With Antisemitic Attacks on the Rise, Who's Giving to Combat Hate?
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Top New YOrk politicians at a march in Manhattan earlier this month against antisemitism. lev radin/shutterstock
Historically speaking, American Jews have been relatively safeguarded from the threat of antisemitism. That’s certainly true in comparison to past generations, and remains true when compared with today’s Jewish populations in Europe and abroad. Yet for many American Jews, the veil of security is slowly being lifted. Anxieties over the rising tide of nationalism, coupled with the recent spate of attacks in New York and 2018’s massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue—the deadliest single antisemitic attack in U.S. history—are contributing to a sense of urgency amongst the U.S. Jewish population, many of whom are only now confronting an uncomfortable truth: that antisemitism is alive and well in the United States.
Jewish donors are key figures in the broader philanthropic landscape, with many of them providing extensive support to the Jewish community (as we report often in our J-Give section). So it’s worth asking how this donor group, as well as other foundations focused on civil rights, are combating the rising scourge of antisemitism.
The Two Types of Hate
The data behind antisemitism in the United States is not as cut and dried as one might expect. For starters, there are two distinct categorizations of antisemitism: attitudes and incidents.
The Anti-Defamation League has been tracking antisemitic attitudes since the 1960s, and antisemitic incidents since the 1970s. On the attitudes front, the ADL conducts regular sentiment analyses every few years to assess what percentage of the general population holds antisemitic beliefs. When the ADL first started monitoring nearly six decades ago, that number was 30 percent. Today, the ADL estimates that antisemitic attitudes among the U.S. population have plummeted to a historic low of 11 percent. And that number is no aberration. Over the past few years, the ADL estimates that antisemitic attitudes in the U.S. have remained consistent in the 11 to 14 percent range. What’s more, in a 2017 Pew Research study, Jews were found to be the best-liked religious group in America, and their “thermometer score” (on a scale of 1 to 100) actually increased from 2014, when the study was first conducted, and Jews again topped the list.
So American attitudes toward Jews are relatively positive, and actually improving, overall. Yet broader attitudes don’t necessarily correlate with specific incidents, which is why the ADL began separately tracking antisemitic incidents in the 1970s. The organization monitors incidents through its network of 25 regional offices throughout the U.S. via a combination of intake (incidents reported to the ADL) and internal investigation of incidents the ADL hears or reads about.
With that methodology in place, the ADL has unearthed a troubling trend. It seems that for the 15 years preceding 2016, the numbers of antisemitic incidents were on the decline. Yet 2016 saw a sharp increase in antisemitic incidents, with the ADL reporting a 34 percent year-over-year (YoY) increase. That was followed by an even larger 57 percent YoY increase the following year. While 2018 saw a YoY dip of 5 percent, that figure still represents the third-largest number of antisemitic incidents on record in a single year. (To be clear, not all incidents rise to the level of a crime. Antisemitic incidents can include harassment or bullying where the threat is perceived to be motivated by the victim’s Jewish identity. As such, one counterpoint to the ADL’s findings is that in the wake of the 2016 election, American Jews developed a heightened awareness to the threat of antisemitism, and therefore began reporting more incidents to the ADL).
While the numbers for 2019 are still being collated, the data already released from police departments doesn’t bode well for Jews in major urban centers. The NYPD has reported that in the five boroughs of New York, antisemitic hate crimes accounted for more incidents than all others combined. The LAPD recently announced an over 60 percent increase in the number of antisemitic hate crimes last year. And the hate crimes are growing more violent, with crimes against people on the rise, while vandalism and destruction of property have slightly decreased.
Donor Response
The ADL’s data seems to suggest that a relatively small number of Americans are committing an increasing number of hate crimes against Jews. Given the inherent complexities, I asked the organization’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, how his organization is tackling the issue.
“We have a theory of change at ADL,” Greenblatt explained. “We try to tackle the whole value chain of intolerance.”
In the short term, that means being responsive to events and providing intelligence about extremism, which ADL is tracking thoroughly. The organization works with elected officials and policymakers to ensure that police can properly handle a hate crime. In the medium term, the ADL works to create an antidote for intolerance by introducing anti-bias education in schools and engaging interfaith groups to strengthen bonds in the community. This helps cement a foundation for long-term systems change. And in order to catalyze that long-term change, the ADL drives a policy agenda that seeks to mandate anti-bias education and hate crime laws across the board. The organization works with policymakers and elected officials on things like the No Hate Act, which grants law enforcement the resources for proper training in combating hate crimes.
In the wake of the 2016 election and Charlottesville, the ADL, the most prominent antisemitism-focused organization in the country, is experiencing renewed interest from donors, some of whom are new to the organization. The ADL now counts the Omidyar Network, Hewlett Foundation, Neumark Foundation and Quadrivium among its funders.
