Yelena Rand arrived in Israel from the city of Simferopol in 1998 at the age of 13. In the country of her birth she studied in a regular (non-Jewish) school. Lena never concealed her Jewish identity; once she even gave a school report on Jewish holidays. No prejudice towards her was ever noticeable on the part of her classmates. After arriving in Israel, parallelly to her regular school, Lena was placed into an extended-day group (pnimiat yom Olimpus) for children of immigrant families of Kfar Saba. From the start, the girl was shocked by the atmosphere of loathing and hostility towards everything Jewish that she had discovered among the olim adolescents. From among the entire group of about 50 people, Lena was the only one who identified herself with the Jewish people. The majority of the group was composed of either grandchildren of Jews or non-Jewish family members. Once, during a showing in the class of a film about the Holocaust Lena started crying. From that moment onward, she became the subject of relentless harassment. She would incessantly receive photocopies from books about the Holocaust with abusive insults scrawled all over them. She was also beaten. Of course, not everyone in the class actively took part in persecuting her, but at the same time no one dared to rise to her defense.

Once, the group had decided to sneak into the computer room to hook up to the Internet, without the knowledge of the administration, and to have some fun exploring the various websites of interest to them. The administration became aware of the plot, and the scheme failed. Thereafter, the group set to the task of ascertaining who turned them in. The conclusion was unanimous: “besides the Jew-girl bitch, there’s nobody.” Lena remembers her arrival in Olimpus as a horrible nightmare. To the question of whether she ever tried complaining to the administration or even to the police, Lena replied: “I came to Israel with my mother and grandmother. The absorption was not easy. I really didn’t want to make it any more difficult with my personal problems…”

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 . Here’s a sample of a characteristic episode: as punishment for a wild stunt the teacher sent a Russian-speaking adolescent to the school principle’s office. The student reacted with the comment “Kike! If she was Russian she wouldn’t have done that.”

Recently, Israeli officials have been practically tripping over themselves to condemn the anti-Semitic incidents abroad. One after the next the headlines flash reporting on the conferences, forums, and investigative commissions in connection with the growing anti-Semitism. The issue of Jew-hatred has found itself in prominent limelight of the world mass media. For example, in the beginning of November of 2003, in many print and electronic media outlets the following story emerged from Germany: a dog trained to raise its paw on command “hail Hitler!” has sent her owner behind bars.

And what do we have? The level of activity in fighting anti-Semitism abroad is in a conversely proportional relationship to policy concerning local Jew-hatred. In light of the willful blindness and concealment of anti-Semitic actions in Israel, all this noisy activity seems rather like pathetic affectation. Only once did the Israeli establishment take note of the local anti-Semites. This happened after the mass media reported for several months about the emergence of an Israeli Russian-language Nazi website (BEI: The White Unity of Israel).

It should be noted that already back in 2000, Israeli television (Channel 2) began shooting a documentary about the local neo-Nazis. Subsequently, the “provocative” project was frozen (the author of these lines, however, was able to view the filmed material). And yet again, in June of 2003, reports of “Russian neo-Nazis in a Jewish state” appeared in not only Israeli newspapers but also in the press of England, Brazil, US, Poland and other countries. At first it might have been presumed that the appearance of Jew-haters in our country with Nazi leanings might touch a sensitive nerve of the leadership. After all, the subject of Nazism and the genocidal extermination of European Jewry occupies a prominent role in the Israeli educational curriculum. This is in addition to the massive memorial and investigative institutions dedicated to the Holocaust, the annual marking of Remembrance Day, and the hundreds of textbook pages, along with books, films, academic articles, discussion forums, etc.

So what was the outcome? Nothing. Light indications of nervousness aside everything continues on its former course. The pulse is steady. Ceremonious speeches about the importance of aliya continue unabated, and condemnations of anti-Semitic incidents abroad continue to the point of frothing at the mouth. Official personalities especially love discussing “the alternative to anti-Semitism that the state of Israel represents.” Yet no one mentions the Nazi infectious growth, taking root on Israeli soil. Fortunately, the authors of the website, scared by the public attention, hid away their little monstrosity from sight.

Meanwhile swastika signs on building walls, with inscription such as “death to the Kikes” have become commonplace in our country. There is distribution of anti-Semitic literature (a famous book collection of a Russian patriot was among 25 others recommended on BEI) and music cassettes of Nazi rock-groups like Kolovrat and Schturm. Israeli counterparts are taking part in chat forums on Russian nazi websites.

Here is another one:

“Auschwitz. SS officers are weighing the prisoners. ‘263 lb. Man, they’re getting fat! Next ten on the scale!’”

The above-mentioned joke is not from a Nazi website; it was heard on a cheerful entertainment program “The Golden Goose” shown on Israeli channel Israel Plus, on November 2nd at about 12 midnight. The person relating the joke was Vladimir Bystryakov, a participant on the show. “The Golden Goose” is a Ukrainian television program, syndicated and broadcast in Israel by Israel Plus.

There is no doubt that if a similar joke were heard on the television screens somewhere in Western Europe, it would have triggered an explosion of public outrage. In light of this, it might be sensible to learn a thing or two from Germany in reacting to anti-Semitism.

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."

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...

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"