The trial of the author of the worst anti-Semitic attack in the United States begins

The trial of the alleged perpetrator of the attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue, the deadliest anti-Semitism in US history, for which he faces the death penalty, began Monday amid an upsurge in anti-Semitic activity in this country.

• Read more: Pittsburgh synagogue attacker faces death penalty

Proceedings will begin only after a jury is selected to try Robert Bowers, 50, on 63 counts in Pennsylvania (Northeastern) federal court.

The white driver, who pleaded not guilty, was charged with the murders, aggravated by the merits of anti-Semitism.

Before that, he posted racist, anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant messages on a far-right social network.

The then President Republican Donald Trump, Mr. Bowers publicly called for the death penalty, which was followed by the Justice Department and confirmed after the election of Democratic President Joe Biden.

Mr. to abolish the death penalty at the national level. Three years after Biden’s campaign pledge, the trial will reignite debate in the United States over the death penalty, which is still practiced in several US states.

“Hatred” of the Jews

In early 2019, a Pittsburgh federal prosecutor indicated that he would seek a federal sentence for Robert Bowers, citing his “lack of remorse” and “his hatred and contempt” for Jews.

On October 27, 2018, he entered the “Tree of Life” Synagogue in Pittsburgh armed with three handguns and a semi-automatic assault rifle.

He opened fire in the middle of a Shabbat celebration in a historic Jewish neighborhood in Pittsburgh, killing 11 people, including a 97-year-old worshiper, in the bloodiest attack against Jews in America.

Israel is the second largest Jewish nation in the world.

In 2020, according to the Pew Research Center, there were 5.8 million Jewish adults in the United States, religious or not, with an additional 2.8 million adults claiming Jewish parentage. .

Jury selection could take weeks, and the trial opens against a backdrop of a surge in racist and anti-Semitic acts in the United States, the highest in 30 years, according to figures cited by the FBI on Monday. The Washington Post.

According to the American Anti-Semitic Defamation League, the country recorded 2,717 acts of anti-Semitism (assaults, verbal attacks, property damage, etc.) in 2021, an increase of 34%. A year.

Almost 3,700 acts of anti-Semitism

In 2022, the association counted 3,697 anti-Semitic acts (+36% in one year), the most since 1979, according to the Washington Post.

Last year, according to the American Jewish Committee (AJC), one of America’s oldest Jewish advocacy organizations — “39% of American Jews change their behavior because of fear of experiencing anti-Semitism. Identity,” while “24% have reported being the target of anti-Semitism.”

US federal officials have prioritized the fight against anti-Semitism.

Doug Emhoff, the husband of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and a Jew, called in December to fight the “epidemic of hate” in America.

In November, the FBI issued warnings about threats against synagogues in the state of New Jersey, near New York.

A Briton held four hostages in a synagogue in Texas before being killed in a police raid in January 2022.

In April 2019, six months after the attack in Pittsburgh, a young man who claimed to be anti-Semitic shot dead a woman and wounded three others at a California synagogue.