New Jersey's minority religious
communities are on edge as cases of bias
incidents are on the rise this year
incidents of anti-Semitism in New Jersey
Are Climbing following a national Trend
leaders are alarmed especially as
hateful comments circulate on social
media and Holocaust deniers are getting
louder
tomorrow will Mark three years since a
deadly hate crime in Jersey City an
anti-semitic incident in which a kosher
market was targeted by domestic
terrorists a standoff left four innocent
people dead including a detective last
evening in Jersey City a night of
remembrance was held to Mark the
anniversary of that hate crime that left
many fearful and angry senior
correspondent Brenda Flanagan was there
and reports as part of our ongoing
series exploring hate that reports on
racism extremism and anti-semitism
a rabbi sang blessings as officials
gathered in Jersey City to denounce a
rising worldwide tide of anti-Semitism
marking the third anniversary of a
horrific hate crime that claimed the
lives of four victims all shot to death
during a bloody Rampage by two domestic
terrorists who deliberately targeted a
Jewish Supermarket police locked down
the area for hours that day and finally
stormed the building killing the
attackers I remember that fear not just
of Jewish residents but of all of the
people who congregated that night the
large crowd and I'll tell you I continue
to see that fear
in communities across our state
because the reality is hate hasn't gone
away in the three years since that awful
day with synagogues across New Jersey
now seeing an increased security
presence following recent threats law
enforcement promised protection the
shooters on December 10 2019
sought out and purposely killed people
because they were filled with hate and
anti-semitism
there can be no place for that type of
hatred
and the FBI will do all that we can do
to stop it the Anti-Defamation League
says New Jersey is among the top states
in the number of anti-Semitic events and
it's tracked a sharp increase in
vandalism harassment and assault ADL
statistics show a spike from about 2 000
incidents in 2020 to over 2 700 last
year up 34 percent
370 of those incidents in 2021 occurred
in New Jersey what I am sure is not news
for this crowd is that 2022 is no better
I can tell you quite honestly that my
staff is literally overwhelmed as we
speak responding to multiple
anti-semitic incidents every day of the
week in New York and in New Jersey the
Anti-Defamation League Scott Rickman
named numerous causes including our
bitterly divided society and the
outsized influence of social media he
pointed to celebrities including Donald
Trump dining with a holocaust denier he
cited Kanye West and Kyrie Irving
embroiled an anti-Semitism espoused by
the radical Hebrew Israelites declared a
hate Group by the Southern Poverty Law
Center when a celebrity when a sports
figure who has a huge following says or
does something that leads to
anti-Semitism or is anti-Semitism people
copy that people think that
anti-Semitism is okay it makes
anti-Semitism normalized the two
Shooters apparently followed the radical
Hebrew Israelites sect and spent months
planning the Jersey City attack a local
resident caught up in the lockdown three
years ago agrees anti-Semitism continues
to plague Society everywhere everywhere
now all over the country is sad but this
is the climate that we live in now and
it's horrible you never get rid of the
fear you never get rid of the
the memory it just stays with you
forever Betty grabenchikov's a holocaust
Survivor who lives in ventner but she
vividly recalls the deadly 1938 pogrom
Cristal knocked the night of broken
glass when she was eight years old
living in Berlin we could hear them
outside we could hit the mobs running
around that side yelling kill the Jews
and I can remember even today so many
years later walking in that broken glass
and even today
when I walk on broken glass somewhere
and this is more than 18 years later I
still get that fear in my head for just
a minute her father got a summons from
the gestapo and the family fled Germany
her grandparents perished at Auschwitz
she now works with Stockton University's
Holocaust Resource Center giving
lectures fighting anti-Semitism I tell
it to the children
in particular so that they know what
happens so that when someone comes along
and says the Holocaust never happened
they can say well I heard a lady who was
there and she she was right there and so
the Holocaust did happen she says truth
and education are the best weapons
against hatred and that people must
never forget I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ
Spotlight news
leadership support for exploring hate is
provided by the Sylvia a and Simon B
poita programming endowment to fight
anti-Semitism with additional major
funding from Sue and Edgar wachenheim
III the Peter G Peterson and Joan Ganz
Cooney fund and Patty Asquith Kenner
additional support is provided by Nancy
and Morris W Offutt and Josh Weston
