Antisemitism incidents reached a record high across the nation last year, and the Lehigh Valley was not immune.
Local occurrences — including offensive T-shirts, vandalism and a stranger’s comments toward children at an amusement park — contributed to surges in reports in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey in 2022, according to an annual report released last week by the Anti-Defamation League.
The report is separate but similar to another issued earlier this month that logged white supremacist propaganda. While Pennsylvania was a national leader in such white supremacist recruitment efforts, the Garden State was third in the nation for overt acts of vandalism, harassment and assault against Jewish people.
There are a number of reasons for the increase, said Andrew Goretsky, regional director for the Anti-Defamation League’s Philadelphia office.
“We obviously continue to see the proliferation of hate, whether it’s racism, antisemitism or anti-LGBT … online, and social media tends to give people easy access to perpetuate that hate in our region,” Goretsky said. “In particular, we are seeing an increased amount of organized white supremacist organization activity.”
There were nearly 3,700 reported antisemitic incidents reported nationwide in 2022, up 36% from the previous year, according to the ADL’s report; it marked the third of the last five years to set a new record. New Jersey had 408 reported incidents, up 10% from the prior year, while Pennsylvania saw 114 reports, up 65%.
New Jersey ranks behind only New York (580 reports) and California (518). Reports generally came from more populated areas, like Philadelphia and its collar counties, and eastern New Jersey. Unlike propaganda, which is more of a widespread recruitment effort, these incidents are more likely to be seen and reported where more Jewish people live. It is likely many more incidents went unreported.
Nine instances of antisemitism were reported in Lehigh, Northampton and Warren counties in 2022, taking various forms:
- Twice, people wore T-shirts with phrases or conspiracies used by white supremacists like “It’s OK to be white.” That was reported at the Christkindlmarkt holiday bazaar in Bethlehem in December, and in Allentown in September.
- There were at least two instances of vandalism. Swastikas, ancient symbols appropriated by the Nazis, were painted on a Hackettstown High School soccer field in October, and carved into a bathroom stall with other racist phrases in Allentown in November.
- Three times, the ADL reported activity by a specific antisemitic group distributing flyers promoting conspiracy theories. Incidents were logged in Bangor in March, and Phillipsburg and Lopatcong Township in August.
- On one occasion in July, a group of Orthodox Jewish girls on a trip to an unnamed Allentown area amusement park were approached by a stranger who said, “Go away, Jews.”
- In one incident attributed to Phillipsburg, a Jewish person got antisemitic comments on a TikTok video.
In instances like the latter, Goretsky said it is important for users of social media and online games to know how to report hateful and inappropriate comments to the platform.
(Can’t see the map? Click here.)
Other acts like vandalism or harassment should be reported to local or state police, or a state human relations council, all of whom can determine if any particular incident rises to the level of a criminal act or hate crime. Reports also can be submitted directly to the Anti-Defamation League via adl.org or the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley at jewishlehighvalley.org.
Just as important is talking about the issue at home.
“Children are a barometer for where hate is in society,” Goretsky said, “because they will repeat what public figures state … as well as what they may or may not hear at home, which is one of the reasons why it’s so important that families talk about this at home, even if they don’t think it’s impacting their children, so that they can be countering any of the public-figure messaging that they may be hearing.”
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Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com.
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