With Anti-Semitic Attacks on the Rise, the U.S. Government Should Take Action to Make Jews Safer https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/politics-current-affairs/2021/05/with-anti-semitic-attacks-on-the-rise-the-u-s-government-should-take-action-to-make-jews-safer/

May 11, 2021 | Nathan Diament
About the author:

According to a recent report, 2020 saw slightly fewer anti-Semitic incidents than the previous year, but nonetheless had the third-highest number since 1979. Nathan Diament writes:

[D]uring the past year alone, 2,024 anti-Semitic incidents ranging from harassment to vandalism and assault were recorded—a mere 4-percent decrease from the all-time high of 2019. During COVID-19, far from dissipating, the assaults often shifted online: 114 schools, synagogues, and other Jewish institutions were the targets of anti-Semitic “Zoom bombing,” with perpetrators using Nazi symbols, other anti-Semitic messages, and verbal assaults to disrupt live video conferences and intimidate participants.

The FBI’s most recent hate-crimes report affirms these findings and notes that Jews remain by far the religious group most targeted for hate crimes, comprising 60 percent of them. Muslims, the second-most targeted group, faced 13 percent of such crimes.

There are several steps Diament recommends in response, including passing the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act currently before Congress, and providing more funding to police:

Most local police departments lack sufficient resources to patrol our communities sufficiently in the face of current threats, leaving too many synagogues—as well as mosques, churches, and other houses of worship — to scrape together the money to hire off-duty police or private security guards to protect their congregations. If government’s first obligation is to keep its citizens safe, this is absurd. Congress must direct some of the millions of dollars in grants distributed by the Department of Justice to police departments to support increased patrols at houses of worship—particularly during times of heavy attendance such as the Sabbath and other holidays.

Read more on The Hill: https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/homeland-security/552066-americas-jewish-communities-are-under-attack-here-are-3