Trending
If it feels as though hate and division are only growing worse in this country, you're not wrong. A report published Monday by the Anti-Defamation League says final statistics for 2023 show a total of 8,873 incidents of antisemitic assault, harassment and vandalism across the country.
That's a 140 percent increase from 2022 (itself a record-setting year), the ADL reports. The numbers give reason for pause: There were 161 assaults in 2023, up 45 percent. Of those assaults, 141 happened without the use of a deadly weapon. Those assaults targeted 196 victims, and none were fatal.
There were 6,535 incidents of harassment reported in 2023, up 184 percent from the 2,298 reported in 2022. Vandalism, meanwhile, increased 69 percent, to 2,177 incidents in 2023 from 1,289 in 2022. Also, the ADL report says, there were 1,987 incidents targeting Jewish institutions such as synagogues, Jewish community centers and Jewish schools, an increase of 237 percent from 589 in 2022.
Sadly, the report showed that antisemitic activity on college and university campuses increased by 321 percent from 2022. In non-Jewish K-12 schools, 1,162 incidents were reported, an increase of 135 percent.
Bomb threats directed toward Jewish institutions were up to 1,009 in 2023 from 91 in 2022; white supremacist groups were responsible for 1,160 propaganda distributions in 2023, up from 852 in 2022.
There were 394 antisemitic incidents reported in Pennsylvania, 237 in Ohio and 15 in West Virginia in 2023. Those numbers were all up considerably. In 2022, there were 114 reported incidents in Pennsylvania, 61 in Ohio and three in West Virginia, the report shows.
"One of the things we see tied to this is white supremacist propaganda and that should really be alarming to all people because what we're seeing blamed on Jewish people, things that are antisemitic, are also pulling in tropes about people based on their race, gender identity and sexual orientation as well," Kelly Fishman, regional director of the ADL in Cleveland, told WCPO-TV in Cincinnati. "So, when we see this rise in antisemitism, we really see a rise in hate across the board."
Disagreeing with a particular country's politics or military action is not, in and of itself, antisemitism, and it's that kind of all-or-nothing thinking that leads to trouble. But it is possible those disagreements are because of antisemitism, and the reality is that the incidents of Oct. 7 did spark an uptick in antisemitic incidents.
Our area saw firsthand the ravages of antisemitism on Oct. 27, 2018, when 11 people were killed and six were wounded in the attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh. It was the deadliest attack on any Jewish community in the United States.
Residents of our region want to believe we're better than this, that such ignorant hatred is a thing of the past. It seems the opposite is the case. Those of us who want better for ourselves, our families and our friends and neighbors have an obligation, then, to stand against it. Antisemitism won't be tolerated.
It must not be given shelter to grow.