metro
Tracking Hate
Anti-Semitic incidents decline
nationwide, increase in Michigan.
T
YOM HAZIKARON
ISRAEL'S NATIONAL
MEMORIAL DAY
We Join Together to Remember Those Who Have Fallen
So That Israel May Continue to Stand
SUNDAY, MAY 4, 2014 5 IYAR 5774
5:30 P.M.
THE BERMAN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
6600 WEST MAPLE ROAD WEST BLOOMFIELD
We kindly ask that you be seated by 5•15 p.m. in order to start promptly.
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ADL • AJC Detroit • Akiva Hebrew Day School • AMEINU • American Technion Society — Detroit Chapter • BBYO
Bnei Akiva • Congregation Shaarey Zedek • Detroit Jewish News • Frankel Jewish Academy • Friends of the IDF — Michigan
Region Clara & Arthur Gaba • Hadassah Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit • Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan
Detroit • Jewish Community Relations Council • JNF — Michigan Region • Michigan Board of Rabbis • ORT America -
Michigan Region • Johnny Pomodoro's • StandWithUs — Michigan
20 April 10 • 2014
he total number of anti-
Semitic incidents in the
United States fell by 19
percent in 2013, continuing a
decade-long downward slide and
marking one of the lowest levels
of incidents reported by the Anti-
Defamation League since it started
keeping records in 1979.
ADL's annual Audit of Anti-
Semitic Incidents reported 751
incidents across the U.S. during the
2013 calendar year, representing
a 19 percent decline from the 927
incidents reported during the
same period in 2012. In 2013, anti-
Semitic incidents were reported
in 41 states and the District of
Columbia.
Although the number of anti-
Semitic incidents in the U.S.
decreased in 2013, ADL reported
that anti-Semitic incidents in
Michigan doubled in 2013 from
four to eight.
"We saw an
increase of anti-
Semitic incidents
on university
campuses," says
Heidi Budaj, ADL
Michigan regional
director. "The
particular
Heidi Budaj
incidents reported
from colleges were not anti-Zionist
or anti-Israel incidents, rather
they included incidents such as a
swastika stamped into the snow on
campus:'
Likewise, Detroit metro
neighborhoods, where incidents
traditionally do not occur, saw
anti-Semitic activity involving the
use of a swastika, Budaj says.
"I believe the uptick can
be traced in some cases to
unemployment rates and economic
uncertainty coupled with some
individuals feeling threatened by
immigration reform and other
social justice movements," she
says. "We have learned that even
the youngest children are taught
in our communities to hate people
simply because they are Jewish. We
struggle to explain to children as
young as 5 why their schoolmate
cannot come to their home because
parents won't allow them to play
with Jewish children:'
The ADL report also cited a
speech in May by Nation of Islam
leader Louis Farrakhan, who spoke
at a Detroit church telling the
audience, which included a U.S.
congressman and other public
officials, that the "satanic Jews" and
the "synagogue of Satan" control
America's government and other
sectors.
The report noted a significant
increase in violent anti-Semitic
assaults: a total of 31 anti-Semitic
assaults on Jewish individuals or
those perceived as Jewish in 2013,
up from 17 in 2012.
"In the last
decade we have
witnessed a
significant and
encouraging
decline in the
number and
intensity of anti-
Semitic acts in
Abraham
America," says
Foxman
Abraham H.
Foxman, ADL national director.
"The falling number of incidents
targeting Jews is another indication
of just how far we have come in
finding full acceptance in society,
and it is a reflection of how much
progress our country has made in
shunning bigotry and hatred."
The annual ADL Audit includes
incidents of assault, vandalism
and harassment targeting Jews and
Jewish property and institutions,
and includes both criminal and
non-criminal incidents reported
to ADL's 27 regional offices
across the country and to law
enforcement.
"The high number of violent
in-your-face assaults is a sobering
reminder that, despite the overall
decline in anti-Semitic incidents,
there is still a subset of Americans
who are deeply infected with anti-
Semitism and who feel emboldened
enough to act out their bigotry,"
Foxman says.
Every anti-Semitic act demands
a response by law enforcement,
by the community and by public
officials to ensure the message that
anti-Semitism is unacceptable in
society is reinforced, the ADL says.
"When the ADL was established
in 1913, I imagine that they never
dreamed we would be fighting the
same anti-Semitic canards and
incidents 100 years later," Budaj
adds. ❑