentence of Rabbi Barry Freundel, a once-prominent Washington, D.C. rabbi who secretly filmed women in his synagogue’s  mikvah, is shortened by more than a year due to good behavior and for participating as an instructor in an inmate education program.

 

 

 

MAY

Roseanne Barr apologizes to Hungarian-born George Soros for calling the Jewish billionaire a Nazi collaborator. This follows the comedian’s tweet mocking former Obama official Valerie Jarrett, which many found racist and which led to the cancellation of her ABC sitcom.

 

Former Congresswoman and 2012 Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann, apologizes in Israel for calling on Jews to convert to Christianity in 2015, and for “the horrible and arrogant way Christians – myself included – treated and regarded the Jewish people.”

 

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas apologizes to Jews offended by a recent speech in which he blamed the Holocaust on Jews. In response to his remarks, The New York Timescalled for new leadership at the PA.

 

Starbucks denies that left-wing criticism caused it to remove the ADL from a lead role in its anti-bias training. The anti-bias training is Starbucks’ response to the controversy surrounding the rrecent arrest of two black men at one of its franchises.

 

A fire burns dozens of acres of forest and agricultural fields in southern Israel after a kite carrying a firebomb crossed the border from Gaza.

 

For the third time in three weeks, a Chabad man is assaulted in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.

 

Michael Twitty, an African American Jew-by-choice, wins the prestigious James Beard Foundation’s 2018 Book of the Year award for his book on African-American Southern food.

 

Samantha Bee calls Ivanka Trump a “feckless c***” on her TBS late night show “Full Frontal.” She later apologizes.

 

The United States dedicates its new embassy in Jerusalem, reversing decades of American policy.

 

Netta Barzilai’s Eurovision-winning single “Toy” hits No. 1 on the Billboard dance club chart – the first time an Israeli artist has topped any of the music industry magazine’s popularity lists.

 

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says Israel should be “condemned” for its response to recent rioting along the Israeli-Gaza border, which resulted in some 60 Palestinian deaths.

 

A 14-year-old boy is punched in the face and called a “Jew boy” as he stands outside a yeshiva in Queens, N.Y.

 

President Donald Trump signed legislation to help victims of the Holocaust and their families reclaim lost property in Poland.

 

Guatemala inaugurates its embassy in Jerusalem, the second country to move its main diplomatic mission from Tel Aviv.

 

In response to an Israeli strike on targets in Syria believed to house Iranian materiel and personnel, the Bahraini foreign minister says Israel had the a right to defend itself from Iran. The expression of support for Israeli military action by an Arab country is unprecedented.

 

According to a study done in Poland, Poles are responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths of Jews in the Holocaust – a figure that is significantly higher than previous estimates.

 

1,007 French respondents to a poll about Zionism say the movement is a Jewish conspiracy meant to manipulate Western societies to benefit Jews. Half of the respondents also say Zionism is a “racist ideology.”

 

Despite reporting a dire need for medical equipment, Hamas turns back two shipments of medical supplies for Gazans because the goods bare labels from the Israel Defense Forces.

 

Israeli “Wonder Woman” Gal Gadot announces plans to produce and possibly star in a film about how ABC journalist Lisa Howard helped to establish a secret channel between Cuba and Washington after the Cuban missile crisis.

 

The Czech Republic reopens its honorary consulate in Jerusalem.

 

A new Pew Research Report survey reports that nearly a quarter of British respondents would be unwilling to accept Jews as family members.

 

A handwritten manuscript penned by author Franz Kafka fetches nearly $175,000 at an auction in Germany. The work of Kafka, a Jewish writer from Prague, is considered one of the most influential literary oeuvres of the 20th century.

 

 

 

JUNE

In a candid interview with Ynet news, Palestinians say that after they send the blazing “terror kites” into Israel – which they paint in the colors of the Palestinian flag, and occasionally with swastikas – they tune into Facebook to watch the fires.

 

The Chicago Dyke March, a queer pride parade, prominently features Palestinian flags, one year after ejecting marchers waving Jewish flags. The march this year was explicitly “a very pro-Palestinian event,” according to the Windy City Times.

