As the national trend shows anti-Semitic incidents are on the rise, James Pasch, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League Cleveland, told the Cleveland Jewish News April 5 the same can be said for local incident numbers.
According to the Anti-Defamation League’s “2021 Survey on Jewish Americans’ Experience with Anti-Semitism,” conducted by YouGov, a public opinion and data analytics firm, the United States saw its highest number of reported anti-Semitic events in 2019 since the ADL started tracking in 1979. Pasch said he believes the number will be higher for 2020, which is also mirrored in local events.
Those numbers include some anti-Semitic incidents in Northeast Ohio alone, ranging from hateful language and imagery in virtual spaces, to public vandalism. A complete list of events in Ohio can be found on the ADL’s H.E.A.T. map, which details hate, extremist and anti-Semitic incidents by state and nationwide. While the H.E.A.T. map lists 36 anti-Semitic incidents in Ohio in 2020, the official number of events will be finalized in the coming weeks.
Pasch, whose office serves Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania, said many reasons exist as to why there is an increase of hate both locally and nationally, “which is why we need to reinforce the need for a whole-of-society approach to anti-Semitism, and that there isn’t one reason for its cause and there is not going to be one solution as its cure. And we need to make it clear, whether it appears on social media or at a synagogue, that anti-Semitism has no place in any of our communities. We need corporate and government leaders to step up and ensure that it does not gain a foothold in society.”
In terms of how this tracks nationally in relation to Ohio’s experiences with anti-Semitism, Pasch said the sentiments go hand-in-hand – as anti-Semitic language and incidents rise nationwide, Ohio Jewish communities also feel those effects.
Read the complete article at: Cleveland Jewish News
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