Number of Anti-semitic Incidents Sets Record Fourth Year in Row

For the fourth year in a row, a record number of anti-Semitic incidents was committed in the United States, according to a national survey conducted by the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.

ADL’s Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents reveal that 1,685 incidents took place, including 927 acts of vandalism and 758 acts of harassment. The overall number represents an 18 percent increase over 1989’s figures.

There was a particularly dramatic rise in campus bigotry last year, according to the report, up more than a third over the number of incidents in 1989.

Ninety-five anti-Semitic incidents of all types were reported on 57 college campuses. Over the past three years, the number of anti-Semitic incidents on campuses has jumped 72 percent, the report notes.

More vandalism — arson, bombings, cemetery desecrations and swastika daubings on Jewish-owned and public property — took place in 1989 than in 1990, making last year the second-highest year recorded since ADL began auditing anti-Semitism in 1979.

Harassment is at an all-time peak. Forms of harassment include assault and mail or phone threats, verbal abuse, and at least 30 cases of physical violence against Jews, most notably the assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane in November.

"There is greater sensitivity to harassment like slurs," said Alan Schwartz, director of ADL’s Research and Evaluation Department. "There is greater sensitivity to the harm of things that used to pass simply as pranks or jokes."

NEW YORK, CALIFORNIA THE MOST

New York and California, the states with the most Jews, were by far the states with the most anti-Semitic activity. There were 296 incidents in New York, and 220 in California.

New Jersey had 162 incidents, Massachusetts 134, Florida 125, and Maryland 112.

"Several traditionally most-active states — New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Michigan — have reported slight decreases for 1990. However, this is more than offset by combined increases of reported incidents from Maryland, Illinois, California and Pennsylvania, as well as from generally less active areas — e.g., Colorado, Wisconsin, New Mexico," the report states.

Nine states did not report any anti-Semitic crimes in 1990: Wyoming, which also did not report any for 1989, Arkansas, Iowa, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia.

One important source of anti-Semitism, neo-Nazi Skinheads, was less of a factor in 1990, though the report indicates that "the violent crimes of such gangs remain a matter of serious concern."

A civil lawsuit won last year, brought by ADL and the Southern Poverty Law Center against Tom and John Metzger, leaders of the California-based White Aryan Resistance, and two neo-Nazi Skinheads in Portland, Ore., "should put a dent in the ability of old-line hate groups to recruit young Skinheads and incite them to commit hate crimes," said Abraham Foxman, ADL national director.

The suit awarded $12.5 million in damages to the family of Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian student beaten to death by Portland Skinheads in 1988.

And though Seraw’s family will probably never be able to recover the entire judgment, the judgment will "hopefully deter other" right-wing extremists, the report states.

"Another factor that had virtually disappeared in 1989 after leaping to prominence in 1988 — i.e. anti-Semitic acts linked by their perpetrators to events in the Middle East — again came to wide attention in 1990; such politically related anti-Semitism calls for especially intensive monitoring," according to the report.

In the first eight months of 1990, there were approximately 20 anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian threats made against Jews and graffiti on synagogues and other Jewish property.

By the end of the year, another 25 incidents contained references to the Persian Gulf crisis and efforts by anti-Israel forces to link Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A decline in civility, increasingly crude popular culture and a troubled economy helped contribute to the increase in anti-Semitic incidents, according to the Civil Rights Division of ADL, which compiled the report.

"When millions of kids buy albums that contain violence toward women or ethnic slurs, it sends a degrading message which legitimizes that mentality," said Schwartz.

"It’s something we should speak out against. Not to favor censorship, but everybody has the right to free speech, including those who want to criticize so-called art."