 

MSNBC host Joy Reid, host of “AM Joy,” apologizes for blog posts criticizing the late Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and questioning Israel’s right to exist, and for mocking a lavish bat mitzvah.

 

 

 

JULY

Sociologist Steven M. Cohen, whose findings have shaped Jewish communal policy for decades, apologizes after several women accuse him of sexual misconduct. He is fired from positions at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and Stanford University.

 

The Coast Guard names a new ship after Nathan Bruckenthal, 24, a Jewish-American Coast Guardsman killed in 2004 in the Iraq War. He was the first Coast Guardsman to be killed in action since the Vietnam War.

 

Britain’s Labour Party adopts a definition of antisemitism that is laxer than the one used by the country’s executive branch, and adopted in 2016 by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and the EU as a whole. Among many points Labour omits: claiming that Israel’s existence is a “racist endeavor”; and comparing “Israeli policy” to that of the Nazis. But UK Members of Parliament affiliated with Labour defy their party by adopting the full and unamended definition.

 

Yuyval Shanyu, an Israeli law professor, becomes the first Israeli chosen to head the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

 

Israel is the eighth most powerful country in the world, according to U.S. News & World Report magazine’s 2018 “Best Country” rankings, placing ahead of most European countries, Australia and Canada.

 

Maria Estrada, a Democratic candidate for the California State Assembly, says Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians and offered her support for antisemitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

 

A letter written by Albert Einstein on the day he renounced his German citizenship, after realizing he could not return due to the rise of the Nazis, is sold at auction for $30,250.

 

Israel passes the controversial nation-state law, drawing ire from some who accuse it of being racist and discriminatory, and support from others who say it is merely a codification of longstanding agreed-upon facts about Israel’s Identity.

 

Several Norwegian hospitals refuse to service parents who wish to have their underage male children circumcised in violation of Norwegian law.

 

Ryszard Makowski, a Polish satirist who in 2016 made antisemitic jokes on television and later accused Jews of fomenting hatred against themselves, is awarded his country’s highest distinction for artists.

 

Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York decries the “occupation of Palestine” during a television interview. She goes on to win the election.

 

A common kestrel, a type of falcon, is found hanging from a burned tree wearing a harness with a wire wrapped around flammable material attached. It is the first time Palestinians in Gaza use an animal to ignite fires.

 

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she hopes to remain on the court for another five years.

 

Hamzeh Daoud, a student at Stanford University, threatens to “physically fight” against “Zionist students” following Israel’s passing of legislation making Israel the “nation-state of the Jewish people.”

 

 

 

AUGUST

Author J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series and other novels, goes head to head with a fellow British author Simon Maginn, on Twitter over his criticism of Jewish complains about antisemitism in the Labour Party.

 

Sen. John McCain, who made human rights and Israel centerpieces of his advocacy for a robust U.S. influence across the planet, dies at his ranch in Sedona, Arizona, of brain cancer. He was 81.

 

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has garnered backing from a key GOP senator in his bid to rename a Senate building for the late U.S. Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who died this month. The building  currently is named for Richard Russell, a Georgia Democrat who served from 1933 until 1971 and was notorious for leading opposition to civil rights reforms advanced. Schumer and McCain were both members of the Senate’s bipartisan Gang of Eight.

 

JStreet withdraws its endorsement of Michigan Democrat congressional candidate Rashida Tlaib for pledging to “absolutely vote against military aid to Israel” if elected , and for endorsing a one-state solution.

 

Tufts University announces that it will offer a course this fall called “Colonizing Palestine” taught by an anti-Israel and antisemitic activist who promotes the Nation of Israel as an apartheid state.

 

Spike Lee’s new film, “Blackkklansman,” is an alarm clock, telling Jews to wake up.

 

Hebrew College,  the century-old pluralistic seminary in suburban Boston, sells its distinctive building, but will stay on as a tenant until it finds a new site.

 

 

 

SEPTEMBER

The National Jewish Democratic Council, a group that once was the umbrella for Jewish Democrats, says it was brought down by a libel lawsuit filed against it by Sheldon Adelson and is countersuing now that Adelson has lost.

