According to the Anti-Defamation League report, this year documented particularly high incidents • Antisemites exploited the plague, developing new ways of harming Jews • "Disturbing record"
Anti-Semitism still exists in high numbers in the United States
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The Anti-Defamation League published today (Tuesday) the annual report which recorded more than 2,000 antisemitic incidents against Jews across the United States: 2020 is ranked third in the total annual incidents since documentation began.
Antisemitic incidents across the U.S. continued to maintain a high record last year, with a total of 2,024 including assault, harassment and vandalism incidents reported to the Anti-Defamation League in 2020. Although there was a four percent drop in the number of incidents (after breaking an all-time record in 2019) , But their number was still the third highest since the Anti-Defamation League documentation began in 1979.
In practice, the report documented a total of 1,242 harassment incidents, an increase of 10 percent in this category compared to 2019. However, in the categories of vandalism and assault incidents there was a decrease of 18 percent and 49 percent respectively. On the other hand, no antisemitic deaths were reported In 2020.
"Any downward trend in data is encouraging, but keep in mind that we have still experienced a year in which antisemitic events have remained at a disturbing peak, despite closures and other changes in our daily lives and social relationships with others," said Jonathan Greenblatt, global director of the Anti-Defamation League. We must continue to be vigilant.
Communities are starting to reopen and people are spending more time together - so we have to be vigilant. "
Naturally, the relative decline in vandalism and assault incidents can be attributed to the fact that the corona plague has spread, as of last March and beyond and the transition to distance learning, the number of antisemitic incidents in schools and colleges has dropped sharply.
At the same time, this has led to an increase in antisemitic incidents known as 'bombing' - a deliberate disruption to video calls.
In 2020 the Anti-Defamation League documented 196 cases of deliberate attacks of antisemitic conversations and video.
114 of all cases, were directed at Jewish institutions such as schools and synagogues.
According to the data, the report divides the incidents into three categories: assault, harassment and vandalism. Out of the total incidents reported in 2020: 1,242 incidents of harassment (an incident in which one or more Jews reported being verbally or otherwise harassed on antisemitic grounds). This is an increase of 10 percent, compared to 1,127 incidents documented in 2019.)
751 incidents of vandalism (cases in which property was damaged in a way that harmed the Jews or posed a threat to them). Swastikas, whose interpretation is often associated with antisemitic hatred, were physically present in 517 of these events. In this category there was an 18 percent decrease, compared to 919 incidents in 2019. 31 assault incidents; Cases where individuals were physically assaulted with violence accompanied by evidence of antisemitic hatred. This category of antisemitic hatred dropped 49 percent, compared to 61 incidents in 2019.
These incidents were reported in 47 U.S. states as well as in the District of Columbia. The states with the highest number of incidents were New York: 336, New Jersey: 295, California: 289, Florida: 127 and Pennsylvania: 101. Taken together, these states are 'responsible' for 57 percent of all incidents.
The Center for the Study of Extremism of the Anti-Defamation League has collected all the data for 2020 and the two years preceding it and implemented them in the HEAT map of the Anti-Defamation League;
An interactive online tool that allows users to geographically locate antisemitic incidents and events at the national and regional level.
In 2020, there were 327 reported incidents in Jewish institutions, such as synagogues, community centers and schools, an increase of 40 percent compared to 234 incidents in 2019. Of these, 264 were harassment incidents, 61 incidents of vandalism and 3 were assault incidents.
The report includes 331 antisemitic incidents attributed to known extremist groups or known individuals inspired by an extremist ideology. These are 16 percent of all incidents. White upper-class groups were responsible for 277 incidents of spreading antisemitic propaganda. Another extremist activity included provocations by the Goyim Defense League A loose network of individuals characterized by venomous anti-Semitism. A total of 178 antisemitic incidents in 2020 included references to Israel or Zionism, compared to 175 in 2019. Of these, 38 appeared as part of white supremacist propaganda aimed at stimulating and encouraging anti-Israel and anti-Semitic views.
"After March, there was a clear drop in school incidents, as almost all schools switched to full-distance learning, so the epidemic undoubtedly affected the ways in which anti-Semitism manifested itself in 2020," Greenblatt said.
"On this decline 'pizza' to a certain extent a high number of bombing incidents aimed at Jews and other minorities."
Although the report provides an insight into one of the ways in which American Jews encounter anti-Semitism, a full understanding of anti-Semitism in the United States requires a variety of other forms of analysis, including opinion polls, professional assessments of online anti-Semitism, and an analysis of extremist activity. For all these modes of analysis in the reports it publishes, for example the 100th Report of the Anti-Defamation, Hate and Harassment Online Report: The American Experience, a survey on the Jewish-American encounter with anti-Semitism, murder and extremism in the U.S. 2020 and the Anti-Defamation League survey Attitudes toward Jews in the United States.
In response to the historic increase in antisemitic incidents over the past four years, the Anti-Defamation League has issued a number of recommendations to policymakers: Among other things, Congress should increase funding for security grants to nonprofits - synagogues and other synagogues, schools and community centers.
Policymakers should support efforts to provide law enforcement with the tools and training they need to prevent and respond effectively to hate crimes.
Law enforcement agencies at the regional, state and federal levels must improve the procedures in all of the above in reporting and responding to hate crimes.
In addition, school districts must promote educational programs in elementary and elementary schools on the prevention of discrimination and bullying as well as Holocaust education.
The leadership of the universities must respond strongly and forcefully to antisemitic acts on campuses, including incidents directed at Jewish students for actual support or belief that they support the State of Israel.