Anti-Semitism hits a new low - The Jewish Standard

Anti-Semitism in America is at a 10-year low, according to a survey released today by the Anti-Defamation League. Only 12 percent of Americans were found to hold anti-Semitic views, down from 15 percent in 2007.

“The fact that anti-Semitic attitudes have reached their lowest point to date is good news, the product of many years of constant and intense efforts by ADL and others to make America a more accepting society,” Abraham H. Foxman, ADL national director, said in a statement Thursday.

The seemingly good news from the ADL ironically came the same day as a tragic shooting at a Los Angeles synagogue that left two people wounded.

In response, Foxman said that “just as the good news about the election of an African-American as President has been tempered by the surfacing of racism and conspiratorial thinking in reaction, so too the significant diminution of widespread prejudice against Jews is tempered by the manifestation of violence, conspiracy theories and insensitivities toward them.”

Read the report here.

Unfortunately, even 12 percent is too high. Just this week The Jewish Standard and several other organizations throughout northern New Jersey were visited by the Westboro Baptist Church. This group, started in 1955, is dedicated to an anti-homosexual platform and, as of earlier this year, it has turned its vile sights on Jews, as well.

We received advice from the ADL and law enforcement that, as a Jewish organization targeted by the WBC, we should ignore them and not give them the attention they crave. As a newspaper, however, we were torn because it is our duty to you to report the news and this was news. In the end, we decided on an approach that we felt gave the WBC the least amount of attention while still covering the event. You can read about it in Friday’s edition and decide for yourself if you think we made the right decision.

The Big Lipowsky

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