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel says he will not participate in a United Nations conference on antisemitism, held under the auspices of UNESCO, “due to the organization’s persistent and egregious bias against Israel.”

 

The European Parliament committee votes to freeze more than $17 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority over incitement against Israel in its textbooks. The EU will withhold the money from the PA until it commits to reforming its textbooks.

 

“Forever Pure,” a film dealing with the racist subculture among fans of Jerusalem’s Beitar soccer club, wins an Emmy Award for best outstanding politics and government documentary.

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York for a collegial discussion of Middle East issues and cooperation between the two countries.

 

A parliamentary committee in Denmark clears the path for a nonbinding vote on a petition that calls for banning nonmedical circumcision of boys.

 

A French court orders the return of a 1887 Pissarro painting to the heirs of its Jewish owner after rejecting an appeal by an American couple who sued to retain ownership. The artwork was owned by Simon Bauer, whose assets were seized in 1943 by the French government that collaborated with the Nazis.

 

 

 

OCTOBER

Roman Abramovich, the Jewish owner of the British soccer club Chelsea, announces plans to send fans who are caught chanting antisemitic songs on a tour of the former death camp Auschwitz.

 

An Israeli court orders two New Zealand women to pay over $12,000 in damages for allegedly helping persuade the pop singer Lorde to cancel a performance in Israel.

 

Arthur Ashkin, 96, a Jewish American, is one of three scientists to win the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics for inventions in the field of laser physics.

 

NASA signs an agreement with the Israel Space Agency and the Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL to collaborate on the Jewish state’s unmanned moon mission slated to launch from Cape Canaveral next year.

 

Antisemitic and racist fliers supporting the Ku Klux Klan are discovered on the front lawns and walkways of at least 30 homes in Cherry Hill, N.J.

 

Jordan’s King Abdullah informs Israel he has decided to not renew parts of their 1994 peace treaty.

 

Antisemitic fliers blaming Jews for the sexual assault allegations against newly sworn-in Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh are hung on the doors of Iowa organization and posted on at least four college campuses across the country.

 

The Israeli army destroys a mile-long tunnel built by the terrorist group Hamas that crossed from Gaza into Israel and was equipped with power and telephone lines.

 

 

 

TREE OF LIFE SHOOTING

Eleven congregants of Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh are shot during Shabbat morning services by a right-wing extremist shouting antisemitic slogans. The next day, memorial services and rallies decrying antisemitism are held throughout the country.

 

The Jewish owner of a gun shop in Colorado offers to give rabbis free semi-automatic rifles, following the murder of 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

 

Shay Khatiri, a 29-year-old Iranian refugee, launches an online fundraiser that collects more than $600,000 in donations for the Tree of Life Congregation.

 

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the city’s largest newspaper, prints the first four words of the Mourner’s Kaddish prayer in Hebrew as its front-page headline, as a tribute to the 11 people murdered at Tree of Life synagogue And, NBC Nightly News ends broadcast with Cantor Azi Schwartz chanting the Kaddish, as the names and photos of the victims flash across the screen.

 

 

 

NOVEMBER

Ilhan Omar, the newly elected congresswoman from Minnesota immediately voices her support for the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions movement against Israel.

 

At her victory party celebrating her election to Congress, Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib wraps herself in a Palestinian flag. Along with Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, she is one of two Muslim women ever to be elected to Congress.

 

Actress and activist Alyssa Milano says she won’t speak at the next Women’s March if it is organized by two current leaders, Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour, who refuse to distance themselves from the Nation of Islam’s leader, Louis Farrakhan, who has made antisemitic and bigoted statements for decades, most recently comparing Jews to termites. In response, The Women’s March say its leaders “reject antisemitism in all its forms,” but still refuse to reject Farrakhan. Milano is joined by Jewish actress Debra Messing in criticizing the Women’s March leaders.

 

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announces a 69 percent increase in documented hate crimes against Jews. In response, French Jews say antisemitism in their country has become a “daily occurrence.”

 

The White House names Dr. Miriam Adelson, wife of Republican benefactor Sheldon Adelson, as recipient of a Presidential Medal of Freedom – America’s highest civilian honor.

