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