ADL Report Shows Increase of Assaults Against Jewish Institutions in 1979

Assaults against Jewish institutions, cemeteries, houses of worship and private property have more than doubled this year compared to 1978, according to a national. audit conducted annually by the Ann-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.

The findings, made public last Friday at the ADL executive committee meeting here, revealed 129 reported incidents in 1979, against 49 in 1978. The incidents include desecrations, swastika daubings, anti – Jewish graffiti, arson attempts and firebombings. Of the 129,51 were attacks upon homes and stores owned by Jews, the ADL said.

According to Nathan Per mutter, ADL’s director, the 1979 figure is the second highest since the worldwide swastika epidemic which began in Cologne, Germany, at the end of 1959 and triggered 810 anti-Jewish incidents in this country during 1960 and 170 incidents in 1961. During the rest of the 1960’s and through 1977, the average anti-Jewish episodes per year was about 45.

The ADL audit is based on reports gathered by the ADL’s fact-finding and research departments through its 27 regional offices throughout the country. Perlmutter pointed out that since some incidents go unreported, the total is higher than the audit shows.

BREAKDOWN OF INCIDENTS BY STATES

The report revealed that the largest number of 1979 incidents, 38, occurred in New Jersey. New York State was next with a total of 26; California had 15; Massachusetts; 14; Arizona, 11; Florida, seven; Michigan and Nebraska, four each; Kansas, three; Indiana and Rhode Island, two each; Connecticut, North Carolina and Oklahoma, one each.

Perlmutter noted that the increased manifestations of anti-Semitism corresponded with the U.S. Justice Department’s report of a 450 percent increase in racially-motivated vandalism over a six-month period this year as measured against all of 1978. The ADL made public last month a comprehensive report on the Ku Klux Klan which revealed an increase in membership, activities and violence.

Perlmutter said that the acts of hostility directed against Jews and Blacks are symptoms of a general social malaise, “exacerbated and exploited by bigots seeking to scapegoat history’s classic scapegoats.” He also attributed the increase in these forms of crime to “the sense its perpetrators have of softness in our criminal justice system.” He pointed out: “sad experience has taught Jews that in troubled periods like today’s the discontented and frustrated are prey for the hardcore bigots.”