Numbers show anti-Semitism is bad, not alarming

I am rarely mistaken for Little Miss Sunshine, which would misgender me, and I am even less mistaken for Chicken Little, because if the sky seems to be falling, I want proof. No crying wolf for me.

As you’ve heard, opinions are like rectums, everyone has one, but valid opinions have a foundation in fact. I try to base my opinion on fact, and that’s why the motto of this blog is: “Reality determines my political opinions, not vice versa.”

In other words, my political or other beliefs do not determine reality.

Put another way, sometimes you must surrender your most precious political opinions when facts prove you are wrong.

This is something the election deniers can’t do.

In a semi-related topic, the Philadelphia Inquirer front-paged a story headlined: “Alarming rise seen in anti-Jewish incidents.”

The newspaper cites an Anti-Defamation League study that reports a 65% rise in anti-Semitic acts in Pennsylvania in 2022, versus 2021. I give the paper credit for also giving the actual number of “vandalism, harassment, and assaults” targeting Jews: 114 in Pennsylvania.  That figure is a whole lot less frightening than 65%. Pennsylvania’s population in 2021 was 12.96 million.

Let’s review, that is 114 incidents of all kinds (see chart) among almost 13 million people.

To me, that is not “alarming,” the headline word, but it is noteworthy, in that the arrows are pointing up. 

In Philadelphia, population 1.6 million, 34 incidents were reported. In New Jersey, population of 9.2 million, 408 anti-Semitic incidents were reported. 

To broaden the focus to the nation, the FBI report on religious hate crimes lists 1,005 in all, 31.9% directed against Jews. That is about 320 crimes in a nation of 331 million — one hate crime per million people. Statistically, experiencing a Jewish hate crime is about the same as getting struck by lightning.

What is more concerning are the number of physical threats against Jews, specifically the 2018 attack on Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue that resulted in 11 deaths, 6 wounded.

That was the worst anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history, but unlike other mass shootings, it has not been repeated. There were no physical assaults against Jews in Pennsylvania in 2022, down from four in 2021. That could have been reported as a collapse of physical assaults, but that goes against the “alarming” narrative. [Disclosure: I am Jewish.]

The Inquirer quotes the report as mentioning anti-Semitic remarks or tropes by celebrities, such as Kanye West, or whatever he is calling himself at the moment. 

He had his anti-Semitic rant and was immediately shouted down by other celebrities, and also business partners who walked away from him. To the vast majority of Americans, anti-Semitism is unfashionable and ugly.

I would say that anti-Jewish tropes (lies)  — such as Jews are clannish, carnivorous in business, want to “replace” white Christians, and more loyal to Israel than the U.S. — are dangerous because they spread misinformation that can be liquefied into hate.

The rise in all forms of hate deserves our attention, and our willingness to challenge it, but the number of incidents is amazingly low, given the size and diversity of America.