Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on February 17, 2024

The number of antisemitic incidents in the United States last year was the highest since the Anti-Defamation League began keeping track in 1979, the Jewish advocacy group announced on Thursday.

In a new report, the A.D.L. counted 3,697 incidents throughout the United States in 2022, a 36 percent rise from the year before. A majority were characterized as harassment, including online, but the tally also included 111 assaults and more than 1,200 occasions of vandalism.

The report is the latest indication that antisemitism in the United States is on the rise, a trend that has been reflected in American culture and politics, sending fresh waves of alarm through Jewish communities. It also mirrors data gathered by the federal government, as well as a separate academic study tracking incidents of bias against many religious groups.

Anti-Jewish enmity has been expressed in openly antisemitic leaflets and graffiti, or brazen physical attacks, especially on visibly Orthodox Jews. But it is also palpable in harder-to-track discourse online and in troubling public rhetoric from celebrities like Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, who tweeted last fall that he would go death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE. And right-wing politicians and commentators have stoked fears of replacement theory, the conspiracist idea that elites, sometimes manipulated by Jews, want to replace white Americans. The cumulative effect is an atmosphere in which threats, slurs and conspiracy theories brew online but are increasingly visible offline, too.

Weve seen antisemitism normalized in ways that would have been unimaginable a few years ago, said Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive and national director of the A.D.L. If people see conspiracies behind every misfortune, it doesnt take long for them to look at the Jews and say theyre the problem.

Incidents documented by the A.D.L. include a white supremacist group using laser projectors to cast antisemitic messages on buildings in Florida, an individual yelling antisemitic obscenities at a synagogues preschool in Michigan and a gunman taking multiple hostages at a synagogue in Texas. The report also includes some incidents characterized as anti-Zionist or anti-Israel. The A.D.L. said it did not conflate general criticism of Israel or anti-Israel activism with antisemitism.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit andlog intoyour Times account, orsubscribefor all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?Log in.

Want all of The Times?Subscribe.

Go here to see the original:
Antisemitic Incidents Reach New High in U.S., Anti-Defamation League ...

Category: Anti-Defamation League
Tags: