By Miriam Raftery

December 5, 2023 (La Mesa) --  A representative from District Attorney Summer Stephan's office and the La Mesa Police Dept. invite community members to a hate crimes forum with Q&A session on Dec.14 at 5:30 p.m. at the La Mesa Police Dept., 8085  University Ave., La Mesa.

The forum comes on the heels of anti-Semitic flyers repeatedly disseminated in La Mesa and the nearby San Diego communities of Del Cerro,  San Carlos and Allied Gardens in recent months, among other neighborhoods targeted. Some flyers blamed Jews for 9-11 attacks, among other false claims.

Arabs, Jews, Black community, Latinos, and Whites divided between both groups

Story, video and photos by Briana Gomez

Photos, left: Latinos for Israel, photo by Briana Gomez, pro-Palestinian marchers, photo by Gary Fields

View a special ECM video report: https://youtu.be/YT4tOLvpGYA

July 27, 2021 (El Cajon) – Pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups held large rallies Sunday afternoon in El Cajon that remained peaceful, though outside groups provoked skirmishes nearby. 

Shield of David hosted a “Stand with Israel” rally at 3 p.m. at Prescott Promenade in downtown El Cajon featuring Mayor Bill Wells and keynote speaker Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of State under the Trump Administration.The event hosted a variety of other speakers as well as entertainment and Israeli food.  It attracted about 1,000 Jews and supportive community members who wanted to stand united against rising anti-Semitic violence, celebrate Israel, and listen to the speakers.

A counter rally took place at 2 p.m. at El Cajon City Park led by Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) in collaboration with other activist groups like Jewish Voice for Peace. Leaders of these groups leveled criticism at organizers of the pro-Israel rally, which they viewed as divisive at a time of intense conflicts between Israel and Palestine, including recent bombings.

By Ken Stone, Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

Photo:  Tom Metzger moved from Fallbrook to northern Indiana in 2006 but later returned to Southern California. Photo via splcenter.org

November 10, 2020 (San Diego) - Tom Metzger, one of the nation’s most notorious white supremacists and anti-Semites, has died, according to a post on his White Aryan Resistance website. He was 82. 

AMCHA Initiative’s 2016 report indicates two main sources are responsible for anti-Semitism on campus

East County News Service

April 15, 2017 (Santa Cruz) -- Anti-Semitism on campus increased 40% and genocidal expression doubled in 2016, according to the AMCHA Initiative’s annual study, released earlier this month.  The study examines anti-Semitism at more than 100 public and private colleges and universities with the largest Jewish undergraduate populations.

By Miriam Raftery

February 17, 2015 (San Diego’s East County)—Last week,  a young Jewish man was shot and killed outside a Copenhagen synagogue. In Paris, as many as 250 Jewish graves were desecrated.  At the University of California in Davis, California earlier this month, swastikas were sprayed on a Jewish fraternity house after a demonstration by pro-Palestinian students, one of whom  proclaimed on Facebook that Hamas and Sharia law had come to the campus, prompting 23 organizations to demand an investigation to protect Jewish students’ safety. These are the latest in a string of hate crimes targeting Jewish people around the world.

It's a violent start to the New Year that continues a chilling trend.  Last year, 2014, was a year of unprecedented anti-Semitic violence worldwide, the Simon Wiesenthal Center reports. That report found that due to violent anti-Semitism, Jewish people worldwide now face the greatest challenges since the end of World War II, when 6 million Jewish people were exterminated in concentration camps by the Nazis.