Report: Anti-Semitic incidents rising in U.S., Pennsylvania

Numbers for 2017 near all-time high

Anti-Semitic incidents in the United States spiked an unprecedented 57 percent last year, with significant increases in Pennsylvania, according to a report released Tuesday by the Anti-Defamation League that also detailed disturbing examples throughout the region.

In Pennsylvania, the league recorded 96 anti-Semitic incidents last year, a 43 percent increase over 2016. In New Jersey, the league reported 208 anti-Semitic incidents, a 32 percent increase.

“We cannot ignore the recent spike of anti-Semitism in New Jersey,” Nancy K. Baron-Baer, the league’s regional director for Pennsylvania and New Jersey, said after the report was released.

Nationally, anti-Semitic incidents had the highest percentage increase in 2017 since the league began auditing such crimes in 1979, marked by hate crimes in schools and bomb threats against Jewish institutions. ADL’s 2017 Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents identified 1,986 examples of anti-Semitic harassment, vandalism and assault in 2017 — up from 1,267 in 2016 — the largest single-year increase and the secondhighest number since it started tracking the data in the 1970s.

Vandalism was up by 86 percent and incidents targeting Jewish schools, community centers, museums and synagogues surged by 101 percent since 2016, the report found. The number of antiSemitic incidents in K-12 schools has roughly doubled each year for the past two years, the report said.

“This is close to an alltime high,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the organization’s CEO said in an interview, adding that the last time the number of incidents was so high was nearly 25 years ago. “AntiSemitic activity had been going down in recent years and we’ve started to see a shift in 2016.”

Mr. Greenblatt blamed the shift on far-right extremists and “the divisive state of our national discourse” since the Trump administration came into office. “Less civility has led to more intolerance,” he told The Associated Press.

Pittsburgh was no stranger to anti-Semitic incidents.

Mt. Lebanon police were called upon to investigate an anti-Semitic message left in a public area in May.

It was the third incident in the area in seven months.

A self-proclaimed white supremacist was also sent back to prison in December after officials say he gave the Nazi salute and yelled “White Power” at a protest and also placed racist fliers on cars in Shadyside.