April Benayoum: Miss France 2021 First Runner-Up Receives Flood of Antisemitic Hate

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April Benayoum: Miss France 2021…

MISS FRANCE 3

Miss France 2021 — the 91st edition of the French national beauty pageant — took place on Dec. 19, 2020. The winner of the competition was Amandine Petit, who represented the region of Normandy. The first runner-up was April Benayoum, 21, a model and winner of the title Miss Provence. After Benayoum alluded to her part-Israeli background during an on-air interview, she was bombarded with antisemitic hate messages on social media.

Quote: “Renaud Muselier, a former French member of the European Parliament from the Provence region, called the attacks an ‘abomination.’ He emphasized that Ms. Benayoum was ‘French, of Italian and Israeli origin, from Provence, from the south,’ which means she ‘perfectly represents our region and our country.’ ”

Sources: BBC.com

Read “Miss France runner-up April Benayoum targeted by anti-Semitic tweets” >>

Read “Miss France runner-up targeted by wave of anti-Semitic abuse after on-stage interview” CBS >>

Photo: Ol Canadian

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“If anti-Semitism is a variety of racism, it is a most peculiar variety, with many unique characteristics. In my view as a historian, it is so peculiar that it deserves to be placed in a quite different category. I would call it an intellectual disease, a disease of the mind, extremely infectious and massively destructive.”

— Paul Johnson, author of A History of the Jews

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“I went through kindergarten through 12th grade, college, law school and four years of active duty in the U.S. Army and I never once experienced anti-Semitism — until I came to the U.S. House of Representatives.”

— Lee Zeldin, Republican Congressman from New York, currently running for governor of the state

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“In the ’80s, we were living in the U.S.S.R., where anti-Semitism was a deeply ingrained part of the culture. Being a Jewish person in the Soviet Union was not easy. Not that I remember any of that — I was barely old enough to chew back then — but for my parents, both Uzbekistan-born Jews, life was a struggle.”

— Milana Vayntrub, actress, comedian, and activist born in the Soviet Union.

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“I think that the roots of racism have always been economic, and I think people are desperate and scared. And when you’re desperate and scared you scapegoat people. It exacerbates latent tendencies toward — well, toward racism or homophobia or anti-Semitism.”

— Henry Louis Gates, African-American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker

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“In the past, we saw European leaders speaking against the Jews. Now, we see them speaking against Israel. It is the same anti-Semitism of blood libels, spreading lies, distorting reality and brainwashing people into hating Israel and the Jews.”

— Ayelet Shaked, Israeli politician and minister of Interior

Note: All the above quotations are from BrainyQuote.com.