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Hate Incidents Rise

Anti-Defamation League audit shows an increase
in anti-Semitic activity in Michigan.

LONNY GOLDSMITH
Staff Writer

r

or the second year in a row,
the number of 'reported
anti-Semitic incidents is
down nationwide.
The trend has not held in Michi-
gan: For the second straight year, the
number of reported incidents in the
state has increased: Last year, there
were 40 reports made, according to
the just-released "Audit of Anti-Semit-
ic Incidents" by the Anti-Defamation
League. In 1996, there were 23.
Locally, the number of reported
acts of vandalism held at seven, while
reports of harassment, threats and
assaults more than doubled from 16 in
1996 to 33 last year.
"The increase in Michigan is due to
better reporting and the increased
activity of hate groups," said Don
Cohen, Michigan director of the
ADL. "The audit can't determine
whether there are more people with
hateful attitudes out there, but cer-
tainly some are more willing to orga-
nize and take action."
Cohen said two-thirds of the
reported incidents are not crimes but
acts of anti-Semitism.
"Klan rallies and distributing litera-
ture are not criminal activities,"

Cohen said. "Acts of vandalism, direct
threats and assaults are actionable
through law enforcement, if we can
find someone to pin it on."
The Michigan ADL is undertaking
a study of hate groups in Michigan,
which is expected to be completed in

the fall.
"The point of the audit is to high-
light trends in what the hate groups are
doing," Cohen said. "The answer is in

better outreach to the community."
Cohen cited Ku Klux Klan rallies
in Caro and Saginaw and lectures on
the ideology of the Identity Church in
Grand Rapids and Clare among the
most serious incidents. Others include
anonymous threats on answering
machines of synagogues and individu-
als, and "employment issues," where
co-workers make religion an issue
when issuing a reprimand.
The number of incidents reported
on college campuses also rose. Nation-
ally, there were 104 incidents, up from
90 in 1996. Six of those happened on
Michigan campuses, up from two in
1996.
There were four reports at the Uni-
versity of Michigan in Ann Arbor,
three in September and one in Octo-
ber. Swastikas and derogatory com-
ments were written in a residence hall;
a poster advertising a Jewish program

i>

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40
33
7

was vandalized and torn down; pas-
sengers in a car yelled "Kill the Jew"
after almost hitting a student wearing
a kippah; and mezuzah scrolls were
removed from the doors of a residence
hall.
At U-M's campus in Flint, an anti-
Semitic letter to the editor was sent to
the school's newspaper. At Ferris State,
the essay "Anti-Semitism — Found" r/
was sent to eight professors in Decem-
ber. There were 14 other incidents of
that essay being sent to college profes-
sors nationwide.
Cohen is worried about the campus
incidents, but, "There is also the poten-
tial for violence at hate group rallies."
Cohen said there are four hate
groups visible in the area, and three
new organizations have appeared in O
the last two months.
The most visible are the European
American Education Association,
which is headquartered in Livonia, the
Troy-based Resistance Records, a com-
pany distributing hate music, and the
Church of the Creator, an Illinois-
based hate group which has members
in Detroit — one of whom is on trial
in Oak Park in connection with the
dumping of anti-Semitic and racist
pamphlets on Huntington Woods
lawns last summer. 0

