Experts: Antisemitic incidents in CT drop during pandemic
There has been an overall reduction in antisemitic incidents in Connecticut according to experts, though online harassment is an increasingly worrisome trend, according to one organization.
“Here in Connecticut and nationally, since the COVID-19 crisis hit the U.S. in early 2020, we have seen some shifts, including a reduction in incidents on the college campus and in schools, and an increase in Zoom-bombing of synagogue and Jewish communal events and other attempts to hijack online events to spread hate,” said Steve Ginsburg, Connecticut’s regional director for the ADL.
It’s not uncommon, Ginsburg said, for antisemitism to “surface during complex and troubling times,” though he said lockdowns could be credited for the decrease in school-based antisemitism.
“We have begun to see this play out online and in the real world – from conspiracy theorists on the fringes of the internet claiming Jews create or spread COVID-19, Zoom-bombing of webinars led by Jewish groups, antisemitic signs at antiquarantine protests, and/or comparisons of quarantine restrictions to that of the Nazis and the Holocaust,” he said.
Overall, there was a 35 percent reduction in antisemitic incidents in Connecticut over the course of 2020, compared to 2019, according to the ADL’s annual antisemitism audit released Tuesday.
Nationwide, antisemitic incidents dropped as well, though not as precipitously. There was a 4 percent decrease in antisemitic incidents overall in the United States in 2020 compared to the previous year.
That national decline was led by an 18 percent drop in the number of antisemitic acts of vandalism and a 49 percent drop in the the number of antisemitic assaults.
Antisemitic harassment incidents increased year-over-year in the United States by 10 percent, the ADL said.
In Connecticut, there were two antisemitic assaults in 2020, though there were none in 2019. Harassment incidents decreased by 38 percent and vandalism decreased by 44 percent. The ADL logged 24 such incidents over the course of 2020, the fewest in the last five years.
Experts said recently that incidents of hate often go unreported. The reasons for not reporting vary from fear and denial to embarrassment, they said.
Steven Freeman, vice president of civil rights for the ADL, said victims reluctant to come forward and file a report was not a new problem.
“It’s really hard to measure how many people don’t say something, but we know it’s a problem,” Freeman said.
Nationally, 2020 was the thirdhighest year for incidents against American Jews since ADL started tracking the data in 1979. The worst year for for antisemitic incidents was 2019.
“We are cognizant of the fact that antisemitism has so often been the canary in the coal mine of hatred,” Ginsburg said. “Alongside the rise in Asian American and Pacific Islander hate, the ugly open wound of racism against the Black community, and vile conspiracy theories around immigration, the evidence points to 2021 being a year where we need to be hyper-vigilant about hate in all its forms.”