In 2008, Madison saw an upsurge of anti-Semitic vandalisms, nearly all of them involving swastikas spray-painted on several buildings, including on a synagogue.
In contrast, the Milwaukee area saw mostly expressions of anti-Semitism, including an anti-Semitic cartoon at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Internet postings and comments received by the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle.
These were the findings of the annual reports on anti-Semitic incidents provided this month by the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations and the Madison Jewish Community Council.
Steven H. Morrison, executive director of the Madison Jewish Community Council, said he couldn’t explain why seven such incidents would occur in Madison, which in many years reported no such incidents.
However, he said, “Of the ones for which perpetrators were identified, it is clear it was not political in any way, it had nothing to do with the Middle East.”
Moreover, Morrison said he had been asking around his community whether there had been “any uptick” of anti-Semitic incidents after the Bernard Madoff financial scandal or Israel’s military incursion into Gaza, and “there has been none,” he said.
In fact, most of the reported incidents involved high school or middle school aged children, Morrison said.
According to a list Morrison furnished, the incidents included:
• Swastikas drawn on Beth Israel Center, Madison’s Conservative synagogue, discovered April 25 and May 5. No one has yet been apprehended for this.
• The home of a Jewish family in Stoughton was discovered on May 12 to have been vandalized and the word “Jew” was spray painted on the garage door. A 14-year-old was apprehended.
• On May 13, three swastikas and a homophobic phrase were found at Hamilton Middle School. Two 13-year-olds were apprehended.
• On Sept. 9, racist and anti-Semitic graffiti was found spray-painted inside East High School. Three teenagers were arrested for this and a spate of other, non anti-Semitic vandalisms throughout Madison.
• On Oct. 30, Falk Elementary School had hate graffiti spray-painted on exterior walls and the school’s sign. The marks included swastikas and “All Jews must die.” No one has been apprehended yet for this one.
“When incidents are not politically related to world events or a specific incident, the challenge is greater to determine why it happened and to determine strategies to combat it,” Morrison said.
Ten items
The Milwaukee Jewish Council recorded ten items in its “2008 Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents” that was approved by its executive committee on Jan. 21.
Most were anti-Semitic expressions, which Paula Simon, MJCCR executive director, said “continues to be the most widespread” type of incident.
There were no reports of vandalism, discrimination in workplaces, or violence, said Simon.
Perhaps the most public of the incidents was a cartoon circulated at UWM by the Muslim Student Association in conjunction with a speech by conservative author and activist David Horowitz in May. The cartoon depicted Horowitz with a hooked nose, as in classic anti-Semitic caricatures.
Two instances of anti-Semitic expression came in e-mails sent to The Chronicle. In September, a self-described anti-Semite wrote that, “America [sic] Jewish communities should be transported to Israel.”
In December, in a reaction to news reports about the Madoff financial scandal, a writer asserted that, “Anti-Semitism doesn’t spring from nothing. I believe that Jews don’t share basic values with the Christian majority of America.…”
“The Internet has been an issue” in anti-Semitic speech in the U.S., said Simon. Not only does it allow white supremacist groups to find and communicate with each other, but “People say things online they probably would never have the audacity to say to somebody face-to-face,” she said. “It is as if they were anonymous.”
In February, a local Holocaust denier sent letters to the faculty of UWM in advance of a speech there by Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt, requesting that some professor provide the name of one person killed in an Auschwitz gas chamber.
Two incidents occurred at up-state high schools in which Jewish students were harassed, in one case by another student (January), in the other by a teacher (February). Another involved an anti-Semitic remark made to an employee about another employee in a workplace in Sturgeon Bay (December).
Simon noted that some instances of anti-Semitic expression have already occurred in Milwaukee in 2009, as in some of the posters displayed at the Jan. 6 rally at the Federal Building protesting Israel’s military action in Gaza.
“We know that when tensions in the Middle East are high, there is a concomitant increase in anti-Semitic expression,” said Simon. “Combine that with a worsening economic climate and the Madoff scandal” and you have a cultural atmosphere that could “open the door for traditional anti-Semitic canards.”
“We hope this little blip in January will not be continued in the coming months,” she added. “But we’re watching it.”
To report anti-Semitic incidents, contact the MJCCR, 414-390-5777, or MJCC, 608-278-1808.
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