Civil rights group says anti-Jewish extremists are emboldened
Reports of anti-Semitism increased dramatically in Illinois and the nation last year, according to data from a prominent civil rights group.
Forty-seven incidents of anti-Semitism in Illinois were reported to the Anti-Defamation League in 2017, up from 10 the previous year.
Most took place in Chicago, but some occurred in the suburbs and elsewhere.
Nationally, 1,986 incidents of anti-Semitism were recorded in 2017, up from 1,267 in 2016. That's the largest single-year increase since the group started tracking such data in 1979.
Jews make up only about 2 percent of the U.S. population, but in annual FBI data they repeatedly account for more than half the Americans targeted by hate crimes committed due to religious bias, The Associated Press reported.
Anti-Semitism isn't new, but league officials say incidents have risen in frequency and visibility since the 2016 presidential election.
President Donald Trump denounced Saturday's attack as "pure evil" and "an anti-Semitic act," adding, "You wouldn't think this would be possible in this day and age, but we just don't seem to learn from the past."
Yet he was endorsed by some white supremacists and was widely criticized for saying there was "blame on both sides" after violence erupted last year at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
"We do believe that the 2016 election emboldened far-right extremists and nationalists to emerge from the shadows and to organize more publicly than we have seen in decades," said Jake Warsaw, regional operations coordinator for the Anti-Defamation League.
The incidents tracked by the league generally fall into three categories:
• Harassment involving verbal or written comments or actions.
• Vandalism that targets Jews for their religious affiliation.
• Personal assaults or attacks accompanied by expressions of anti-Semitism.
There were no anti-Semitic assaults reported in Illinois in 2017. There were 25 reported cases of harassment and 22 of vandalism.
For example, in Naperville last year, someone spray-painted an anti-Israel phrase on the sidewalk outside a Jewish deli.
Earlier this year, flyers containing the address of a white supremacist website were distributed in Wauconda, Mundelein and Wheaton.
Anti-Muslim incidents are on the rise, too, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Cases of anti-Muslim bias reported in April, May and June were up 83 percent nationwide from the year's first quarter, the group said. Likewise, reported cases of anti-Muslim hate crimes were up 21 percent from the first quarter.
Warsaw called on leaders of all political parties and ideologies to condemn anti-Semitism and bigotry.
"It's time for responsible leaders to step forward and clearly denounce this hate," he said.