ADL Report The Shock of 1991: An Anti-Semitic Riot

In 1991, for the first time in recent memory, a
mob's cries of "Kill the Jew" echoed on an
American street. The awful threat embodied
in those words was soon realized: Yankel
Rosenbaum, a 29-year-old Jewish scholar,
was stabbed by a group of young rioters
during unrest in Brooklyn's Crown Heights
on the night of August 19, following the
tragic accidental death of a black child in an
automobile mishap. Rosenbaum died later in
a local hospital.

The Crown Heights outburst, with its dozens
of assaults and acts of vandalism, was the
most dramatic and disturbing eruption of anti-
Semitic violence in An .:rica in many years.
These attacks were among the most
noteworthy of the anti- Semitic incidents
reported to ADL durin& 1991—the fifth
straight year of increased anti-Jewish acts
nationwide.

Findings
-vow—

There were 1,879 anti-Semitic incidents
report, d to the Anti-Defamation League
during 1991. Reports from 42 states, the
District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands
resu:'ed in the highest overall total of
incir'-nts ever recorded in the thirteen year
hist• j uf the annual audit.

The 1991 total surpasses last year's 1,685
su incidents by more than 11%. The 1,879
in gents include a small but still troubling
ri_ in 1990's total in the vandalism
category-929 in 1991 from 927 in 1990, the
2nd highest number yet recorded. But in

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harassment, threats; and dssanIts -§ciare, ' he
highest level ever reported. There were 950
such incidents in 1991—a 25% increase over
the 758 noted in those categories in 1990. For
the first time in the history of the ADL Audit,
these more personalized incidents—in which
Jewish individuals were menaced by mail or
phone threats, verbal abuse or physical
attack—surpassed the total of incidents in the
vandalism category.

The most disturbing area of increase occurred
in the category of assault against Jewish
individuate. In 1991 there were 60 reported
cases of physical attack, including one
murder: that of a young Jewish scholar in
vn's Crown Heights—a heinous act
that couid well be called the first lynching of
a Iew in the United States since that of Leo
Frank in 1915.

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The past year also saw the greatest number of
serious crimes yet reported. There were 49
vandalism episodes of arson, bombing and
cemetery desecration, a 29% jump over the
previous high of 38 noted in both 1990
and 1989.

Anti-Jewish incidents on U.S. college
campuses rose again to their highest levels
ever, continuing an alarming trend that has
been manifest for the last four years. Acts of
politically related anti-Semitism—coming
largely during Operation Desert Storm in
January and February—also multiplied.

On a positive note, Skinhead-related anti-Semitic
incidents are down significantly, although still of
concern. Effective law enforcement action at the
federal, state and local levels against violent neo-
Nazi Skinhead activity has sent a firm and clear
message to such gangs that their criminal
behavior will not be tolerated.

Serious Crimes of Vandalism

In 1991 there were 12 incidents of arson, 8 of
attempted arson, 6 bombings, one attempted

bombing and 22 cemetery desecrations—a
combined total of 49 particularly serious
vandalism incidents—representing the
highest total ever reported in this sub-
category.

Harassment, Threats and Assault

In 1991 there were 950 incidents of
harassment, threat and assault directed at
Jewish individuals and their institutions. It is
the first time in the history of the annual audit
that the total in this category surpasses that of
the vandalism incidents. While all incident
totals have been rising steadily since 1986,
harassment, threats and assaults have leapt
dramatically in the last four years. From 1987
to 1988 a 41% increase was reported,
followed by a 28% increase in 1989, and then
a 29% increase in 1990. The 1991 increase is
25%. Thus, in the last 5 years all such
incidents nearly tripled (193%).

The most disturbing aspect of this year's
record totals are the unprecedented reports
of physical assaults perpetrated against
Jewish individuals. There have been sixty
such incidents including one murder—during
the Crown Heights outburst—which in turn
triggered at least two dozen other reported
assaults during the tense days which followed
that event. Between 1979 and 1989 the yearly
total of anti-Semitic assaults averaged just
over twenty. In 1990 the total rose to 30. In
1991 that figure doubled.

Another significant development: In what is
probably the most notable damage award ever
in an anti-Semitic harassment case, a Chicago
(IL) jury on March 27, 1991 returned a $1.8
million verdict against a Chicago woman and
her adult son in a lawsuit arising out of their
harassment of their next door neighbor, a
Jewish woman and her family. This is the
largest known judgment to date in a lawsuit
brought under Illinois' Ethnic Intimidation
Statute (now called Hate Crime Statute).

What accounts for the surge in reported
incidents of anti-Semitic harassment, threat
and assault?

