(WEST HARTFORD—WTIC News) Antisemitic incidents are on the rise in Connecticut, and local Jewish organizations are feeling the impact, saying they’ve faced bomb threats and other harassment. Meantime, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) argues that the Trump Administration is slashing resources that might stop “hate criminals.”
“We as a society need to take steps to make sure our rights are real,” says Rabbi Tuvia Brander of Young Israel of West Hartford, “and that the antisemitism we face doesn’t result in a hate tax on the groups that are targeted by those hateful acts.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) says that while antisemitic incidents have increased by 344% over the past 5 years across the U.S., they’ve increased by more than 500% in Connecticut over the same span.
Connecticut ADL director Stacey Sobel highlights several recent incidents:
--At a teen center in Greenwich, a 10-year-old was punched in the face by a classmate, who said, “You’re Jewish. It’s ok for me to punch you.”
--In Oxford, a middle school student got on the bus every morning as a classmate played the Nazi Anthem and encouraged other students to mimic his Nazi salute.
--A high school sophomore in Weston found two swastikas carved into his football locker.
Brander says in addition to bomb threats, Young Israel has been the target of antisemitic literature dropped on campus and interference with an upcoming event:
“Our community-wide event that we were honored to spearhead has been spammed by ‘keyboard warriors…’ trying to crash the site and block people who want to partake from being part, leaving hateful messages on message boards from across the country.”
Brander adds that organizations like his have had to adjust their actions due to hateful acts, citing “the time and the energy that the Jewish community as a whole puts into ensuring that our gatherings are safe, ensuring that we have armed security at our events and at our synagogue so that people can feel comfortable coming.”
Brander appeared at a press conference with Sobel and Sen.
Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who said the Trump Administration is falling short on fighting antisemitism, despite its claims otherwise.
The White House under Trump has slashed the workforce at the Department of Education’s civil rights office, which handles claims of antisemitism in schools, and has cut grants to improve hate crime reporting and victims’ hotlines.
“There is the threat that the grants are being cancelled and that all of the funding may be stopped to counter antisemitism and other hate crimes,” says Blumenthal. “I call on the president to… increase resources that are available for security when necessary, as well as crime reporting, hotlines, training of law enforcement—all of the basic actions that need to be taken to make these rights real.”