Antisemitic Incidents Reach Record High In U.S., Michigan: Report

Detroit MI

28 April, 2022

2:46 PM

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MICHIGAN — Antisemitic incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism, including 112 in Michigan, reached an all-time high in 2021, according to an Anti-Defamation League report Tuesday. The ADL's annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents describes 2,717 attacks on Jewish people last year, a 34 percent year-over-year increase, according to the ADL, which began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979. That amounts to an increase of more than seven antisemitic incidents a day. Patch spoke to a local Jewish leader who shared insights, particularly a two-step approach to battle antisemitism. Rabbi Asher Lopatin with the Jewish Community Relations Council/American Jewish Committee. said "Jews want to integrate, and that's why people think they are not prone to antisemitism, but these numbers show that even though we integrate well, there is still anti-semitism." Lopatin wondered if communities are taking antisemitic attacks seriously. "We need to fight hatred against Jews like other minorities...making Jews a part of that group to be more sensitive." Lopatin also raised the concern about signaling the Jewish homeland out, which makes Jews even more vulnerable, he said. "We need to make sure the State of Israel is not being boycotted or signaled out," Lopatin said. "When you signal out Israel is antisemitism. Why signal out Israel over other democracy's?" But Lopatin said that the Jewish community has a lot of support and strong allies, especially in the metro Detroit area, in part from the work through his organization. And partnering with other communities, such as the Catholic, Muslim and African-American groups was the second step to effectively fighting antisemitism, he said. "We marched with the African-American community against racism, we want them to march with us against antisemitism," Lopatin said. "We have their back, we want them to have our back." Antisemitic incidents "reached a high watermark across virtually every category" in the audit, the ADL said, including at: Jewish institutions such as synagogues and community centers, up 61 percent. K-12 schools, up 106 percent. College campuses, up 21 percent. Physical assaults increased 167 percent, incidents of harassment increased 43 percent, and acts of antisemitic violence rose 14 percent, according to the audit. The ADL reported a surge in violence during the May 2021 conflict between Israel and Hamas. Antisemitic incidents, including violent attacks on Jewish people, increased 148 percent from the previous May as hundreds of anti-Israel protests took place in dozens of U.S. cities on May 10, the date marking the official start of military action. "While we have always seen a rise in antisemitic activity during periods of increased hostilities between Israel and terrorist groups, the violence we witnessed in America during the conflict last May was shocking," ADL chief executive and national director Jonathan A. Greenblatt said in a news release. "Jews were being attacked in the streets for no other reason than the fact that they were Jewish, and it seemed as if the working assumption was that if you were Jewish, you were blameworthy for what was happening half a world away." Anti-Israel protests accounted for only a portion of the violent attacks on Jews in 2021, and not the largest portion, according to the ADL. Physical assaults also spiked in November and December, when there were no contributing geopolitical events. Nearly 18 percent of the incidents last year — at least 484 — were attributable to actions by domestic extremists, the ADL said. "When it comes to antisemitic activity in America, you cannot point to any single ideology or belief system, and in many cases, we simply don't know the motivation," Greenblatt said in the release. "But we do know that Jews are experiencing more antisemitic incidents than we have in this country in at least 40 years, and that's a deeply troubling indicator of larger societal fissures." 2021 Findings: By The Numbers Total antisemitic incidents: 2,717, up 34 percent Assaults: 88, up 167 percent Victims: 131 Use of deadly weapons: 11 Fatalities: 0 Harassment: 1,776 incidents, up 43 percent Vandalism: 853 incidents, up 14 percent Swastikas used in 578 incidents States reporting incidents: 50 and the District of Columbia, with the following states accounting for 58 percent of total incidents: New York: 416 New Jersey: 370 California: 367 Florida: 190 Michigan: 112 Texas: 112 Antisemitic incidents at Jewish Institutions: 525 Harassment: 413 Vandalism: 101 Assaults: 11 About 25 percent, or 111 incidents, were linked to anti-Zionist or anti-Israel sentiments. Domestic extremist groups or individuals inspired by extremist ideology were responsible for 484 antisemitic incidents, 18 percent of the total, the ADL said. White supremacist groups and extremists were responsible for 422 antisemitic propaganda distributions, a 52 percent increase from the year before. A total of 345 antisemitic incidents in 2021 involved references to Israel or Zionism; of them, 68 appeared in the form of white supremacist propaganda efforts, which the ADL said attempt to strengthen anti-Israel and antisemitic beliefs.