Anti-Semitic Acts Down 8% in State, U.S., Study Finds

Reports of anti-Jewish incidents fell 8% nationally and in California last year, the Anti-Defamation League reported Tuesday.

“I am pleased to report generally positive news about hate crimes,” said ADL Executive Director David Lehrer. “But that news is tempered by the fact this is the second-highest number of anti-Semitic hate crimes (in the last 14 years).”

The 1992 Audit of anti-Semitic Incidents--which does not include hate crimes against Arabs--documented 1,730 reported incidents nationwide last year, compared to 1,879 in 1991.

The 14th annual survey defines hate crimes as ranging from arson and cross-burnings to distributing anti-Jewish literature, which by law is not a crime.

The most serious incidents, such as arson and vandalism, declined in 1992 and have receded to 1988 levels, Lehrer said. Harassment, threats and assaults against individuals and institutions also dipped from 1991 to 1992, he said. Lehrer said 856 cases of vandalism and 874 cases of harassment, threats and assaults were reported in 1992--down 8% and 7%, respectively, from the year before.

Nationwide, there were more than twice as many hate crimes reported against African-Americans as against Jews, according to the most recent data available from the Department of Justice.

Of the 4,755 hate crimes logged by the federal government in 1991, 36% targeted blacks, 17% targeted Jews and 9% targeted gays.

The Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission--which defines hate crimes narrowly as incidents that violate criminal law based on the victim’s background--received 670 hate-crime reports in 1991. Among those, 25% were against gay men and lesbians, 19% against Jews, 19% against African-Americans, 10% against Latinos, 8% against Asians and 3% against Arabs.

In California, reports of anti-Jewish vandalism fell 6%, from 124 reported cases in 1991 to 117 in 1992, according to the Anti-Defamation League audit.

But the study did not contain all good news, Lehrer said. Reports of anti-Jewish incidents on college campuses rose by 12% last year at 60 schools surveyed by ADL.

Among the campus incidents listed in the audit were swastikas and anti-Jewish graffiti scrawled in classrooms and stairwells at Cal State Northridge and UCLA, anti-Jewish flyers distributed at Cal State Fullerton, a pamphlet left on a dorm-room door at Chapman University, a swastika sprayed with shaving cream inside a dorm bathroom at Occidental College, and an anti-Jewish letter sent to a student publication at UCLA.

Lehrer speculated that increased diversity on the campuses has bred tension among ethnic groups. Lehrer said campus incidents have been on the rise for five years, and he blames such people as rap stars Professor Griff and Sister Souljah and African-American political figures Stokely Carmichael--now known as Kwame Toure--and Louis Farrakhan.

The ADL reported a record number of anti-Jewish incidents in 1991, with 929 cases of vandalism and 950 reports of harassment, threats, and assaults against individuals and institutions.