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With 10 anti-Semitic incidents in NYC in one week, people of Jewish faith feel the worry

Posted at 3:43 PM, Dec 30, 2019
and last updated 2019-12-30 20:59:37-05

PHOENIX — According to a report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), anti-Semitic incidents that involved harassment and vandalism went up 23% in 2018 when compared to 2017.

Since Monday, December 23, there have been 10 incidents reported in NYC, with the latest one happening over the weekend on Monsey, NY which sent two people to the hospital in critical condition. The suspect has since been arrested.

"What we have heard whether it's through emails or phone calls is a sense of urgency and concern that while it may have happened in NYC, hate crimes are message crimes and resonate throughout the entire Jewish community," says Carlos Galindo-Elvira, the ADL's regional director located in Arizona.

A member of the Jewish faith wrote the following statement to ABC15 instead of appearing on camera, for fear of retaliation.

"As a member of the Jewish Community, I am deeply saddened by the recent attacks against people of my faith. Many people don’t understand how widespread anti-Semitism is. It’s in every community, in every city in Arizona, in every country. The only way to mitigate this hate is to teach tolerance for all faiths. Many of these attacks against the Jewish Community were during a time of celebration where we light our Hanukkah Menorah for eight nights. Those eight candles remind us of when we persevered and survived against darkness. It seems like history is repeating itself time and time again and those eight bright lights give me hope that we will once again, persevere as a Jewish faith."

"The Jewish community is always the highest as it refers to religious crimes so it is not new in that way… but what is new is the degree of anti-Semitism that is violent and harmful and fearful to many."
 
Looking even deeper at the ADL report published nearly a year ago, 78% of extremist-related murders in the U.S. were committed by a white supremacist. As for the numbers in 2019 that report is expected to be released soon.