Cape Board exposes Torr-id antisemitism

The Cape South African Jewish Board of Deputies (Cape SAJBD) awaits a conclusive finding against local aspiring comedian Thomas Torr for depraved videos and utterances in its first antisemitism hate speech case at the Equality Court.

The hate speech case is a significant milestone for South African Jewry as it’s the first case of its kind since the 7 October 2023 massacre in Israel. The Cape Board appeared at the Western Cape High Court in the Mother City on 23 April.

Eduard Fagan SC, who appeared for the Cape SAJBD together with Eshed Cohen, told the court that the case was unique in South Africa and globally for the extensive level of hate, depravity, and violence that Torr expresses. Judge Andre Le Grange heard the case, and said he was “shocked” at Torr’s antisemitic videos.

“The Cape SAJBD remains steadfast in its mission to protect the Jewish community and confront antisemitism in all its forms,” said Cape SAJBD Executive Director Daniel Bloch. “The organisation is currently pursuing three additional hate speech cases, set to be heard in coming months.”

Although Torr didn’t appear, either in person or through a legal representative, Fagan asked Judge Le Grange nevertheless to give a judgment because of the role it could play in stopping antisemitic hate speech, rather than simply making an order.

Le Grange agreed, reserved judgment, and said a written judgment would follow within the next few weeks. A judgment in which the court explains why Torr’s statements are contrary to South African law would have a crucial impact on combatting current and future instances of antisemitism in South Africa.

It is the Cape SAJBD’s contention that a series of 22 videos posted online by Torr contain “extreme” antisemitic language and images and accordingly, constitute hate speech. The court heard expert testimony from Professor Milton Shain, who explained why Torr’s comments contained classic antisemitic ideas.

“It’s always remarkable to see the tenacity of anti-Jewish stereotypes and tropes,” Shain told the SA Jewish Report. “Torr is obsessed with Jewish ‘bloodlust’ and other fantasies that we see in late medieval European antisemitism. Despite secularisation and the removal of the old medieval props, somehow or other, the old myths persist. Hopefully, judgment in a high court on Torr’s anti-Jewish fantasies will serve as a lesson to others so inclined.”

Fagan also noted that Torr had shown no remorse, instead showing disdain for the legal process.

For example, when the presiding judge’s registrar emailed the parties advising them of a proposed date and time for a directions hearing, Torr’s response was, “I will kill you if I ever meet you.” He also told a member of the Cape SAJBD’s legal team that, “You definitely do not deserve to live, and I will enjoy watching your light be extinguished behind your dead eyes.”

Fagan told the court that Torr’s antisemitism generally fell into four categories. The first, blood libel, appears in “Torr’s fevered mythology [where] Jews are cannibals; they murder and eat children; and they eat babies and drink their blood,” he said.

The next category is sexual violence against women and children. According to Torr, Jews are “paedophiles; they rape children, including babies; and they are, generally, rapists,” Fagan said.

Then, Jews are depicted as inherently and irredeemably violent. “Judaism,” says Torr, “is based on violence and brutality. It is a savage, barbaric stone-age cult.”

“To Torr, Jews intend to kill men, women, children, and animals and Jews are completely psychopathic,” Fagan said.

A fourth category is general de-humanisation. “Jews, we are advised by Torr, lack creativity, have no brains, no souls, no thoughts, are retarded, are sub-human, are animals with a disgusting, inhumane culture; are pathetic, evil, and very unhappy; and Jewish – or at least Jewish Israeli – mothers are ‘whores’.”

Torr has at times sought to make his antisemitism current by referencing the war in Gaza. “The blood libel slur is invoked in the context of Jews, including South African Jews, ostensibly receiving a free, fresh delivery of ‘Palestinian child meat’ every week and drinking their blood,” said Fagan. “Also, according to Torr, ‘despicable Jewish people’ think that Palestinians want to kill them; and ‘Jewish people are killing women and children.’ There are two videos equating Israel with Nazi Germany.

Torr proffers various “solutions” to Judaism and Jewry. These range from punishment to the full extent of the law; to stripping Jews of human rights; to the complete extermination of Judaism. He proposes that Jewish children would be better off dead.

Fagan told the judge, “The only reasonable construction of Torr’s words, we submit, is that they demonstrate a clear intention to be harmful to Jews or to incite harm against Jews, and to promote or propagate hatred of Jews.”

In those few instances where Torr refers to Israelis rather than Jews, “he cannot be permitted to rely on the fig-leaf of anti-Zionism as opposed to antisemitism”, said Fagan. “The conflation is total. This is illustrated by the two videos equating Israel with Nazi Germany.”

In his expert report submitted to the court, Shain said that in recent decades, theological, racial, and demonological motifs and the idea of a ‘world Jewish conspiracy’ had proliferated. “As the historian Bernard Lewis explains, ‘Much of the rhetoric of anti-Zionism goes beyond the bounds of normal political antagonism born of a national conflict.’ Anti-Zionist invective has thus taken on the characteristics of ‘delusional’ Christian antisemitism at its height,” noted Shain.

He explained why ideas such as Torr’s can be so dangerous, saying, “Ideas have consequences. They inform and influence how we see and understand the world. They underpin action and ideology.”

The Cape SAJBD is also asking that Torr be ordered to apologise to South African Jewry and to pay substantial reparations to the Cape Town Holocaust & Genocide Centre, as well as legal costs. If this is ordered, it will serve as a warning to others who propagate antisemitic hate speech that there are legal consequences for such conduct.

Bloch told the SA Jewish Report that “Torr’s decision not to attend the court hearing shows his clear disregard for our country’s legal system. The fact that we have brought this case to the Equality Court and will soon be taking action against three others for hate speech, shows our firm commitment to standing up to attacks on our community.”