ADL has noted with deep concern the erosion
of long-standing barriers against the
expression of anti-Semitism. In the worlds of
politics, culture, and education Jew-baiting,
anti-Semitic scapegoating and conspiracy
accusations have become not only more
common, but more casually tolerated and
rationalized. Such ideas, and the words that
express them, have consequences.

especially in those areas closest to today's
youth, crumbling too?

there were 9 incidents at 57 campuses with 11
experiencing multiple anti-Semitic episodes.

Vandalism: Most Active States

Recent ADL audits have reported on the
increasing anti-Semitic incidents directed at
individual Jewish students as well as places
of Jewish activity on campus including
Hillels, fraternity/sorority houses and dorms
and offices of Jewish students and professors.

Despite a continued high level of anti-Semitic
vandalism incidents nationally, several
traditionally most-active states experienced
slight decreases. For example, for the second
straight year, New Jersey reported a modest
decline. California, which saw a significant
rise in 1990, also reported a small but
welcome decline. And in Florida, which
reported a slight drop in 1990, such episodes
were down significantly. Maryland, which
had risen sharply in the previous year,
showed an encouraging decrease in 1991.

On the other hand, New York's total surged,
after dropping in 1990, due largely to the
Crown Heights outburst. Michigan also
showed an increase after a 1990 decrease
(20 incidents compared to 16 in 1990. And
Massachusetts remained at its 1990 total,
which was a slight drop from 1989.

1991 Vandalism:
Geographic Breakdown

Ten Northeastern states plus the District of
Columbia combined for a total of 549
incidents-59% of the national total. Last
year there were 493 incidents reported in that
region-53%.

In the West, seven states reported a total of
162 incidents-17% of the national total.

A Troubling
Atmosphere on Campus

In addition to the many acts of vandalism and
other overt instances of campus anti-
Semitism recorded in the ADL Audit, other
developments—subtler but ominous—have
contributed to a sense of unease and concern
for Jewish students at many American
institutions of higher learning.

Holocaust Denial on the Campus:
Re-Cycling the Big Lie

Increasingly over the past few years, certain
extremist activists and "intellectuals" have
sought to exploit the academic tradition of
open inquiry to promote their agendas of
bigotry, intimidation, and historical
distortion. For the Jewish community, no
issue on college campuses is more sensitive
in this regard than "Holocaust revisionism"
the doctrine which denies the facts of the
Holocaust and contends that the Nazi
genocide was a Zionist fabrication used to
gain sympathy for Jewish causes.

Campus Incidents

Recent activity by advocates of this myth has
contributed to an atmosphere in which
students who defend the veracity of the
Holocaust are accused of censoring thought
and debate. In fact, Holocaust "revisionism"
corrupts free inquiry by masking a deeper
ideology of anti-Semitism.

Anti-Semitic acts on American college
campuses in 1991 remained at the disturbing
high level of 1990—though the dramatic
trend of increase (72%) over the previous
three years may have leveled off. There were
101 anti-Semitic incidents reported at 60
college campuses. Twenty-three of those
campuses experienced more than one
occurrence of anti-Semitic activity. In 1990

Holocaust denial still has virtually no
foothold in established university circles.
Although a Northwestern University
engineering and computer science professor,
Dr. Arthur R. Butz, is the author of an early
"revisionist" book titled The Hoax of the
Twentieth Century, most of this literature is
produced by individuals with questionable
academic credentials and no qualification in

In the South twelve states reported a total of
131 vandalism incidents-14% of the total.

Nine Mid-Western states accounted for 86
incidents-9% of the national total.

The vastly increased level of harassment and
assault incidents in recent years, including
1991, may signal a change in the tactics of
many individuals wishing to express anti-
Jewish hostility. It would appear that there is
a new willingness by those inclined toward
anti-Semitism to engage in direct, provocative
confrontation with Jews, a kind of "in-your-
face" intimidation, reflective of that erosion
of the taboo against such open bigotry.

Many observers have noted a decline in
civility in American life, a coarsening of both
public and private discourse, with a
corresponding rise in many people's
willingness to employ and tolerate ethnic
slurs, stereotyped insults and other forms of
hateful speech. It is difficult, if not
impossible, to measure this perceived
phenomenon, but nowhere is it reflected more
clearly or disturbingly than in the
proliferation of bigotry and violence in the
lyrics of some of the best-selling popular
music of the day. Taboos have fallen—but are
standards of taste and mutual respect,

asne « gum.

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STATES WITH HATE CRIMES LAWS
BASED ON OR SIMILAR TO ADL MODEL

STATES WITH OTHER FORMS
OF HATE CRIMES LAWS

STATES WITH NO
HATE CRIMES LAWS

*Percent supreme court ethnic intimidation statue could effect this map.

