12 | NOVEMBER 21 • 2019
T
he rise of white
nationalism is behind
the rising number of
anti-Semitic incidents in
America today, according to
Oren Segal, director of the
Anti-Defamation League’
s
Center on Extremism. Segal
was in Detroit last week to
speak to the media during an
annual event of the JCRC/
AJC.
“White supremacy is
resurgent. It poses a clear
and present danger and
could be considered a pub-
lic health crisis,” said Segal,
who discussed the increase
in extremist spaces on the
internet during his talk and
how extremists have “weap-
onized” social media on free-
for-all platforms such as Gab,
8Chan and Twitch.
Segal said 43 percent
of anti-Semitic incidents
recorded by the ADL are
linked to extremist move-
ments. White supremacist
propaganda such as “Make
America White Again” and
“White Lives Matter” are
increasingly common in the
public sphere, he said.
The ADL also tracks less-
er-known hate speech, such
as “1488,” which is a combi-
nation of two popular white
supremacist numeric sym-
bols. The first symbol is 14,
which is shorthand for the
“14 Words” slogan: “We must
secure the existence of our
people and a future for white
children.” The second is 88,
which stands for “Heil Hitler”
(H being the 8th letter of the
alphabet). Together, the num-
bers form a general endorse-
ment of white supremacy
and its beliefs. More than 200
similar hateful symbols can be
found in the ADL’
s “Hate on
Display” database.
“Every year there’
s been a
steady increase of their usage,”
Segal said. “White suprema-
cists feel emboldened — and
comfortable.”
According to the ADL
“H.E.A.T. Map,” which uses
data to track hate, extremism
and terrorism for its annu-
al report of Anti-Semitic
Incidents in the U.S. (which
includes anti-Semitic harass-
ment, vandalism and assault),
there were 1,879 anti-Semitic
incidents reported in 2018,
the third highest year on
record since it began tracking
data in 1979.
Segal also spoke to a crowd
of about 70 people who braved
the season’
s first big snow-
storm at an event sponsored
by ADL-Michigan, JCRC/AJC
and Temple Shir Shalom.
HATE CRIMES REMAIN HIGH
The day following Segal’
s
appearance, on Nov. 12, the
FBI released hate crime statis-
tics from 2018. The number
is down slightly from 2017
to 2018, according to the
Uniform Crime Reporting
(UCR) Program’
s annual Hate
Crime Statistics report.
Law enforcement report-
ed 7,120 hate crimes to the
FBI’
s UCR Program last year,
down slightly from the 7,175
incidents reported the previ-
ous year.
According to the report,
7,036 single-bias hate crimes
were reported to UCR in
2018 (431 in Michigan). From
those incidents, there were
8,646 victims. The majority
of the reported hate crimes
were motivated by race, eth-
nicity or ancestry bias (59.6
percent). Additional biases
included religion (18.7 per-
cent), sexual orientation (16.7
percent), gender identity
(2.2 percent), disability (2.1
percent) and gender (0.7 per-
cent).
Of the 1,617 victims of
anti-religious hate crimes,
56.9 percent were victims
of crimes motivated by
offenders’
anti-Jewish bias,
followed by 14.6 percent who
were victims of anti-Islamic
(Muslim) bias.
Hate on the Rise
Extremism is resurgent, ADL expert says.
Jews in the D
JCRC/AJC
The American Jewish Committee
(AJC) launched Translate Hate, a
digital resource aimed at enabling
Americans of all backgrounds to
expose anti-Semitic tropes and take
action against hate speech.
“From Washington to the world
wide web, hate is on the rise and
needs to be countered,” said Daniel
Elbaum, AJC chief advocacy officer.
Presented in the form of an
illustrated glossary, Translate Hate
lays out 25 terms and expressions
that are examples of anti-Semitism,
explains the anti-Semitic nature of
certain words or phrases when used
in specific contexts, and provides
brief histories of their harmful usage.
The resource also offers users
the t
ools and information they need
to report hate speech, whether it is
encountered online or in everyday
settings.
Individuals are encouraged to use
the hashtag #TranslateHate when
speaking out against usage of any
of the terms in the Translate Hate
glossary.
“Everyone, not only Jews, should
take responsibility in confronting the
menace of anti-Semitism,” Elbaum
said. “Translate Hate educates
the general population to identify
anti-Semitic language and images,
and to call them out without hesita-
tion.”
Oren Segal spoke about the rising
threat of white supremacy.
JACKIE HEADAPOHL CONTRIBUTING WRITER
New Tool
Against Hate
Speech