 

Hate crimes against Jews in America rose by more than a third last year and accounted for 58 percent of all religion-based hate crimes, according to a report released by the FBI.

 

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin officially hands over leadership of Ohr Torah Stone, the network of liberal Orthodox schools and seminaries in Israel that he founded 35 years ago, to Rabbi Kenneth Brander. Brander is the father of Rabbi Tuvia Brander, spiritual leader of Young Israel of West Hartford.

 

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman resigns his post, calling the decision to agree to a ceasefire with terrorist groups in Gaza “a capitulation to terror.”

 

A young boy is assaulted on a Wales bus, requiring hospital treatment, after his mother tells a man and a woman on the bus that she was born in Israel.

 

“Nevsu,” an Israeli comedy series about the marriage between an Ethiopian Jewish man and an Ashkenazi Jewish woman wins an International Emmy Award.

 

Airbnb announces its intention to remove listings of rooms and homes for rent in West Bank Jewish settlements, claiming the decision was based on the company’s consultation with experts regarding the region’s “historical disputes.” It did not say which experts were consulted.

 

The Israeli environmental organization Keren Kayemet L’Israel-Jewish National Fund offers its assistance in helping California recover from its recent forest fires.

 

The UN General Assembly approves six anti-Israel resolutions, including two that reject Jewish ties to the Temple Mount and Jerusalem.

 

Melvin Oliver, president of Pitzer College in Southern California, slams the faculty for its vote in favor of two anti-Israel motions: to halt the school’s study-abroad program with the University of Haifa; and its dissention regarding the school’s Board of Trustees invalidating a student government BDS resolution.

 

Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour seems to suggest Jews have divided loyalties when she criticizes American Jewish liberals for putting their support for Israel ahead of their commitment to democracy. Her comments appear in a Facebook post lauding Rep.-elect Ilhan Omar, who supports boycotting Israel.

 

Three swastikas are reported in the student residential area of Cornell University in nine days.

 

 

 

DECEMBER

Director Quentin Tarantino marries Israeli singer Daniela Pick under a chuppah in their Beverly Hills, CA, home, after a nearly decade-long transatlantic courtship. Pick is the daughter of Israeli singer/composer Zvika Pick.

 

A large menorah is toppled in a public park near Harvard University just before the start of the first night of Chanukah.

 

The office of Professor Elizabeth Midlarsky, a Columbia University psychology and education scholar whose work includes Holocaust studies, is vandalized with spray-painted swastikas and the antisemitic slur “Yid.”

 

A hand-crocheted yarmulke decorated with musical notes and the name “Frank” that once belonged to Frank Sinatra is sold at auction for nearly $10,000.

 

The Stolpersteine, a group of 20 small bronze cobblestones in downtown Rome that serve as Holocaust memorials, is uprooted and stolen. Police classify the tincidentvas “theft aggravated by racial hatred.”

 

Antisemitic fliers are found in Squirrel Hill, the Pittsburgh neighborhood where 11 worshippers were killed in an attack on Tree of Life Synagogue.

 

Antisemitic hate crimes in Canada increased by 63 percent in 2017, according to a new report by Statistics Canada.

 

A group of Jewish Americans sue Airbnb over the company’s plan to remove the listings of homes in Jewish West Bank settlements. Filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware, the 18 plaintiffs accuse Airbnb of redlining the Jewish-owned properties while continuing to allow Muslim and Christian homeowners to rent theirs. It asks the court to prevent Airbnb from discriminating against Jewish homeowners and seeks compensation for lost rental income.

 

In an interview with BBC’s Arabic language channel, Jerusalem-born actress Natalie Portman slams Israel’s new nation-state law, calling it “racist.”

 

Sheryl Sandberg, the second in command at Facebook, instructs employees to look into George Soros’ financial interests after Soros criticizes the social media giant at the World Economic Forum in January.

 

The American Federation of Teachers headquarters in Washington, D.C. is defaced with antisemitic graffiti. Randi Weingarten, the president of the national union for teachers, is Jewish and has partnered AFT with Israeli programs. She has also become an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump.