Raoul Wallenberg was Able to Save 100,000 Jews from Nazis’ Gas Chambers; Swedish Authorities won’t Safeguard 700 Jewish Citizens

“On August 4, 1912, Raoul Wallenberg was born. He would go on to become one of the greatest heroes of the SecondWorld War when he volunteered to go to Budapest in 1944 and managed to save 100,000 Jews frombeing murdered in Auschwitz death camp. How tragic is it that on August 4th, 2014, authorities in Malmo, Sweden’s third largest city, refuse to protect 700 fellow Jewish citizens or thecommunity’s institutions,” charged Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish human rights organization. “Nothing has changed since we slapped atravel advisory on that city in 2012. In face-to-face meetings we had with then-mayor Reepalu and other officials, it became clear they would not take even the minimal steps to deal withserial anti-Semitic intimidation and hate crimes,” Rabbi Cooper added.

“Now, against the backdrop of a surge of anti-Semitism fueled by one-sided media coverage, the community’s Rabbi is again targeted andsynagogue windows are smashed. What will it take for national authorities in Stockholm to intervene to hold perpetrators accountable and to secure the safety and well being of the longsuffering Rabbi Shneur Kesselman and other members of Malmo Jewish community? Clearly, local and regional officials won’t act. Its time for Stockholm to take action before, G-d forbid,these incidents escalate,” Cooper concluded.

The latest assault against Rabbi Kesselman, along with a member of his congregation came on Saturday night, the Sydsvenskandaily reported Sunday.

According to the Sydsvenskan report, a car approached them with several men inside who called out “f***ing Jews” and hurled a glass bottle at Klein and Kesselman. The bottleshattered on a wall behind them. Earlier that evening, a lighter was thrown at the men from a passing car.

Malmo is a city of 300,000, has about 700 Jews. One-third of the city’s population is immigrants from Muslim countries or theirchildren.

Dozens of anti-Semitic crimes are reported annually in Malmo. Last month, a non-Jewish man was beaten there for displaying an Israeliflag in his window. Arrests are rare and there are no known convictions for anti-Semitic hate crimes in Malmo.

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families inthe United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament(Parlatino).