HATE RHETORIC TURNS VIOLENT
Stats show targeted attacks increasing
Hate crimes, especially those targeting Jews, are soaring nationwide and it will “only get worse if something isn’t done about it now,” Holocaust survivor Izzy Arbeiter told the Herald. “The increase in hate is enormous,” the 93-year-old Newton man said just hours after the deadly attack at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh that claimed 11 lives yesterday. The gunman, wounded in a shootout with police, reportedly yelled anti-Semitic slurs before opening fire during a baby-naming ceremony. “I don’t want to even think about this after what I went through,” said Arbeiter, who survived six Nazi concentration camps including Auschwitz, “but I have to because I think it will get worse.” He cited a recent report by the Anti-Defamation League that reported incidents of anti-Semitism have climbed a staggering 57 percent in the past year. The ADL called it the largest single-year jump on record. The ADL said yesterday the synagogue ambush in Pittsburgh could be the “deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States.” ADL CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt added: “It is simply unconscionable for Jews to be targeted during worship on a Sabbath morning, and unthinkable that it would happen in the United States of America in this day and age.” Even though crime rates are slipping, hate crimes are heading in the other direction, according to the latest statistics. The nation’s 10 largest cities report hate crimes were up 10 percent last year — with blacks targeted the most and Jews the most-persecuted religious group, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism in California. There was a total of 1,038 hate crimes reported in the 10 top cities in 2017. Boston, according to the center, had 140 reports of hate crimes in 2017, down almost 2 percent. Overall, hate crimes have hit a decade high. Arbeiter called on President Trump, Congress and the judiciary to step up and stop the hate. “We need strict penalties. It needs to come from the top. The leadership needs to say this cannot be tolerated,” he said. “The government has the power. I want the president to do something about it.” Trump tweeted the “wicked act of pure evil” at the synagogue — or any anti-Semitism — “must be confronted anywhere and everywhere it appears.” Arbeiter said he saw the hate rising in Poland and Germany and worries the “increase in hate” is hard to stop once it gains traction. “We must remember,” he added. “It will only get worse if something isn’t done about it now. “I know. I lived through it,” added Arbeiter, who said he was 14 when he was sent away to a concentration camp. He said his mother, father, brothers, aunts, uncles and cousins all died in the camps. The suspect in yesterday’s massacre, Robert Bowers, faces murder and federal hate crime charges, officials said last night. He is also suspected of being a member of a farright extremist website.