HOUSTON – A newly released audit by the Anti-Defamation League is shedding light on a troubling trend. The year 2022 was the worst year for antisemitic incidents across the country. The distribution of white supremacist propaganda is part of what’s fueling that jump.
The Jewish community represents 2.4% of the population but has victims in 55% of hate crimes in this country. Many in the Houston area have felt and experienced antisemitism firsthand. A total of 46 of the 73 incidents reported to the ADL last year targeted the Jewish community in the greater Houston area. That’s an 87% increase over 2021. To confront it head-on, Houston’s Jewish community said it’s going to take an all-society approach.
“I was horrified. I felt personally offended. I felt threatened,” Richard Elbein said.
Elbein said in February 2023, he found an antisemitic flyer inside a Zip-Lock sandwich bag that someone had left in his driveway. Elbein resides in the Riverside Terrace neighborhood near Highway 288 and McGregor. “We probably picked up about a hundred of them. They had blanketed the entire neighborhood,” Elbein said.
The Anti-Defamation League said this is part of a disturbing trend that began five years ago. Across the country, incidents of harassment, vandalism, and physical assaults all saw a sharp increase compared to 2021.
“It doesn’t happen by accident. People don’t just decide that we’re going to attack Jews. It happens because they have been influenced,” said Mark Toubin, Southwest Regional Director for the ADL.
“There’s no single reason,” Toubin said.
The ADL said one reason is white supremacist propaganda. According to the ADL, white supremacists targeted Texas more than any other state with antisemitic propaganda last year with 527 incidents of propaganda, a 61% increase over the previous year.
“It’s distressing to see those numbers,” said Al Tribble, Community Security Director for the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston. “The million-dollar question facing the Jewish community here, is how do we effectively address it? Whether it’s schools or synagogues, as the security director for the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston, Tribble trains Houston’s Jewish community on the importance of vigilance. “You have to start at the grassroots. You have to start with the community. The key is casting a broad net and being able to reach the community and getting folks to come together,” Tribble said.
On a grand scale as well. New England Patriots Owner Robert Kraft recently launched “Stand up To Jewish Hate,” a new $25 million national multi-media campaign aimed at stopping hateful acts against Jewish people. The blue square appearing on television shows, digital billboards, and social media symbolizes the fight against antisemitism.
“It’s education, it’s working to address online hate. It’s working on the legislative end,” Toubin said.
Elbein, who filed a police report after being confronted with that hate speech and then shared the police report number on his Next Door app, agrees.
“These people spent a lot of energy being hateful. Our neighborhood came together and was outraged by that behavior,” Elbein said.
If you’re a victim or witness an antisemitic incident, you can report it to The Jewish Federation of Greater Houston at HoustonJewish.org/security.
For more information on the Stand Up to Jewish Hate campaign, click here.
See the ADL’s full audit here.
The complete dataset for antisemitic incidents for 2016-2022 is available on ADL’s H.E.A.T. Map, an interactive online tool that allows users to geographically chart antisemitic incidents and extremist activity.
The audit offers a snapshot of one of the ways American Jews encounter antisemitism, but a full understanding of antisemitism in the U.S. requires other forms of analysis as well, including public opinion polling, assessments of online antisemitism and examinations of extremist activity, all of which ADL offers in other reports, such as the ADL Survey of American Attitudes Toward Jews, Survey on Jewish Americans’ Experiences with Antisemitism, ADL Global 100, Online Hate and Harassment: The American Experience, Murder and Extremism, and White Supremacist Propaganda.