Anti-Semitic Incidents at College Campuses Nearly Doubled in 2015: ADL

6-24-16 Drexel swastika
In Philadelphia last May, a Drexel University student found the word "Jew" and a swastika taped next to his Israeli flag. According to the Anti-Defamation League's annual audit, the number of anti-Semitic incidents nearly doubled... ADL

Swastikas were spray-painted on the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity house at the University of California, Davis, last January, just days after the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. A swastika appeared on a UC Berkeley–owned building in February, and less than a month later graffiti reading "Zionists should be sent to the gas chamber" was found in a campus bathroom. Last year also saw a sign near Yale's campus that proclaimed, "Yale is a Jew hole, let's round them up," and a Rutgers student being told on Rosh Hashana, "Yeah, I'd wear a yarmulke too…if I wanted to burn in Auschwitz!"

Anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses nearly doubled between 2014 to 2015, rising to 90 incidents on 60 campuses from 47 incidents on 43 campuses, according to the Anti-Defamation League's annual audit, released Wednesday. The total number of anti-Semitic incidents across the United States rose more modestly, by roughly 3 percent—from 912 in 2014 to 941 incidents last year, consisting mainly of harassment, threats and vandalism. Unfortunately, the most violent category—assaults—saw a dramatic rise last year, to 56 incidents, up from 36 in 2014. That represents an increase of more than 50 percent.

"We are disturbed that violent anti-Semitic incidents are rising," Jonathan A. Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL, is quoted as saying in a press release. "And we know that for every incident reported, there's likely another that goes unreported. So even as the total incidents have remained statistically steady from year to year, the trend toward anti-Semitic violence is very concerning."

The ADL, a civil rights agency that fights anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry, has been tracking anti-Semitic incidents for nearly four decades. And though there was a steep rise in campus incidents and assaults last year, the total number of incidents in 2015 was significantly lower than the 1,757 observed a decade earlier, in 2005. At a peak in 1994, the ADL reported more than 2,000 incidents.

6-24-16 Anti-Semitic incidents, 2005-2016
The Anti-Defamation League counted 941 anti-Semitic incidents in 2015 in its annual audit, including 377 acts of vandalism and 564 instances of harassment, threats or assaults. ADL

"The good news is the number of anti-Semitic incidents overall are much lower than we witnessed in the mid-2000s," Marvin D. Nathan, ADL's national chairman, is quoted as saying in the release. "While that decrease is encouraging, it is troubling that on average there is one anti-Semitic assault reported in this country every week, and at least two anti-Jewish incidents on average every single day. These numbers do not even account for all of the online harassment we see every hour on social media, which is so widespread it is difficult to quantify."

Though the annual audit has never included "general expressions of hate that occur regularly on thousands of websites, comments sections and other online forums," according to the ADL's methodology, it does include instances reported to the ADL in which "an individual is targeted personally in an online environment and feels threatened." The organization will continue to adapt its audit to account for what it calls an "explosion of hate online, especially on social media platforms."

Reports of online anti-Semitism in 2015 included comments posted on Yik Yak in the University of Chicago area, some of which named specific students, along with statements like "Gas them, burn them and dismantle their power structure. Humanity cannot progress with the parasitic Jew." There was an Instagram comment from one boy on a photo from a bar mitzvah that said, "GO TO AUSCHWITZ PIG JEW" along with a crying emoji, and a woman in Massachusetts received an email responding to an article she wrote that said, "I look forward to the REAL Holocaust when you, you ugly parasitical f------ Jew piece of s--- burns as I poke the ashes." Earlier this month, in response to the targeting of journalists in several incidents, the ADL announced it would form a Task Force on Hate Speech and Journalism.

As for the rise in incidents on college campuses, Greenblatt said that "despite the increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus, such incidents are still relatively rare and the vast majority of Jewish students report feeling safe on their campuses." He added that "when such incidents do occur, they are generally condemned by administrators and the wider campus communities at their respective colleges."

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