-Caveat Lector- > AUGUST 2, 2002 > > When Is a Crime Against a Jew > Antisemitic? > > By ABRAHAM FOXMAN > > Two Jews are murdered at the El Al counter in the Los > Angeles International Airport. Another > Jew is murdered outside a popular kosher pizzeria in > Toronto. Were these antisemitic acts? > Why are the authorities slow to label them hate crimes? > How does one define an action as > antisemitic? > > What happened in Los Angeles and Toronto recently were > highly public events that received > much attention and scrutiny. Yet, people come to us at > the Anti-Defamation League from all > over the country with private complaints � they lost > their jobs, something was said, an attack > took place � all attributed to one motive: antisemitism. > Our job is to take each case seriously; > the first step being to assess the information to > ascertain whether, in fact, antisemitism is the > determining factor or something else is involved. We > undertake this responsibility knowing that > the Jewish community and others view our conclusions > seriously. > > Obviously, when an antisemitic expression is used in > connection with an act, judgment is easy. > Vandalism with a swastika or hateful anti-Jewish > rhetoric are common examples. Also fairly > simple is when Jewish institutions are attacked. If > tombstones in a Jewish cemetery are > overturned, if a synagogue is vandalized, then even > without any articulation of the motive it is > safer to categorize it as an anti-Jewish act. > > Things get stickier when the motives are not > self-evident. In our extensive work on the > subjects of prejudice and hate crimes, we have always > been careful to oppose the notion that > simply because something bad happens to an individual > who belongs to a minority that it must > be because of prejudice. A Jew mugged on a street in New > York is not necessarily the victim > of a hate crime. Indeed, we believe the tendency to cast > everything in racial, ethnic, and > antisemitic terms undermines the important efforts to > combat and rally support against true > manifestations of hatred. > > Nor should the Jewish community expect law enforcement > to rush to judgment when there is > legitimate doubt about whether a crime was indeed an > antisemitic hate crime. > > What was so disturbing about the way law enforcement > handled the Los Angeles airport case > was not the hesitancy to quickly call the murders > terrorism or a hate crime, but the statements > they made unnecessarily that there was no evidence that > the attack was a hate crime. The very > fact that an Egyptian national came to one of the > nation's largest and busiest airports and > selected the counter of Israel's national airline to > kill as many people as possible, at a time > when vicious anti-Israel terrorism and incitement are > the order of the day, should have led law > enforcement to say that there is every reason to suspect > that this was a hate crime or terrorism, > but they would wait for further evidence before coming > to a definitive conclusion. > > In other words, credibility can be undermined in two > ways: by calling every act against a Jew > antisemitism, and by denying the obvious motivation of > Jew-hatred when it does exist. > > Why does it matter? The answer lies in the fact that a > crime against a Jew because he or she is > a Jew � an act of antisemitism � traumatizes the entire > Jewish community. When Jews > across France face a rash of synagogue burnings, > vandalism of Jewish institutions and personal > attacks on individuals, while French leaders refuse to > label these crimes what they obviously > are � antisemitism � Jews face a double hit. The trauma > of the incidents themselves is > coupled with the unwillingness of officials to > acknowledge the antisemitism and, hence, to act > on the understanding that Jews are in jeopardy. > > In this time of crisis for world Jewry, we have before > us a classic challenge to stand up with all > our strength to explore and counter the manifold old and > new manifestations of antisemitism, > while not succumbing to the temptation to see every > action affecting Jews adversely as > antisemitic. > > Abraham Foxman is national director of the > Anti-Defamation League. > > > http://www.forward.com/issues/2002/02.08.02/oped2.html
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