IF

The ADL 1992 Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents

or the American Jewish community,
1992 was an amalgam: some auspi-
cious and reassuring developments
occurred, while other matters gener-
ated unease and deep concern.

On the positive side: (1) there has been an
8% decline in reported anti-Semitic incidents
in the U.S. (2) a major national opinion sur-
vey recently commissioned by DL indicates
a small, but steady and decline . ince 1964 in
the number of Americans holding strong
anti-Semitic beliefs (20% instead of 29%).
The survey also indicates younger and bet-
ter-educated Americans are less likely to
hold such beliefs

In addition, support for Israel remains high
among the American people.

Nevertheless there is a significant negative
side. A sense of unease grew within the
Jewish community in 1992. In the ADL opin-
ion survey cited above, the 20% holding
strong anti-Semitic views translates into as
many as 50 million Americans. The poll also
indicated that 35% (87.5 million) believe
Jews to be "more loyal to Israel" than to the
U.S., and that 31% (77.5 million) consider
Jews to have "too much power" in this coun-
try (this latter response rising from 11% in
1964).

Moreover, the Audit reveals yet another
marked increase in campus anti-Semitic
acts, which have skyrocketed in recent years.
A 1992 ADL report documented the dismay-
ing level of anti-Jewish bigotry emanating
from extremists and demagogues in the black
community, another troubling phenomenon
frequently reflected on campus. Also in 1992,
an FBI report on hate crimes in the U.S.
showed that Jews were targeted far more
often than any other religious group. While
the largest number of such acts targeted
blacks, attacks against Jews represented
17% of the total of 4,588 U.S. hate crimes
reported - an alarming figure considering
that Jews are only about 2.5% of the U.S.
population.

Other disturbing cases in point: the politi-
cal Jew-baiting and nativism of Pat
Buchanan; anti-Semitism rising in both east-
ern and western Europe, particularly in
Germany with its increasing violent neo-Nazi
Skinheads; and anti-Jewish lyrics in "rap"
and other pop music. The seriousness of
these vexing problems cannot be quantified.

The annual ADL Audit is one tool of mea-
surement among many, one yardstick of anti-
Semitic activity. The lower figures appearing
in the 1992 report are welcome and hearten-
ing. But it should be noted that this year's
statistics are serious enough to rank as the
second-highest total (1,730) in the 14-year
history of the Audit. They call for continued
vigilance and counteraction: educational pro-
grams, law enforcement training, security
conferences, and support for legislative mea-
sures - all elements of ADL's continuing
effort to help turn the tide in the battle
against hate crimes.

One year of decline is not a trend. The 1992
Audit numbers, however, may be a hopeful
sign that the pattern of steady increase in
anti-Semitic acts over the previous five years
(1987-91) have peaked - presenting ADL and
its allies in law enforcement and education
with an opportunity to generate greater
momentum by strengthening and accelerat-
ing our counteraction efforts. In presenting
the findings of its 14th annual Audit of Anti-
Semitic Incidents, ADL pledges to seize that
opportunity.

vandalism incidents against Jewish institu-
tions, private Jewish property, and public
property totaled 856, down 7.7% from the
929 of 1992; (2) acts of harassment, threat,
and assault, mostly of a personal nature,
declined by about 8%, from 950 in 1991 to
874.

are becoming better protected against anti-
Semitic hate crime perpetrators - who
increasingly are targeting the more numer-
ous and harder to protect public locations.

CAMPUS INCIDENTS

The 1992 findings indicate a continuation
of one of the most significant and disturbing
trends of recent years: anti-Jewish incidents
on U.S. college campuses rose once again to
their highest levels ever in 1992, maintain-
ing the alarming upward spiral that has
been manifest for the last five years. The
past year saw 114 anti-Semitic acts on cam-
pus - a 12% increase. Another development
first seen in 1991 and again in 1992 was the
fact that acts of anti-Semitic harassment,
threat, and assault - the more personalized,
confrontational types of incidents in which
Jewish individuals were menaced by mail or
phone threats, verbal abuse, or physical
attack - outnumbered the total of incidents in
the vandalism category.

