Anti-Semitic Acts Declined in U.S. in ‘97, ADL Says

Although the number of anti-Jewish acts decreased nationwide in 1997 for the third year in a row, the number of incidents on college campuses went up about 15%, the Anti-Defamation League said Wednesday.

The ADL, which monitors hate crimes as well as noncriminal hateful behavior against Jews, said there were 104 reports of anti-Semitic acts on campuses in 1997, up from 90 the year before.

Last year’s college campus number, however, is still down from a high in 1994 of 143 anti-Jewish acts.

Nationally, the number of such incidents was down by 9%, which represents fewer incidents in 43 states and Washington, D.C.

Los Angeles, however, had the same number of campus incidents in 1996 and 1997--65, said the author of the ADL report, regional director David A. Lehrer.

In his report, Lehrer said anti-Jewish sentiments on campus are fueled by groups that question the legitimacy of the Holocaust, often taking out ads and writing op-ed pieces in campus newspapers.

Among the campus incidents was an eight-page pseudo-academic paper about alleged Jewish control of the government and media, which was mailed to 16 professors across the country, the ADL said.

In another campus incident, an instructor at Pierce College in the San Fernando Valley allegedly was told by a colleague that “Hitler had the right idea--he just didn’t finish the job.”

At that same college, two swastikas were painted on a placard outside the campus’ Jewish center building.

Last year at the University of Cincinnati, a student found a message addressed to him that used an anti-Jewish epithet; the same name was also scratched into the roof of his car, the ADL said.

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The ADL noted in a Wednesday news conference that it tracks and includes in reports both hate crimes as defined by law and merely hateful behavior that is protected by 1st Amendment rights to free speech.

Illegal anti-Jewish behavior, covered by hate-crime statutes, is down in both California and nationwide, the ADL said, in part because of increasingly strict laws.

In Los Angeles County, the district attorney’s office successfully prosecuted 73 of 75 people charged with hate crimes--all of whom were sentenced to jail time, said Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, who joined the ADL at its news conference.

Statewide, the number of incidents fell to 180 last year from 186 in 1996, the ADL found.

ADL officials said the number of anti-Jewish acts continues to be highest in the states with the largest numbers of Jews.

Those states are New York, New Jersey, California, Florida and Massachusetts, which accounted for 62% of the nation’s anti-Jewish activity. Of the five, however, only New York saw an increase in anti-Semitic acts, from 328 incidents in 1996 to 380 in 1997.