Recent studies on anti-Semitism undertaken by the American Jewish Committee indicate that “on balance… the Jewish position in the U.S. remains secure,” according to a report just issued by the AJCommittee. The number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States has risen sharply in the past year, the report states, but “AJCommittee investigations indicate… it would be a mistake to interpret the recent outbreaks as signaling a new and dangerous wave of anti-Semitism in the United States.”
During 1980, continues the report, entitled “Anti-Semitism in America: A Balance Sheet, “377 anti-Semitic incidents were reported in this country. These acts, the paper points out, have “stirred understandable fears” in the American Jewish community, but, the AJCommittee analysts stress, they should be considered “in the perspective of other events taking place in this country and abroad.”
The report was prepared by Alisa Kesten and Milton Ellerin, of the AJCommittee’ discrimination division in its domestic affairs department, and by Sonya Kaufer, director of publications service.
Citing one “perspective,” the report notes that most of the recent anti-Semitic events took place after the highly publicized bombing of a Paris synagogue, and were mainly the work of “politically uninvolved” teenagers whose actions seemed to be “imitative” rather than a “personal expression of anti-Semitic sentiment.” The AJCommittee report urges also that “the current outbreak of anti-Semitic vandalism…be viewed against the alarming increase in all kinds of crimes…”
ASSESSMENT OF HATE GROUPS
Turning to the question of whether today’s climate poses any serious dangers to American Jews, the AJCommittee’s paper recalls that “historically anti-Semitism has constituted a powerful threat… only in those countries where it has… been institutionalized in the laws and tradition of the land,” and then points out that today “no organized hate groups have any appreciable political or social influence in this country… The various Ku Klux Klans and neo-Nazi groups… receive media attention far beyond what their numbers and strength warrant… There is no individual of stature on the political scene today who is an overt anti-Semite.”
The report then cites statistics garnered from opinion polls and other researches indicating the “the vast majority of Americans are favorably disposed toward their Jewish fellow citizens”, that “more Jews than ever before… were elected to… Congress in 1980, and the number of Jews serving in… other political offices is too large to… trace, ” and that “in the arts, sciences, business and professions the same acceptance is evident.”
However, the AJCommittee writers note, examining the other side of the “balance sheet,” there continue to be developments–such as “anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric” in the United Nations and “attempts to deny the Holocaust ever happened”–which, “like every reported case of overt anti-Semitism…. require constant vigilance.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
