United States
RNS
A new audit of anti-Semitism in the US shows a continued growth in the number of incidents reported in 2022.
The Anti-Defamation League’s newest report tabulated 3,697 anti-Semitic incidents last year in three large categories: harassment, vandalism and assault.
According to the ADL, the rise in anti-Semitism represents a 36 per cent increase from the 2,717 incidents tabulated in 2021 and the highest number on record since ADL began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979.
But the number of incidents categorised as assaults was relatively small: 111 in total, or about three per cent. Four incidents included a deadly weapon.
The report cites one death in 2002, but the victim in that case was not Jewish. Thomas Meixner, head of the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Arizona, was shot to death by a student on 5th October. The professor was Catholic. Weeks after the shooting, it came to light that the student expressed anti-Semitic beliefs online.
Half of the assaults, defined as attempts to inflict physical harm, were on Orthodox Jews whose dress distinguishes them as Jewish. The majority of those were in New York City.
The most notable anti-Semitic attack in 2022 took place on 15th January when a 44-year-old British citizen entered Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, and took four people, including the rabbi, hostage at gunpoint. After an 11-hour standoff, the hostages escaped unharmed and the gunman was killed.
The report also details 91 bomb threats called into or emailed to Jewish institutions or schools in 2022.
But the majority of the incidents, reported to ADL directly via its online form, email or phone message, constituted harassment. Of the total 3,697 incidents, 2,298 incidents were described as harassment, both in-person and online.
The report cites 852 incidents of white supremacist propaganda and 589 incidents, mostly of harassment, at Jewish institutions such as synagogues, community centres and schools.
The ADL audit’s methodology has recently come under some criticism. Last May, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt equated anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, a view that many Jews reject. He also called out anti-Zionist groups, some of which are Jewish, as the “photo inverse” of the white-nationalist right.
“We think it’s really important for communities Jewish and beyond not to be painted with the same brush as people who are actively calling for violence,” said Audrey Sasson, executive director of the New York-based Jews for Racial & Economic Justice.
The 2022 audit, says it did not include instances of “legitimate” anti-Israel political protest and expressions of opposition to Israeli policies. But the audit does include public statements of opposition to Zionism, “when it can be determined that they had a negative impact on one or more Jewish individuals or identifiable, localized groups of Jews.”
And it did include “cases of picketing of Jewish religious or cultural institutions for their purported or real support for Israel.”
David Schanzer, a professor of the practice of public policy at Duke University, who teaches a class on combating hate in the digital age, said some of incidents might be hard to impartially categorize.
“Some of the incidents rely on a subjective determination of whether opposition to Israel and Zionism bleeds into antisemitism,” said David Schanzer, a professor of the practice of public policy at Duke University, who teaches a class on combating hate in the digital age. “But it is also the case that some anti-Zionist protests do rely on antisemitic tropes or call for the destruction of the Jewish state or harm to people living in Israel.”
The anti-Semitic audit comes one week after a Pew Research study found that far more Americans express favorable than unfavorable views of Jews. In fact, the study found Jews rated higher in American estimations than any other religious group.
While 81 per cent of Jews rated their own group favorably, Christians across various subgroups also rated Jews much more favorably than unfavorably. Among evangelicals, 45 per cent rated Jews favorably, compared with six per cent who have an unfavourable view toward Jews. Jews were also the only religious group who received a positive rating from atheists, the survey found.
