Ari Ackerman, a student from Switzerland, was walking home along the Tel Aviv beach after a late-night swim when he and a friend were jumped by a gang singing Nazi songs and displaying swastika tattoos.

The perpetrators, a group of Russian-speaking teenagers, eventually ran off. Ackerman and his friend, their faces bruised and bloodied, set off to the closest police station only to have their case shrugged off.

"Israel is a country that faces the same problems any other country faces," Ackerman said, trying to make sense of what he experienced. "There is a phenomenon of neo-Nazism, even if it is fringe, but to acknowledge it is to go against the country's own narrative."

In recent years, sporadic acts of anti-Semitism have hit Israel, most of them carried out by disaffected immigrant youths from the former Soviet Union (FSU). Although the youths came to Israel under the Law of Return, they are among those who identify not as Jews but as ethnic Russians. Under Israel's Law of Return, a cornerstone of Israel's identity as a haven for all Jews, anyone with a Jewish parent or grandparent is permitted to immigrate and be granted citizenship.

Experts say the perpetrators of such acts feel rebuffed and marginalized by Israeli society, so they turn their furor into the same anti-Semitism with which they may have been tormented in their countries of birth.

Recent incidents occurred at a school in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam, where its mezuzahs were torn down and burned. About three months ago, a club for Russian-speaking immigrant veterans of World War II was desecrated with swastikas.

Zalman Gilichinsky, who immigrated to Israel from Moldova, started a center for victims of anti-Semitic attacks or harassment.

"Neo-Nazism is the same development they see in Russia and they transplant it here," he said, referring to the youth. Gilichinsky said he has been frustrated by what he sees as the relative lack of seriousness with which Israel has taken the issue.

Knesset hearings, however, have been held, and the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption says it is working to reach the type of disconnected young immigrants who might be drawn to committing such acts. Officials also stress that the numbers involved in such activities are very few and not at all representative of most young immigrants from the FSU.

Gilichinsky claims Israel is embarrassed by the issue, which he said stems from too many non-Jews being allowed into Israel under the Law of Return.

"Israel wants to maintain its image as a refuge from anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism, so they don't want to publicize anything that would go against that image," he said.

Gilichinsky said that according to the calls his center receives, there are almost daily incidents. They are exacerbated, he said, by connections forged online between young immigrants here and their counterparts in the FSU through neo-Nazi Web sites and chat rooms.

Arieh Turkiments, an immigrant from Vilna, is among those who contacted the organization after he was slapped in the face by another immigrant and cursed for being a Jew. He was standing outside a Jerusalem yeshiva, where he had been attending classes on Judaism.

"It is a terrible feeling here in the Land of Israel that we have to hear such insults," Turkiments' wife, Maria, said. "The reality is that it is sometimes worse being here than in the Diaspora."

Maria Turkiments herself took issue with the Law of Return. "It lets all sorts of people in who should not be here," she said.

Avinoam Bar-Yosef, director-general of the Jewish People Policy Institute think tank, downplayed notions that Israel might be facing anything close to a phenomenon when it comes to imported anti-Semitism. "It's not really significant. This is a fringe issue," Bar-Yosef said. "When you have major waves of aliyah, you are going to have members of families of Jews who are not Jewish." Part of the problem, he said, "comes from suffering the trauma of moving from one place to another." "It should be monitored and anti-Semitic acts should be dealt with everywhere, but it is not a real problem in Israel," Bar-Yosef said, arguing that most immigrants from the FSU integrate well into Israeli society.

Sara Cohen, director of social services at the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, said those youth at risk either do not see themselves as Jews or are not considered Jewish. "These are youth with a confused identity," Cohen said. "In Russia they are called Jews and in Israel they are called goyim. Part of the confusion over identity can lead them to feel disconnected."

The ministry sponsors several programs to help immigrant youth at risk feel more integrated into Israeli society. Roughly one-quarter of immigrants who have come to Israel since the major wave of immigration began from the FSU in the early 1990s are not considered Jewish according to halacha, or Jewish law. In Israel, only Orthodox conversions are considered valid.

Alex Selsky, a Jewish Agency for Israel spokesman for the Russian language media who emigrated from Russia in 1993, said if Israel accepted Reform and Conservative conversions, many more immigrants from the FSU would try to convert. He said Jewish education courses such as Nativ, sponsored jointly by the Jewish Agency and the army, are one way young immigrant soldiers from the FSU are forging a stronger connection to both Israel and their Jewish heritage.

David Zelventsky runs a museum at an immigrant club in Hadera about Jews who fought for the Red Army during World War II. He said much still needs to be done to tackle anti-Semitism around the world, including in Israel. It was hard for him to see the swastikas and slurs against Jews spray-painted on the center's walls, but he was not necessarily surprised.

"I've seen many things in my lifetime," said Zelventsky, whose father was a World War II veteran. "What I know is that it is too early to lay down arms in the battle against anti-Semitism."

Dina Kraft
2007 Apr 27

There have been an especially abundant number of complaints about the anti-Semitism of the Russian-speaking schoolchildren. Olim educators are in frequent correspondence with the Information and Support Center for Victims of Anti-Semitism in Israel.

Anti-Semitic acts are largely ignored by officials in Israel, in spite of the fact that the media has informed the public scores of times about this horrific phenomenon.

The behavior of many of the non-Jewish immigrants to Israel is chillingly similar to the disrespectful and disorderly behavior of illegal Mexican immigrants to the United States and Muslim immigrants to Western Europe. Russian thugs in Israel have perpetrated dozens of anti-Jewish incidents.

Three immigrants from the former Soviet Union, ages 14 to 16 were indicted Thursday in the Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court for allegedly assaulting ultra-Orthodox residents of the city... 27/01/2005

The following article has appeared in the “Vesti” newspaper, May 22, 2005:

“What happened in the city of Karmiel at the end of last week, on the Student Day, was so far reported only on Channel 10 on TV. There were no reporters on the scene, and only the amateur video given to the journalists was used...

"Hitler was a genius. He succeeded in doing what no one else had done", wrote a 16 year old boy from Be'er Sheva, on his computer's ICQ program. Unfortunately for him, he addressed these shocking statements to Police Investigator Staff Sergeant Oleg Rosental, whose relentless compilation of information, which continued approximately a month, brought to the youth's arrest.

Very quietly, a widespread Neo-Nazi movement has been established here, in which tens of young Russian members are in favor of the destruction of the Jews.

Minister of Interior, Tommy Lapid, announced at a government session that a neo-nazi network composed of immigrants from the CIS is operating in Israel.

Worshipers at the 100-year-old Great Synagogue in Petah Tikva saw the graffiti outside the building when they arrived at 4:30 a.m. Thursday to open it for morning prayers...

Sir, -As an American immigrant studying in a Petah Tikva yeshiva, I joined other residents of that city last Tuesday night to attend festive Independence Eve services at the main synagogue on Rehov Hovevei Zion...

Gilichinsky has been surveilling neo-Nazi activity in Israel for the past 17 years from his modest apartment in Jerusalem's Ramot neighborhood, but failed to attract the media or authorities' attention. "Nobody wants to know. The politicians ignore it. Occasionally, some act of vandalism makes the headlines, raising a brief interest that dies shortly afterward," he says.

Six minors, immigrants from the CIS, were arrested early this year on suspicion of burning flags and stealing mezuzahs from Nahshonim School in Bat Yam. They also confessed to stealing mezuzahs from homes in the city on eight additional occasions. The teens attributed their actions to a hatred for Jews and Judaism.

"I was walking my dog in Tel Aviv. When I went to cross the street there was a drunk-looking man standing next to me. My dog got scared and started to bark at him. I apologized and continued walking. I suddenly felt someone push me and I fell on the floor. The drunken man pushed me to the ground, took the leash and started to choke the dog. He was screaming at me "Stinking Zhidovka! (A derogatory name for a Jew in Russian).

Six youngsters between ages of 12 and 15 from coastal town Bat-Yam, south of Tel Aviv, arrested for burning Israeli flag and mezuzah parchments torn from doorposts. The boys, not all Jewish, explain 'We loath anything related to Judaism'

...Zalman Glichevsky runs an organization called Dmir for victims of anti-Semitism within the country. "The government knows very well that there is a problem, but they don't react," he said. "It's like talking to a wall, they want to brush this problem under the carpet. Israel has been created as a refuge for Jews, but when it turns out that anti-Semitism is here, too, the refuge is ruined."

Shot and displayed by a neo-Nazi group from Petah-Tikva in Israel...

Russian immigrants who were invited to settle in Israel despite having onlydistant Jewish roots are being blamed for a startling outbreak of anti- Semitism in the country.

Police arrest eight youths suspected of being members of a local neo-Nazi cell. Group members assaulted minority groups, spray-painted swastikas. Before court hearing Sunday, suspects deny allegations, say 'tattoos mean nothing'

Nazi graffiti discovered in several places in the city. Ayalon district police investigating the incident, no arrests made so far

Police in northern town of Migdal Haemek arrest teenager suspected of spraying swastikas on cars, walls...

An indictment was filed at the Tel Aviv District Court Tuesday against the eight youths arrested Sunday on suspicion of being members of a neo-Nazi cell in Petah Tikva. Three of the defendants are minors...

Star pupil at military academy in Haifa posts videos of himself on Youtube, goose-stepping in IDF uniform, reaching sister Nazi salute

Officials say Petah Tikva anti-Semitic gang just one of many, claim 'a number of latent local cells waiting to come out of the closet' . Police posit that a neo-Nazi cell uncovered last weekend in Petah Tikva is not the last anti-Semitic gang in the area. ..

...He'd just finished a lesson at kollel, married men's yeshiva, when "they started laughing at me and making remarks about the 'zhids,'" he recalls. Then the boys started throwing rocks at him. He threw rocks back, until one of the boys hit a car, the driver got out, and the boys scattered...

A 19-year-old was arrested Sunday on suspicion of vandalizing a succa in Haifa. The succa, located near a synagogue in Neve David...

"Patrol 36" – this is how the members of the most aggressive Russian-Nazi gang in Israel had called themselves.

The gang had ties with their "colleagues" in the CIS – the radical neo-nazi group "Format 18" and other groups...

Today, the Law of Return, enacted to increase the number of Jews in the State of Israel, is in reality not only increasing the non-Jewish part of the population, but is also “repatriating” to this country European anti-Semitism.

Of course, there are the “showcase” excesses, such as the drawing of swastikas, the burning and desecration of Jewish cemeteries and religious buildings. The contagion of anti-Semitism, however, has also other less conspicuous but no less detestable manifestations.

Anti-Semitism has been swelling recently in the Jewish state. Not long ago, the first Israeli neo-Nazi Internet site was launched. More precisely, it is an Israeli site in Russian.

Synagogues defaced by swastikas in B’nai Brak? Graves vandalized in Beit Shemesh? A teenager harassed for being a Jew on her way to school in Netivot?

Three immigrants from the former Soviet Union, ages 14 to 16 were indicted Thursday in the Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court for allegedly assaulting ultra-Orthodox residents of the city... 27/01/2005 "Haaretz"