TORONTO (RNS) Jewish groups are linking the downturn in the economy to a rise in reported incidents of anti-Semitism.
In its annual audit of anti-Semitic incidents, the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada recorded 1,135 anti-Semitic incidents in 2008 — an increase of 8.9 percent compared with 2007.
The report, released March 31, added that since more than half of the incidents occurred in the last four months of 2008, the rise could be attributed to “fallout” from the economic recession and sensational cases like disgraced financier Bernard Madoff and the collapse of the Lehman Brothers investment bank.
Anita Bromberg, director of legal affairs for B’nai Brith Canada, said her organization has been collecting and analyzing data about anti-Semitism for 27 years. She has heard many conspiracy theories about Jews and their control of the world’s money. One recent theory, said Bromberg, suggests that Jews transferred $400 billion to Israel just prior to the collapse of Lehman Brothers and other major investment banks in the U.S.
“The conspiracy theories didn’t surprise us,” said Bromberg.
B’nai Brith compared reported incidents in Canada with Australia, which recorded a 2-percent increase, and the United Kingdom, which had 4 percent fewer incidents in 2008 than 2007.
Bromberg noted that her organization is often asked if it is simply the reporting of incidents of anti-Semitism — and not the incidents themselves — that is rising. On the contrary, she said, B’nai Brith believes there’s a problem of underreporting.
“Since the release of the report, 11 more incidents have been phoned in to us,” she said, adding that many individuals are too scared or ashamed to complain.
In the U.S., the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) tracks incidents of anti-Semitism, but the release of statistics is delayed this year, said Todd Gutnick, an ADL spokesman. The ADL however, is carefully monitoring the trend of how the economic turmoil has led to the spread of conspiracy theories and stereotypes about Jews and money, he said.
In an April 1 report on its Web site, the ADL noted that around the time of Madoff’s guilty plea in a $65-million Ponzi scheme, articles on popular mainstream Web sites (including The New York Times, Newsweek and The Washington Post) elicited scores of anti-Semitic comments. Many of the offensive remarks, the ADL said, blamed Madoff’s actions “not on his criminal behavior but on the fact that he is Jewish.”
The Canadian report noted that most of the incidents of anti-Semitism last year took the form of harassment — 70.7 percent, or 803 incidents. They included a government worker in Toronto who was called “Christ Killer” by her boss and a taxpayer who was told by a Revenue Canada employee not to worry, the agency was “not Jewing” him.
Vandalism accounted for 28 percent (313 cases) of the reported incidents and 1.2 percent (14 cases) involved violence.
