Antisemitic Incidents Reach Record High In U.S., Florida: Report
FLORIDA — Antisemitic incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism reached an all-time high in 2021 in Florida and nationwide, according to an Anti-Defamation League report released 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.
In Florida, the ADL noted 190 antisemitic incidents in 2021. A year earlier, 127 such incidents were recorded.
Complaints of antisemitic flyers distributed throughout Sarasota County neighborhoods were reported in mid-February 2022.
Flyers were left in driveways in a brown paper bag. One flyer was titled, "Every single aspect of Covid agenda is Jewish," according to the case report. Another flyer read, "Anti-Semitism is a Human Right" and "Let's Go Brandon."
In January, there were similar complaints made in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
Sarasota police received at least six complaints from city residents on Friday, according to a case report from the agency.
Some of the antisemitic actions reported to the ADL were:
Orlando: About 15 people associated with the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement and the antisemitic Goyim Defense League held a roadside rally on Jan. 29, 2022. During the event, the group shouted slurs and obscenities at passing drivers and periodically chanted “No more Jews” and “White power” while giving Hitler salutes. They also displayed a banner promoting the movement, waved neo-Nazi flags and held signs that read, “Jews aren’t white,” “It’s okay to be anti-semitic” and “14/88 white unity defend our homeland.”
St. Petersburg: In January 2022 an unknown person or group distributed propaganda promoting a neo-Nazi website with messages that read: "Diversity is not beautiful" and "We have the right to exist." They also distributed propaganda that contained swastikas and the message: "Supremacy is evil because they fear the justice of the sword."
Lake Worth: Swastikas were spray-painted on street signs outside of a retirement home in December.
Sarasota: Antisemitic messages were received via social media during a synagogue's Shabbat livestream in October.
Lakeland: In August, a student affiliated with a religious campus group harassed two Jewish students at a tabling event using antisemitic and Holocaust-related language
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.
Antisemitic Incidents Reach Record High In U.S., Florida: Report originally appeared on the Across Florida Patch
