Anti-Semitic incidents rose in RI, across the country in 2022, group says
Anti-Semitic incidents reached an all-time high in the United States last year and increased in most New England states, including Rhode Island, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Rhode Island recorded 19 anti-Semitic incidents in 2022, up from 17 in 2021, with incidents reported in eight of the state's 39 cities and towns, the ADL reported in releasing its annual audit.
Across the country last year, the ADL recorded 3,697 anti-Semitic incidents, a 36% increase and the highest total since the ADL started tracking such data in 1979. Of those, 111 incidents were categorized as assaults. One person died.
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Where were the anti-Semitic incidents in New England?
The ADL recorded 204 anti-Semitic incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism in its New England region. That's a 32% increase from 2021 and the highest number of anti-Semitic incidents ever recorded in the region, the ADL said.
“The continuing increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the region and across the country should dispel, once and for all, the myth that antisemitism is a problem of the past,”Peggy Shukur, ADL New England interim regional director, said in announcing the audit. “Behind every one of these numbers are people who have experienced the harm, fear, intimidation and pain that reverberates from each of these incidents."
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Where were the anti-Semitic incidents in Rhode Island?
Anti-Semitic incidents were reported in the following Rhode Island cities and towns: Providence 7, Warwick 3, Newport 3, North Providence 2, and Pawtucket, Cranston, Tiverton and North Kingstown with 1 each.
Of the 19 cases in Rhode Island, five were vandalism, seven were distribution of offensive literature, and seven were verbal or written harassment. No assaults were reported.
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Incidents in Rhode Island included a group showing a Nazi flag and disrupting a reading of "The Communist Manifesto" at a small Providence reading room in February, as well as the placing of packages with anti-Semitic messages on lawns in Warwick in November. (The package distribution in Warwick was counted by the ADL as one incident, although the packages were left on multiple lawns.)
Shukur said one incident can affect many people.
She said, "A banner emblazoned ‘Jews did 9-11’on our freeway overpasses may only be recorded as one incident but does not capture the harm done to every individual who saw it."
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Anti-Semitism in Rhode Island increased in 2022, ADL says
