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in
the

Anti-Semitism Rises

ADL and
other reports
show
“significant
bump” in
incidents
locally,
nationally.

STACY GITTLEMAN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ABOVE: JCC CEO Brian Siegel
commenting to reporters after
a bomb threat was called in to
the JCC Jan. 18, 2017.

18

November 23 • 2017

F

rom physical assaults
and verbal slurs to
bomb threats called in
to schools, from synagogue
vandalization to more hate
acts that accelerated after the
August white Supremacist rally
in Charlottesville, Va. —where
Neo Nazis chanted “Jews will
not replace us!” — the Anti-
Defamation League cited “a sig-
nificant bump” in anti-Semitism
in the U.S. in a Nov. 2 report.
On Nov. 13, in a separate
report, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation’s Uniform Crime
Reporting Program released its
2016 Hate Crime Statistics. The
FBI defines a hate crime as “a
traditional offense like murder,
arson or vandalism with an
added element of bias.”
According to the FBI report,
in 2016, there were 6,100 inci-
dents of people targeted based
on their race, religion, sexuality,
disability or national origin, an
increase of 300 over 2015. This
report documented 1,584 victims
of anti-religious hate crimes.
Of this number 55 percent of
the victims, or 855, were Jews, a
lower number than reported by
the ADL.
Heidi Budaj, ADL’s Michigan
regional director, cautions that
while the FBI report represents
the best data we have available,
many law enforcement agencies
do not participate and many
under-report or misclassify hate
crimes.
According to the ADL, there
were 1,300 anti-Semitic incidents
during the first nine months of
2017 nationwide, including 21
reported in Michigan; an overall

jn

rise by two-thirds from 2016.
Anti-Semitic incidents spiked
following the Charlottesville rally.
Of the 306 incidents reported in
the third quarter, 221 took place
on or after the Aug. 11 rally.
Most disturbingly, the survey
found a surge of anti-Semitic bul-
lying and vandalism incidents
in K-12 schools and college
campuses across the U.S., despite
in-school anti-bullying and inclu-
siveness training conducted by
the ADL and other agencies.
The Charlottesville rally was
one of at least 33 public white
supremacist events in the U.S.
this year.
In a separate report released
in March, the World Jewish
Congress — with the help of
Israeli research firm Vigo Social
Intelligence — found that more
than 382,000 anti-Semitic posts
were uploaded to social media
over the course of 2016, an aver-
age of 43.6 posts per hour, or one
post every 83 seconds.
These statistics, Budaj said, are
only the tip of the iceberg. For an
incident to be
included in the
report, it must
be called in,
documented,
vetted and filed
as a formal
complaint by
Heidi Budaj
the witness.
Many incidents
are not formally reported.
She says the kinds of school-
related calls that come into her
office — a few each day — are
“heartbreaking.”
“[Racial and anti-Semitic] acts
are reported in every Michigan
school district, regardless if the
school is public or private, or the
socioeconomic makeup of the
students,” she said.
She said parents must listen
to their children and pick up on
behavioral cues if they suspect
they are the target of anti-Semi-
tism. Document the incident at
michigan.adl.org by clicking on
the “report” button on the right
of the home screen.
“Without even involving the
parent, we can provide the tools
the school needs to approach
and confront acts of hatred,”
Budaj said. “We never judge
a school because a hate inci-
dent happened there because,

unfortunately, it is happening
all over. After an incident has
been reported, we expect school
administrators to take it seri-
ously so their students feel safe,
secure and are in an environ-
ment that supports why they
are there in the first place — to
learn.”

LOCAL INCIDENTS

Though he had not had a
chance to review the report at
press time, Jewish Community
Relations
Council/
American
Jewish
Committee
Executive
Director David
Kurzmann
David Kurzmann
expected the
report findings
to be grim.
He said this was evidenced by
the bombardment of hateful acts
committed against local Jewish
organizations or directed at
Jewish individuals in 2017, which
included:
• Jan. 18: Bomb threat called
in to West Bloomfield JCC.
• Feb. 1: Bomb threat called in
to Hillel Day School, Farmington
Hills.
• Feb. 7: A University of
Michigan professor’s email
account was hacked and the per-
petrator sent out emails to black
and Jewish students with mes-
sages that stated: “I just wanted
to say that I plan to kill all of
you. White power! The KKK has
returned!!!” and “I just wanted to
say the SS will rise again and kill
all your filthy souls. Die in a pit of
eternal fire! … Heil Trump!”
• Feb. 9: Valentine’s Day Cards
distributed at Central Michigan
University with images of Hitler
containing the following mes-
sage: “my love 4 u burns like
6,000 jews.”
• Feb. 27: Bomb threat called
in to the Ann Arbor JCC and
Hebrew Day School.
• Aug. 18: Racial slurs and
swastikas painted at Veteran’s
Memorial Park in Ann Arbor.
• Aug. 22: Bomb threat called
in to Jewish Family Services of
Washtenaw County.
In each of these incidents,
community leaders swiftly con-
demned the actions as cowardly

acts of hate. In March, the FBI
arrested an Israeli man with a
malignant brain tumor for the
bomb threat calls, which had
been made across the country.
Arrests for most other incidents
have yet to be made.
“Clearly, the national political
climate has been one in which
those with bigoted and hateful
views are emboldened to say
and act to whatever is on their
mind,” Kurzmann said. “And in
Michigan, we are not immune.”
The JCRC/AJC supports the
work of the ADL by creating pro-
active and reactive programming
in the wider Detroit community
that seeks to build bridges of
awareness and understanding.
“Hatred toward Jews is not a
thing of the past,” he said. “It is
important to have a Jewish voice
at the community table where
things like homophobia, racism
and Islamophobia are discussed
to make people realize the prob-
lem of anti-Semitism is real.”
Last year, the JCRC began a
program that brought Jews and
Muslims together so they can see
and appreciate the threats each
other’s community is facing.
“It is human nature to be insu-
lar from those who are different
from you, but this is a mistake,”
Kurzmann said. “We must work
to engage with one another and
redouble our efforts to learn
from each other. I still believe the
majority of our nation’s popula-
tion rejects the hatred we are
experiencing.”
At its November fall con-
vention, B’nai Brith Youth
Organization scheduled special
programming where teens could
share their stories and experi-
ences about anti-Semitism.
BBYO Michigan Region Senior
Regional Director Rachel Ellis
said it is essential for the orga-
nization to equip its teens with
the tools they will need in con-
fronting anti-Semitism once they
reach their college years.
“In general, our teens here feel
they are pretty insulated from
these incidents,” Ellis said. “We
want to prepare them for the
times they are not so sheltered
— when they head off to college.
One way to do that is to instill
in them a pride in being Jewish
now.” •