The ADL’s Etzion Neuer said children need to be educated about hate while they are still young.
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September 16, 2009
A state attorney general’s report says the number of bias crime incidents increased by eight percent in 2008 over the previous year, with Jews representing the religious group most frequently victimized.
According to the New Jersey Uniform Crime Report, based on information gathered from law-enforcement officials, Jews were on the receiving end of 29 percent of all bias offenses, or 256 incidents.
Bias crimes against blacks represented 40 percent of all offenses, against Hispanics, 4 percent.
“The rise in bias incidents is a serious concern,” said Etzion Neuer, executive director of the Anti-Defamation League’s New Jersey region, and comes at a time when efforts to “combat hate” are challenged.
Neuer pointed to the budget cuts to the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education (see “Shoa commission sees slash in state funding,” Sept. 10 in the Related Articles box), the ongoing strain in school budgets that affect funding of anti-bias programs, and the recent high-profile incidents in the news that may further exacerbate anti-Semitic attitudes.
“Certainly at a time when we see a crying need for it, there is simply less available to address these issues,” Neuer said. “As our economy continues a downward trend, I have a lot of worries about what the future holds.”
Twenty-seven percent of all bias incidents took place in a school building, with the offenders between the ages of 11 and 17. Neuer called for more efforts to reach students, and at an age when, he said, we can still “get to them.”
Neuer said he does not believe the increased number of incidents reported is merely the result of better reporting by state police authorities.
“New Jersey has had a fairly consistent reporting mechanism for years; it is among the best in the country,” he said.
David Wald, a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s office, concurred. “We know that there is great sensitivity among police agencies in terms of reporting [these statistics],” he said.
The results are a close match with the ADL’s own Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents, which recorded 238 incidents against Jews in 2008.
“We are pleased that the attorney general’s office and the law enforcement agencies are doing such an outstanding job in reporting them,” Neuer said.
He also said he believes other states vastly underreport incidents of hate crimes, with many having “absurdly low numbers” of incidents.
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