The antisemitic flyers that were found scattered on car windshields in some San Diego neighborhoods have sparked new concerns about an old problem that seems to be getting worse.
The number of antisemitic incidents in the U.S. went up by close to 40-percent last year and the trend is continuing according to the annual audit by the Anti-Defamation League.
Their report found about 3,700 incidents of vandalism, assault or harassment targeting Jewish people and communities. That’s the third time in the last five years thar that the number of antisemitic incidents has been the highest number ever recorded since the organization started keeping track in 1979.
Having interviewed a Jewish woman in Del Cerro, whose neighborhood was littered with the flyers, and who lives near a synagogue, it was easy to hear in her voice and in her telling of what happened, how hurtful and threatened she was. She and her husband took it upon themselves to remove the flyers from wherever they saw them. She says they called police to notify them but said they never was able to talk to anyone.
She says that since the incident, she has felt more fearful at a time when she has already been fearful of attending the synagogue to the attacks she knows and reads about.
It’s hard for any of us to really know what it’s like to face harassment and threats over someone’s religion, culture, color, or nature without being in their shoes. But treating others as we want to be treated has aways been, from the beginning, God’s desire, for all of us, no matter who we are.
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(Photo Getty Images)