The Broken Promise; Evil is Back. A one-hour documentary film about the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe
Synagogues are being vandalized and scorched in Poland, Sweden, Germany, Hungary, and France, Anti-Semitic inscriptions drawn on building walls in Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam, London, Berlin and Rome, and Jewish cemeteries ransacked. Attacks on Jews have taken place on the streets of most major cities on the European continent, Jewish children in public schools are bullied for their religious affiliation, and Jewish schools are being placed under police protection.
In England, a gang of teenage girls approached 12-year-old Jasmine Kranat and a friend on a London bus. ‘Are you Jewish?’ they asked her, ignoring her friend wearing a crucifix. They proceeded to brutally beat Jasmine—stomping on her head and chest, fracturing her eye socket and knocking her unconscious.
Germany 2014 Hungary 2013
March 2012 in Toulouse, France, Mohammed Merah, a second generation Muslim, attacked a Jewish school killing three children and a rabbi, injuring five other people.
In 2015, a kosher supermarket in Paris was attacked by a jihadist gunman linked to the shootings at Charlie Hebdo magazine. He killed four Jewish hostages before he was gunned down.
In cities such as Malmö (Sweden) and Roubaix (France), the persecution suffered by the Jewish community has become so severe that people are selling their homes and uprooting their families. Jews must be hyper-aware in all European countries as those wearing a Kippa, Star of David or another visible emblem of religion are highly vulnerable. Anti-Semitism is so severe that in some schools, teachers cannot teach the Holocaust because students deny that it happened and say it is a Jewish conspiracy to acquire money and sympathy.
The orthodox Chabad Rabbi Shneur Kesselman is a prime target for anti-Jewish sentiments in Malmö. during his six years in the city he has been the victim of more than 50 anti-Semitic incidents.
86-year-old Judith Popinski, a holocaust survivor, says she no longer feels safe as a Jew in Malmö. She can no longer tell her story in schools as students treat her with disrespect, ignoring her or walking out of the class.
In Holland, Bloeme Evers-Emden, an 89 years- old holocaust survivor who raised a family in Amsterdam, fears that the city is not safe for them anymore. She encourages her children and grandchildren to immigrate to Israel. Bloeme is a member of the ‘hidden synagogue’, a synagogue that fears to show any symbol of Judaism on the exterior walls and only allows people to enter after they are identified through a peephole.
Holocaust survivor 'Quenelle' the new anti Jewish salute
Frits Bolkenstein, a former leader of a major political party in the Netherlands, recommended that the Jewish orthodox community in Holland immigrate to Israel or the US because it is no longer safe to live in Holland as a Jewish person.
Anti-Semitism is ripe within Britain’s Muslim community as well. Islamic bookshops sell copies of Hitler’s Mein Kampf and the notorious Czarist Forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Imams routinely preach anti-Jewish sermons and Opinion polls show that nearly two-fifth of Britain’s Muslims believe that the Jewish community is a legitimate target of the ongoing struggle for justice in the Middle East.
In Budapest (Hungary), Mr. Gyongyosi, vice-chairman of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee and member of the extreme right party Jobbic, has called for the creation of a national list of Hungarian Jews as they pose a “national-security risk”.
In Greece, the extreme nationalist party Golden Dawn, which holds 17 parliamentary seats, has been rising in the public opinion polls. Golden Dawn’s leader, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, denies there were gas chambers or ovens at Nazi death camps and has a penchant for giving the Nazi salute.
In the last conflict in the Middle East in the summer of 2014, Europe’s old demon returned with alarming ruthlessness. “Death to the Jews!” “Gas the Jews!” shouted protesters at pro-Palestinian rallies in the big European cities. The ugly threats were surpassed by even uglier violence. Four people were fatally shot at the Jewish Museum in Brussels. A Jewish-owned pharmacy in Paris was destroyed by youths protesting Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. A synagogue in Wuppertal, Germany, was attacked with firebombs. A Swedish Jew was beaten with iron pipes. The list goes on and on.
The project “The Broken Promise; Evil is Back” is the story of the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe. Appalled by the sufferings of Jewish people in the dark days of the Second World War, Europe made an unwritten promise; vowing to protect surviving Jewish citizens. Less than seventy years later, Jewish people find themselves unsafe in certain parts of Europe, again.
Modern Anti-Semitism in Europe stems from several different sources. Traditional anti-Jewish sentiment and Neo Nazi beliefs are still relevant and are more active now than 20 years ago. A popular belief of these Neo Nazis in Europe is that Jews are controlling the world and the banking system. Other perpetrators of anti-Semitic acts are Muslim immigrants from the last fifty years. After moving to Europe in order to help rebuild after the war, this immigrant population has also fallen victim to persecution and marginalization as a result of widespread Islamophbia. Despite suffering from similar maltreatment as Jews, some members of the Muslim immigrant demographic have become highly active in demonstrations of Anti-Jewish attitude.
Additional factors contributing to the recent rise of Anti-Semitism in Europe are recurrent beliefs among certain populations that Jews are controlling the world. From control of the banking system, to a strong lobby gaining full control of political decisions, the notorious book The Protocol of the elders of Zion is gaining increasing influence. The graver the economic situation in Europe gets, the more popular this book becomes. Through the stories of the survivors in the film, viewers will realize the disingenuous nature of the information in the book.
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Why the film is important
As history showed us, at a certain point the process can't be reversed. The dramatic increase in the number and severity of anti-Semitic events may indicate that we are near the point of no return. This film will provide a comprehensive visual understanding of the cause, nature and danger of this new wave of anti-Semitism in Europe.
We are producing this film to raise awareness. As a Jewish person living in Europe it saddens me to see and feel the fear in the Jewish communities around me. The idea that a Jewish Person has to hide his Kippa or his Star of David is unacceptable to me, not after the Holocaust. Europe said “no” to hatred less the seventy years ago and must stand by that exclamation. If anti-Semitism is a disease, then we must find a cure.
Germeany 2014 Hungary 2013
The Goal
We have been working on this film for the past two years and are committed to completing and distributing a powerful product to people around the world. We have already filmed half of the story that deals with the rise of the new anti-Semitism from the part of the Muslim Community in Europe.
Now, we ready to film the second part that deals with the old anti-Semitism, the one that seems that never "left the building”. For this part we need your help and support.
This film will be distributed freely to TV broadcasters, schools and public libraries. It will be posted on YouTube and other venues in the Internet. The mission is to get the story out and to raise awareness to this dangerous problem.
As with so many independent filmmakers, we have to raise funds independently in order to complete our project.
Your pledge, large or small, brings us closer to finishing the film. We are confident that with your support, we will meet or exceed our goal by july 2016.
