World

Hate Count

ADL says swastikas not always aimed at Jews.

Adam Dickter
New York Jewish Week

New York

T

he painting of a swastika — the
dark, ubiquitous signature of
hateful vandals everywhere —
will no longer be automatically considered
an act of anti-Semitism under new guide-
lines for recording attacks against Jews.
The Anti-Defamation League
announced July 27 that it has revamped
its guidelines in its annual survey of
anti-Semitic incidents for the first time
in 30 years, taking a more conservative
approach.
"We know that the swastika has, for
some, lost its meaning as the primary
symbol of Nazism and instead become
a more generalized symbol of hate,' said
Abraham Foxman, the ADL:s national
director. "So we are being more careful to
include graffiti incidents that specifically
target Jews or Jewish institutions as we
continue the process of re-evaluating and
redefining how we measure anti-Jewish
incidents?'
Another major change in the survey is
that data are being collected in real time
throughout the year rather than compiled
at year's end from police reports and
complaints to ADEs regional offices. As a
result, incidents can be more thoroughly
investigated as they unfold, said Deborah
Lauter, the director of Airs civil rights
division, who is in charge of the audit.
As an example, Lauter said that police

in Salem County, N.J., recorded an inci-
dent last year of swastikas on park bench-
es as anti-Semitic vandalism. An ADL
investigation surmised that because there
was no significant Jewish community in
the area, it was more likely an act of gen-
eral hate and therefore was not included
in the audit.
"If it appeared on a
bench in Lakewood,
that would be a differ-
ent thing:' said Lauter,
referring to the heav-
ily Orthodox town
in New Jersey that is
home to a prominent
yeshivah.
There were 1,211
anti-Semitic incidents
across the United States in 2009, includ-
ing 209 in New York State, according to
the latest ADL audit. Lauter said that had
the criteria been unchanged, this year's
statistics would have shown a 10 percent
increase over the 1,352 incidents recorded
in 2008.
Instead, the new system shows a 10
percent decrease. But comparing the two
surveys would be akin to comparing
apples to oranges because of the varying
qualifiers.
William Helmreich, a sociology profes-
sor at the City University of New York's
Graduate Center, said he understood
the reasons for differentiating between
swastikas directly targeting Jews and
those painted in general locations. But
Helmreich said he had "reservations"

about omitting the latter category from
the report.
Lauter said information on swastikas
not directed at Jews was being preserved,
even if excluded from the audit.
"We may take a look to see if it war-
rants a separate report;' she said. "This
[system] does enable us to look at these
kinds of trends?'
Michael Berenbaum,
former project director
of the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum in
Washington and now a
consultant, agrees with
ADL's decision.
"The presence of
swastikas in certain
contexts is not suf-
ficient to prove anti-Semitism:' he said.
"Individual judgments should be made,
and ADL has done as good a job as any-
one over the years in quantifying anti-
Semitism. They have reported declines
when it is in their self-interest to have it
on the rise [because of fundraising]."
The three primary categories of inci-
dents have not changed. They are assaults,
of which there were 29 reported in the
audit; acts of vandalism, 422; and harass-
ment, 760 incidents.
California (275) and New York (209)
had the most incidents, followed by New
Jersey with 132 and Florida with 90.
To better keep track of the incidents,
Lauter said the agency uses modified
sales-tracking software that allows the
regional offices to input incidents that are

then analyzed by the New York headquar-
ters.
The most serious incident was the
deadly attack on the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum in
Washington by a white supremacist who
fatally shot a museum guard in June
2009. The 88-year-old suspect, James Von
Brunn, was hit by return fire and later
died of his wounds.
A livery cab driver was charged last
week with one count of aggravated
harassment connected to the leaflets, and
police say he confessed to the other inci-
dents. Only the leaflets left near the Jewish
Institute for the Blind in Manhattan con-
stituted a crime, authorities said.
The audit also noted the arrest of a
white supremacist in Brockton, Mass.,
who killed two people, raped a third and
allegedly was planning to kill Jews.
The activities of members of the
Westboro Baptist Church, of Topeka,
Kan., which included protesting at Jewish
institutions across the country with
anti-Semitic signs, also were noted in the
audit, as was a "severe intensification" of
online hate directed at Jews. That included
anti-Israel Facebook groups and com-
ments in online forums in response to the
Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme scandal
that espoused Jewish conspiracy theories.
In New York, the audit noted 79 inci-
dents of harassment, 10 cases of physical
assault and 120 of vandalism. Brooklyn
led the state in incidents, with 51, followed
by 49 in Manhattan and 47 in suburban
Nassau County on Long Island. El

Lower Numbers, More Complaints

Alan Hitsky
Associate Editor

W

hile Michigan saw a relatively
small number of anti-Semitic
vandalism (2) and harass-
ment (3) incidents last year, the number
of anti-Semitic complaints is growing.
Betsy Kellman is director of the Anti-
Defamation League's Michigan Region,
based in Southfield. She sees several rea-
sons for Michigan's low numbers:

18

August 19 • 2010

• The local region
only reports incidents
that are reported to
them. Lack of staffing
has prohibited the local
office from tracking
down rumors of anti-
Semitic incidents.
Betsy Kellman
• Often, citizens only
seek ADL involvement after a series of
incidents.
But, added Kellman, with Michigan's

poor economy, the ADL is seeing a major
increase in the number of complaints
from on the job or in school. "We try to
deal with these one person at a time
Kellman said. "Usually, we can reach a
justifiable conclusion for people.
"When the economy is bad, people
want to blame someone. It's the oldest
hatred in the world."
She says many people seem to be
unaware of how to reach the local ADL.
The office telephone is (248) 353-7553.

Kellman worries that the number of inci-
dents will grow, despite the area's shrinking
Jewish community. While Michigan ranked
low on ADIS audit, it is among the nation's
leaders in recorded hate crimes. After sev-
eral years in third place, Michigan dropped
to fourth in 2008 behind California, New
Jersey and New York.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation
annual report on hate crimes shows
Michigan, from 2004-2008, had 640, 653,
627 and 560 reported incidents. El