Milwaukee and Madison had a relatively quiet 2007 in terms of reported anti-Semitic incidents, according to their Jewish community’s respective audits of such incidents.
Both recorded mere handfuls of incidents involving expression of anti-Semitic sentiments. Neither reported any incidents of violence or threatened violence. Madison reported a defacing of a Jewish institution’s sign with gang graffiti, which may or may not have been an anti-Semitic act.
But observers in these cities — the homes of Wisconsin’s two largest Jewish communities — diverged on their expectations for incidents in 2008.
Paula Simon is executive director of the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations, which among its other functions records reports of anti-Semitic incidents in the Milwaukee area. With a possible recession looming, she said she is concerned.
“There is a pattern that in significant economic downturns, people often look for targets,” said Simon in an interview in her office. “To the extent that people have stereotypes about Jews and money, that can be a red flag.”
Indeed, the MJCCR has already received “a couple of reports” during January, said Simon.
In Madison, however, Steven H. Morrison, executive director of the Madison Jewish Community Council — which serves as Madison’s Jewish federation and community-relations council — said in a telephone interview, “I don’t have any apprehension.”
“Our history of serious incidents has not coincided with economic downturns or elections,” he said. “I don’t anticipate” any increase in incidents because of those events.
The MJCCR’s audit listed 10 instances of “written or verbal expression” of anti-Semitism in 2007 and one instance of white supremacist group activity.
Madison listed seven incidents, six of them verbal or written expressions and the sign vandalism.
Simon indicated that one relatively new kind of anti-Semitic expression surfaced in Milwaukee in 2007. A synagogue received a flyer from an organization billing itself “The Truth Seeker Society (Islamic Study Group).”
The flyer both promoted the Neturei Karta Orthodox Jewish anti-Zionist movement, but also proclaimed that Jewish anti-Zionism “is not restricted exclusively” to that group.
In fact, this was one instance of a possible trend, in which the borders between anti-Zionism/anti-Israel expressions and anti-Semitic expressions have become “more blurry,” said Simon.
Other instances of this included two letters e-mailed to this reporter at The Chronicle, both sent by people outside Wisconsin, but addressed directly to The Chronicle.
Simon said the council this year will “look at trends” in anti-Zionism/anti-Israel expression and in efforts to get Jews to convert to Christianity.
Simon expressed concern that incidents are underreported. “I think people believe that if an incident isn’t a crime or harassment, then they don’t need to report it to us,” said Simon. But even offhand expressions are things the council wants to know about, she said.
Morrison mentioned that often when the Madison Jewish News reprints The Chronicle’s story about the annual tallies of anti-Semitic incidents, “I get a call telling me about something that happened a year ago or two years ago.”
To report anti-Semitic incidents in the Milwaukee area, contact the MJCCR at 414-390-5777 or info@mjccr.org; in the Madison area, contact the MJCC, 608-278-1808 or mjcc@mjcc.net.
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