A neo-Nazi group known as the Nordic Resistance Movement targeted Jews in Scandinavia and Iceland with anti-Semitic campaigns in the week leading up to Yom Kippur - the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
Reports published on websites affiliated with the extremist movement claimed that the members took part in anti-Semitic actions in approximately 20 different cities.
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Nordic Resistance Movement sympathizers participating in an anti-immigrant demonstration in central Stockholm
(Photo: AFP)
"Pictures allegedly... show members confronting Jewish worshipers and standing in front of synagogues, anti-Semitic posters placed and flyer distributions in public areas," according to The Jerusalem Post.
The movement claimed it had chosen Yom Kippur to protest against Jews, in order to "make the Nordic people aware of foreign customs and Zionist plans throughout the Nordic region," and included references to shechita (kosher ritual slaughter), circumcision and kapparot (a short ceremony undertaken before Yom Kippur where in some communities a live chicken - and in others a handful of coins - is swung around a penitent's head).
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Supporters of the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement hold flags during a demonstration at the Kungsholmstorg square in Stockholm
(Photo: AFP)
The Post cited the Helsinki Times, which reported that "the Supreme Court of Finland issued a cease-and-desist order to the Nordic Resistance Movement last week, marking the first such order issued since the 1970s.
The court supported its ruling, declaring that the "objectives of the organization were in violation of the foundations of a democratic society."
World Jewish Congress (WJC) President Ronald S. Lauder blasted the coordinated campaign, remarking that 2020 was the second year in succession that "anti-Semitism had reared its ugly head in Europe." In 2019, a far-right assailant attempted to gain entry to a synagogue in Halle, Germany, but security doors prevented his entry.
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Neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement sympathizers demonstrate against migrants in central Stockholm
(Photo: AFP)
Lauder called on Nordic governments to follow Finland's lead and outright ban the movement.
"The Nordic Resistance Movement represents a violent, racist, anti-Semitic ideology, and should be outlawed. Perpetrators of this type of incitement against Jews, horrifically disseminated on the most solemn day of the Jewish year, must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law," he maintained.