With a growing number of anti-Semitic incidents being reported not only throughout the world but also on Long Island, a number of Jewish advocacy groups on Long Island have joined together to help combat the problem.
The idea for the group, known as the Long Island Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism, began about two months ago, said Steven Markowitz, chairman of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County.
“We need to show people what to do and that this is a serious problem,” Markowitz said. “We need to show people they can participate in the stand against anti-Semitism.”
Markowitz said his Holocaust center had been talking with other Jewish advocacy groups and police organizations about what they could do to not feel helpless in the fight against growing anti-Semitism.
The groups that make up the coalition besides the Holocaust Center include the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Community Relations Council, the Long Island Board of Rabbis and the Suffolk Center on the Holocaust, Diversity and Human Understanding, he said.
Markowitz said that each individual group brings different skills and resources to aid in the coalition’s actions. Some groups have more of a finger on the pulse of the Jewish community worldwide, while some are legal experts and some – such as the Holocaust Center – have a better viewpoint to view anti-Semitism throughout history.
“The American Jewish Committee clearly is the worldwide watchdog on issues affecting the Jewish community,” Markowitz said. “The members of the Anti-Defamation League are experts on specific strategies to deal with specific acts of anti-Semitism.”
The coalition will organize and co-sponsor programs to inform the public about anti-Semitism and what they can do to be proactive about the issue, Markowitz said. He also said the coalition be working with state and local government officials as well as police departments in Nassau and Suffolk counties to help combat anti-Semitic acts.
Evan Bernstein, New York regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said even though the league has not compiled all the specific data for 2014, the number of incidents of anti-Semitic acts perpetrated on Long Island is very apparent. Each year, Bernstein said, the Anti-Defamation league compiles an audit of anti-Semitic incidents, which they collect from police reports, news stories and stories told directly to them.
The Anti-Defamation League’s 2013 Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents included 62 total incidents on Long Island – 26 in Nassau County and 36 in Suffolk County.
Some of the incidents the Anti-Defamation League has gotten for 2014 include two swastikas being drawn on a street in Great Neck, a man being arrested for sending an anti-Semitic letter with white powder in the envelope to an office in East Garden City, a swastika being etched into brick at a Jewish Community Center in Plainview, a swastika painted on a post office sign in Roosevelt and anti-Semitic graffiti being spray painted on the rear wall of a business in Oceanside.
Bernstein said the number of anti-Semitic incidents the anti-Defamation League sees every year varies, but it does spike when there is any sort of spike in the Palestinian-Israel conflict, such as there was this past summer. He said the anti-Israel sentiment often leads to more anti-Semitic sentiment.
“For many years the two ideas did not cross, and we are allowed to have a discourse about the [Palestinian-Israel] issue,” Bernstein said. “You are allowed to critique Israel but it’s when it turns from critiquing into anti-Semitism that we have to watch. There have always been cases of that but this summer we saw them much more frequently.”
Markowitz said that one of the reasons people point to as a cause in the upsurge of anti-Semitism recently is the Palestinain-Israel conflict, he also said that anti-Semitic acts have been increasing in number since before the war in Gaza, such as in May when a gunman opened fire in the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels killing four people.
“People like to point to war in Gaza over summer as pretext to what started as being anti-Israel and anti-Zionist, but which quickly melded into anti-Semitism,” Markowitz said. “There became for some very little distinction between the three.”
Markowitz said that he is seeing anti-Semitism becoming more acceptable, as more mainstream groups and religious affiliations come out with anti-Israel positions, which eventually turn into more general anti-Semitism.
Robert Socolof, American Jewish Committee director of the Long Island region, said the problem of anti-Semitism – and hate crimes in general – are not the problem of one single group, and that it is a social problem.
“There’s always been a certain amount of hate and vitriol in any society,” Socolof said. “Anti-Semitism gives a platform to those who want to spread hatred.”
Socolof said anti-Semitic expression always starts out small and escalates.
“It comes in the form of individual violent acts or communities turning a blind eye,” Socolof said. “Hate is not just a Jewish crime, but it tears away at the democracy of our society.”
Markowitz said the escalation of anti-Semitism is what is frightening.
“The Holocaust did not start with concentration camps. It started with bullying, name-calling, graffiti and the perversion of the press,” Markowitz said. “All those things led up the concentration camps and mass genocide.”
He said the times now are not all that dissimilar to 1930’s Europe, when one considers the recent images of Jews being chased through the streets of Paris and the windows of Jewish-owned stores being destroyed.
“I’m definitely not saying we’re seeing another Holocaust,” Markowitz said. “I’m saying people didn’t speak out strong enough against those acts when they were happening.”
Socolof said the coalition is a good way to address hatred in all its forms.
“There are times and moments in history where society takes a turn, and we’re at a moment that is going to define us, and how we respond to anti-Semitism is one of those things people will look back on and say ‘why did you not you do something about it,” Socolof. “In these defining moments, people need to be empowered in their community to address hatred.”