EFFECTS OF IMPROVING
LAW ENFORCEMENT
ACTION

Another more positive change was reflected
in the 1992 statistics regarding the most
serious crimes of vandalism, including bomb-
ings, arson, and cemetery desecrations. The
total in this category was 28 - a decline of
43% from 1991, which had seen an all-time
high of 49 episodes. During both 1990 and
1989, 38 such crimes were reported. This sig-
nificant decline, as well as the modest but
welcome drop in the overall Audit totals, may
be attributable to the ever-increasing atten-
tion being paid to the hate crime problem by
law enforcement agencies around the coun-
try. There were far more arrests in connec-
tion with hate crime investigations - a total
of 86 - than in the previous year.

An additional trend that appears to be
developing, illustrating the effect of an
increased law enforcement focus on hate
crime, involves the number of anti-Semitic
vandalism incidents targeting Jewish insti-
tutions as against those committed against
public property. For the first ten years of the
Audit's existence (1979-1988), there were
almost as many acts of such vandalism com-
mitted against Jewish institutional targets
as there were against public facilities (e.g.,
swastikas on buildings, lampposts, etc.) -
about 29% against each. In 1989, 40% of the
vandalism targeted Jewish institutions,
while 27% targeted public places. Then in
1990, the percentages of the previous year
were nearly reversed, with 27% institutional
targets and 38% public. In 1991 the same
contrast appears (25% vs. 35%), and in 1992
that contrast is even more stark: 18% institu-
tional vs. 44% public. In recent years, as hate
crime laws proliferated and law enforcement
action increased along with better security
awareness by Jewish institutions, the latter

Anti-Semitic acts on American college cam-
puses in 1992 increased for the fifth succes-
sive year, to a total of 114 at 60 campuses -
up 12% over the 1991 total of 101, also at 60
campuses. In 1990, there were 95 incidents
at 57 sites. Since 1988, reported campus
anti-Semitic incidents have more than dou-
bled (110%).

MONTANA

NORTH DAKOTA

IDAHO

Increasingly over the past few years, cer-
tain extremist activists and "intellectuals"
have sought to exploit the academic tradition
of open inquiry to promote their agendas of
bigotry, intimidation, and historical distor-
tion. 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 geno-
cide was a Zionist fabrication used to gain
sympathy for Jewish causes.

The chancellor condemned the banner and
urged intergroup dialogue as well as a re-
appraisal of the school's banner policy. The
banner was torn down by a local city resident
two days later. A fracas ensued, and the ban-
ner was not replaced.
• A final instance of campus anti-Semitism -

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

MINNESOTA

WISCONSIN

EIPVTII DAKOTA

WYOMING

MO

UTAH

CALIFORNIA

There were 1,730 anti-Semitic incidents
reported to the Anti-Defamation League dur-
ing 1992, from 39 states and the District of
Columbia. This total, while substantial and
troubling, was 8% lower than the all-time
high of 1,879 recorded in 1991. The 1992 fig-
ure represents the first decline in the Audit's
overall numbers in six years.

Totals in both of the Audit's main cate-
gories declined in the year just ended: (1)

RHODE !SLUE

PENNSYLVANIAN.'

ILLINOIS

COLORADO •

THE FINDINGS

NEW YORK

MICHIGAN

Ma IOWA

NEVADA

ARIZONA

OKLAHOMA

NEW MEMCES

•

OHIO

DELAWARE

jog

VA

MISSOURI

VIRGINIA
r
iv

DISTRICT OF
COLUMIIM

TENNESSEE

nlurslLs

NNNA

TEXAS

LOUISIANA

FLORIDA

HAWAII

\

min States with Hate Crime Laws

MI

Based on or Similar to ADL Model

I

Similarly, prior to the November produc-
tion of I Never Saw Another Butterfly, a play
about a concentration camp survivor, the
non-Jewish student cast at Highland High
School in nearby Anderson, Indiana, was
exposed to flagrant anti-Semitism while
wearing Jewish stars. One cast member,
Amy Sharnowske, told a local newspaper: "I
was in class and people were snickering 'I
hate Jews' and 'Jews killed Christ'. People
automatically weren't giving me a chance
because they thought I was Jewish."

