CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Hamas attacks which broke out in Israel on Oct. 7– reaching a death toll of now more than 10,000 and holding hundreds more hostage– started as an anti-Semitic outburst against Jewish people in Israel, but one which has now taken hold on the world.
The situation has even reignited a growing rise of antisemitism here in the United States, as well, calling the attention of federal lawmakers and Jewish leaders to come together and address it.
U.S Attorney’s of West Virginia districts, Will Thompson and William Ihlenfeld joined forces with leaders from the FBI Pittsburg Division and the American Jewish Committee for joint session training in response to the growing levels of hate crimes against Jewish people in the U.S.
Thompson and Ihlenfeld were hosts to the training Monday at synagogues in their districts, an effort that’s part of the United Against Hate Community Outreach Program, a nationwide effort to combat unlawful acts of hate and improve hate crime reporting.
“We actually planned this many months ago, but I think it has become a lot more relevant with the events that happened on October 7 over in Israel, we’re seeing a lot greater of a rise nationwide in antisemitism,” Thompson said during the meeting at the B’nai Jacob Synagogue in Charleston Monday.
According to data released by the AJC, anti-Semitic occurrences more than doubled in the U.S. in May of 2021 compared to that of May 2020. Since October of this year, AJC reports antisemitism in the country has increased by nearly 400%.
Thompson said some signs of antisemitism to be aware of include anything from vandalism, hostility, to prejudice speech and propaganda. He said there has already been some specific anti-Semitic acts they have seen more recently for people to watch out for.
“We’ve seen some signs of where we’ve had things thrown into people’s yards, little flyers and things of that nature, we’re seeing obviously some graffiti, we’ve seen some attacks on social media,” Thompson said.
One of Monday’s guest speakers at the joint sessions was Rabbi Jeffery Myers of the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, which was the scene of America’s most deadly anti-Semitic attack on October, 27, 2018, where the perpetrator, Hardy Carroll Lloyd, killed 11 people and injured six during the synagogue’s Shabbat morning services.
The focus of Myer’s speech was about getting past the hate despite the devastation on the Jewish community.
“It’s the real challenge, particularly for a faith-community, after incurring such a violent act, is how to rebuild,” Myers said.
Rabbi Joshua Lief of Temple Shalom in Wheeling who was also participating in Monday’s sessions came on MetroNews ‘Talkline’ to reiterate Myers’s message, which was not only about building up strong interfaith relationships with other synagogues and churches to help combat hate, but building strong relationships with law enforcement, as well.
Lief said, however, it’s reassuring that the Jewish community in the state already seems to be in good standing with local law enforcement.
“We talk all of the time, I speak with our local police officials and with the FBI office about threats that we’ve heard of, they are patrolling around us when we’re having services, sometimes when we have bigger events we hire them to provide security, but they’re watching our backs all of the time and we’re reporting when we hear things,” he said.
Lief went on to say it’s not about the Jewish community needing to change who they are, their beliefs and customs, to ensure less hate crimes are committed against them, but it’s about changing the approach to how they handle the issue, which he said building up those relationships will help them better achieve.
“I think it’s the strong relationships with the rest of the community who choose goodness and righteousness over lawlessness, hatred, and evil, that’s how we overcome the hate, not by us having to change our outlook, but by us being vigilant and setting a positive example to the wider community, as a whole,” Lief said.
He said while he hasn’t witnessed a huge rise of antisemitism in Wheeling, per say, Lief said the bigger threat is now the inundation of it within the online community.
The extent of hate speech against the Jewish people of Israel Lief said he has seen on the internet is leaving them fearful of just how many people are getting on board with antisemitism in the U.S.
“Instead of hearing ‘please release the hostages,’ you’re hearing ‘death to Israel and death to Jews,’ popularized on social media, that’s definitely affecting our community, affecting our members very deeply,” Lief said. “People are worried and concerned that that tenor of hate is much louder, and seemingly acceptable, by the wider community.”
Thompson said the Justice Department’s agenda is now on monitoring the situation as well as encouraging others to monitor it in their communities. He said while antisemitism has always been an issue, it’s now not only growing in the U.S but all over the world in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks.
“We’re in 2023 and I wish we could see it decreasing, unfortunately what has happened since Oct. 7, we’re seeing a very huge spike in it, both locally and nationwide, and globally,” Thompson said.
Thompson said if people are a victim to what they believe to be an anti-Semitic hate crime, or if someone happens to witness such a crime incur, to report it to local law enforcement immediately, who he said will then relay it to the FBI and then onto his office.
He said the same message for any act of violence and crime applies to this, also– “If you see something, say something.”