Argentine football fans chant about ‘killing the Jews to make soap’
Fans chanted they were 'coming along the road, killing the Jews to make soap' as Jewish umbrella group DAIA files a criminal complaint
Fans of a Buenos Aires-based football team chanted about “killing the Jews to make soap” before a game against a team with a history of Jewish fans.
The Argentina umbrella Jewish organisation DAIA filed a criminal complaint Tuesday against the fans of Chacarita Juniors based on a video from March 16 that went viral on social media in Argentina.
An often debunked rumor from World War II involved the Nazis making soap from dead Jewish bodies.
“Chaca is coming along the road, killing the Jews to make soap,” the fans chanted in the video.
Chacarita was preparing to play Atlanta, two teams based in Villa Crespo, a Buenos Aires neighbourhood with a traditionally large Jewish population. Founded in 1904, Atlanta has historically received support from Jewish fans and featured several Jewish players and administrators.
The teams have been fierce rivals in the second tier of professional Argentine football for decades.
“The episode is an incitement to violence, to persecution, to hate, and represents a threat against the Jewish community as a whole,” DAIA wrote in a statement.
DAIA showed the video of the chants in federal court in the Buenos Aires area where the incident occurred.
In February 2000, Chacarita fans greeted the Atlanta team with Nazi flags and threw soap on the field while singing “with the Jews we make soap.” That spurred the Argentina Football Association to establish rules requiring the referee to end or suspend a match due to racist expressions.
Argentina enacted an anti-discriminatory law in 1988 that makes such activity punishable in court.
A year ago, a player from another rival team made headlines for making an obscene antisemitic gesture while leaving a game against Atlanta.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
