New stats on the sharp rise in antisemitism in California. It's way up for '02, not surprisingly concentrating in the leftist Bay Area.
Antisemitic incidents soared 800% in Northern California last year, according to the Anti-Defamation League's annual audit released last week.
Northern California logged only 13 events in 2001 but saw 117 in 2002. Thirty-five occurred in San Francisco; 27 occurred in Alameda County, including Berkeley and Oakland; and 13 occurred in Santa Clara County, including San Jose and much of Silicon Valley. Many of these were verbal — including anonymous phone calls and public taunts — or written, including a blood-libel flier distributed on a college campus and many instances of swastikas and other graffiti. . . .
In Oakland, arson caused $24,000 in damage to Congregation Beth Jacob, an Orthodox synagogue. In San Francisco, police found unexploded Molotov cocktails on the roof of the Conservative-Reform Congregation Beth Israel-Judea during Passover. In Sacramento, two men asked a pedestrian wearing a yarmulke whether he supported Israel; when he said he did, they came at him with fists and a stun gun, inflicting bruises and a sprained elbow, the audit notes.
Nationwide, the ADL audit showed an 8% increase in antisemitic incidents, from 1,432 incidents in 2001 to 1,559 in 2002. These figures included a 17% increase in harassment such as intimidation, threats and assaults aimed at people or institutions, and a 4% increase in vandalism of Jewish community institutions, synagogues and property.
Stats on the rise in French anti-semitismViolent hate crimes in France quadrupled in 2002 over the year before, rising to their highest level in a decade, according to a new report by the National Consulting Committee on Human Rights. More than half the assaults were aimed at Jews.
Another article on recent French violence against Jews.
<< Home