“Our donors are deeply concerned, first and foremost, about this explosion in antisemitism,” said Greenblatt. “They’re deeply concerned about online radicalization. It’s about, how do we stop it in its tracks? How do we tackle it before it explodes into violence?”
In addition to new members, the ADL is being granted more money. After the 2016 election, when there was a brief spate of antisemitic incidents, the organization saw a 50-fold increase in online donations. And in the week after the violence in Charlottesville, the ADL registered a 600 percent YoY increase in online donations.
We reported on the deluge of seven-figure gifts that arrived post-Charlottesville from prominent backers like James Murdoch, Apple, JPMorgan Chase and George and Amal Clooney. Murdoch’s funding was especially notable, given that his father Rupert serves as an unofficial advisor to President Trump. In an email announcing his $1 million gift, the younger Murdoch praised the ADL as “an extraordinary force for vigilance and strength in the face of bigotry,” and called out the Charlottesville attack specifically, stating, “I can’t even believe I have to write this: Standing up to Nazis is essential.”
While it’s too soon to tell what the grant numbers look like in the wake of the latest attacks in New York, Greenblatt pointed to his organization’s partnership with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. With Adams’ support, the ADL will bring anti-bias education to over 20,000 Brooklyn students. This targets the root of the problem, according to Greenblatt, as most of the perpetrators in this latest round of attacks were juveniles. The ADL committed its own funds to the project, eventually securing additional funding from the NYC Council.
Other organizations are taking a similarly direct approach. On January 2nd of this year, UJA, along with the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, announced a $4 million initiative to improve security at Jewish institutions in New York. The initiative is being developed in partnership with the Paul E. Singer Foundation, and comes as a direct response to the antisemitic hate crimes in New York, including the stabbing of a Hassidic rabbi (the perpetrator now faces federal hate crime charges). Nathan Cummings is another example of a prominent foundation that hasn’t been shy about voicing its concern over the threat of white nationalism. Over the last three years, the foundation—which recently welcomed fourth-generation heir Jaimie Mayer as chair of the board—has channeled increased grantmaking to support nonprofits that are tracking extremist activity, educating community leaders about white supremacy, and cultivating networks of activists intent on confronting this issue.
Meanwhile, Steven Spielberg has long been on the front lines of the antisemitism issue with his Righteous Persons Foundation (RPF) and USC Shoah Foundation. Both organizations pursue initiatives that combat hate in classrooms and online. As IP previously reported, RPF granted Facing History and Ourselves with rapid response funds aimed at helping 70,000 teachers engage their students around issues of hate speech and stereotyping post-Charlottesville. RPF also granted ADL to support research into the spread of online hate; that research is being conducted via a platform that was seeded by the Omidyar Network. And Shoah just accepted a $10 million grant from the Koret Foundation aimed at supporting Holocaust awareness. Shoah is partnering with the Hold On To Your Music Foundation, which uses music and arts to teach lessons from the Holocaust, to fund education programs and interactive experiences with survivors.
Additionally, as IP recently reported, the Jewish Communal Fund has stepped up its giving across the board. The fund, which describes itself as “the leading collective of Jewish funders in the country,” recommended grants totaling $456 million to over 9,500 nonprofits during FY 2018—an increase of $380 million from FY 2016. Yet the majority of that money went to issues like education, community organization and Israel. JCF doesn’t list antisemitism as one of its issue areas, so it’s impossible to know how much of the allocated money was dedicated to combating this scourge. JCF did grant $21.6 million to UJA, which does confront the antisemitism issue, so clearly, some of the big money JCF has been raising lately is being dedicated to fighting the rising tide of antisemitism.
‘When Life Gives You Lemons…”
The Jewish people are no strangers to antisemitism, and have long found ways to build something positive from even the most tragic of circumstances. The founding of the state of Israel in the wake of the Holocaust is a prime example. American Jews fleeing antisemitism and moving out west to build a place called Hollywood is another. Jewish history is punctuated with antisemitic sentiment, to be sure, but is not defined by that sentiment. Rather, what has come to define Jewish history and culture is the Jewish response to antisemitism—the lemonade, not the lemons.
While the current level of antisemitism in the United States is not comparable to the oppression Jews of past generations experienced, the trend toward increasing violence and harassment is undoubtedly worrying. But Jewish life in 21st century America won’t be defined by recent incidents in Brooklyn, or by the Tree of Life shooting; instead, it will be defined by how Americans—Jewish and gentile—respond. With organizations like the ADL, Nathan Cummings, UJA and JCF raising big money and being proactive, American Jews have every reason to remain optimistic.
