Christopher Gacek and Lela Gilbert of Family Research Council have published a major paper detailing 100 Antisemitic events in the U.S. in the last fifteen months. Download the PDF here.
Summary:
There is no denying that we experienced an amazingly difficult year and more in 2020. With a global pandemic, an upsurge of racially charged rioting in a number of American cities, and a highly contested U.S. election, the end of 2020 could not have been more welcome. And, yet, as we demonstrate, 2021 continues many of the same awful trends.
During this time of back-to-back crises, Family Research Council has become increasingly concerned about the safety and security of the Jewish people, whose situation has become increasingly troubled and tenuous in the U.S. As we have become aware of many manifestations of antisemitism—more accurately called “Jew hatred”—discussed in webinars, publications, and elsewhere, our alarm about this evil and dangerous ideology has become heightened.
But as we well know, antisemitism is not just a bad attitude. It is not merely a political position or an “opposition” talking point. It is a widespread belief based on lies, loathing, and folklore. And it rarely stops with words; it is being acted out with increasing frequency in physical abuse, violence, and, eventually, death to Jews.
Many of those concerned about antisemitism are Christians, and sometimes people ask us why we are so concerned about the dangers antisemitism poses to
Jews since we are not Jewish. There are many good reasons. But to name a few, we believe antisemitism is objectively untruthful and unjust. And we are obligated by the Bible to defend Truth and Justice. We have also noted that where antisemitism successfully rids a nation state of Jews, Christians are soon at risk in that same country as well. As the jihadi slogan goes, “On Saturday we kill the Jews, on Sunday we kill the Christians.” This should unite us in our mutual alarm. But third, and perhaps most important of all, we share a faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We can do nothing less than stand with the Jews, a people God chose as His own many millennia ago.
For these reasons and more, beginning January 1, 2020, we have been tracking explicit, salient instances of antisemitism to the present—spring 2021. These summary descriptions of events make it clear how this hatred has played out in the United States. Bear in mind that many colleges and universities have resorted to remote classes due to COVID-19 restrictions, so there has been considerably less on-campus aggressive activity targeting Jews. Though reduced, there was still a great deal of antisemitic activity. But enough is enough.
The Key points of the paper:
- In the last two years, there has been a massive surge in antisemitic events in the U.S., ranging from verbal abuse and vandalism to physical assault and murder.
- Four distinct strains of American antisemitism have now emerged: hard-right political antisemitism, “black separatist” antisemitism, Islam-based antisemitism, and hard-left political antisemitism.
- New York City in particular has seen a disturbing increase in antisemitic events from December 2019 to spring 2021