Among the many campus incidents of con-
cern were the following:
• In February and March, a rash of anti-
Semitic graffiti incidents occurred at Brown
University in Providence, Rhode Island: dor-
mitory doors and four dorm memo boards
were defaced; swastikas and the words "Jews
Eat Shit" were found scrawled in a book at
the university's library. On two occasions,
the words "No Jews" were written on cloth-
ing in a laundry room; in another instance, a
student found the words "Jews Go Home"
written on every piece of clothing in a drier.
• Over 300 students rallied on March 10th to
denounce these incidents. The University's
Dean of Student Life termed the acts "cow-
ardly, blatantly anti-Semitic behavior," and
urged unity in the fight against campus anti-
Semitism. During this same period, a nearby
public park was defaced with anti-Semitic
and neo-Nazi graffiti ("Destroy the Jews,"
"Hitler was Right") and swastikas. No sus-
pects have been apprehended regarding any
of the graffiti incidents.
• Kean College in Union, New Jersey, was
the site of a similar outbreak of graffiti dur-
ing April and May. Anti-Semitic and anti-
Israel phrases and swastikas appeared on
bulletin boards, hallway and building walls,
and stairwells. A suspect was apprehended
and charged with 10 counts of criminal mis-
chief and eight counts of damage to property.
• In an unusual and troubling display of big-
otry, a number of dead cats stolen from an
animal science lab at Queens College in New
York City on March 19th were dropped in
toilets in another university building; on the
wall above the toilets were the words: "We're
going to do to Jews what we did to the cats."
The culprits have not been found.
• A large banner depicting the turning of a
swastika into a Star of David was hung
inside an entrance to the Student Union
Concourse at the University of Wisconsin,
Milwaukee, on May 10, 1992. The banner
bore the words: "History takes shape."

WASHINGTON

OREGON

occurring not at a college but at an Indiana
high school - strikingly mirrors the 1991
experiences of a group of student actors at
Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. In
the Ball State incident, the largely non-
Jewish cast of The Ghetto, wearing Stars of
David on their clothing to prepare for their
roles, were repeatedly defamed and
harassed.

States with Other Forms of
Hate Crimes Laws

States with No Hate
Crimes Laws

"People yelled 'Jew' and 'Nazi's rule' at me,"
said Kari Michael, another cast member. "I
was also pushed against a locker. Wearing
the Star of David really opened my eyes to
people's prejudices."

The anti-Semitic remarks directed at the
actors were alarming in that many of the
comments were made by longtime classmates
- students who had known the actors for
years, and who knew their families and back-
grounds.

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 and concern
for Jewish students at many American insti-
tutions of higher learning.

HOLOCAUST DENIAL ON THE
CAMPUS: RECYCLING THE BIG
LIE

Holocaust denial has virtually no foothold
in established university circles. A
Northwestern University engineering and
computer science professor, Dr. Arthur R.
Butz, is the author of an early "revisionist"
book entitled The Hoax of the Twentieth
Century, but most of this propaganda is pro-
duced by individuals with questionable aca-
demic credentials. Yet, efforts to promote
this lie have intensified.

For example, the most prominent recent
distributor of the materials has been Bradley
R. Smith. He has edited the newsletter of the
Institute for Historical Review, which is
closely tied to the best-financed and most
active anti-Semitic propaganda organization
in the country, Liberty Lobby. Smith has
been promoting Holocaust "revisionism" on
college campuses by taking out full-page
advertisements on the subject in students
newspapers.

These ads assert that Jews were merely
confined by the Nazis to special work camps
because of their influential role "behind
international communism". Disputing the