Rise In Incidents Of Antisemitism In MOCO Addressed At Panel Discussion

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — The American Jewish Committee sponsored a forum to address the rise in antisemitic incidents in Montgomery County in recent months and offer steps that all county residents can take to confront antisemitism and prevent it.

Montgomery County officials and Jewish leaders in the area have strongly condemned the many recent acts of antisemitism in the county, including graffiti in communities, and have called on residents to do what they can to stem the rise in incidents.

"We’ve seen a significant number of incidents over the last few months, and they seem to be getting more and more frequent," Alan Ronkin, regional director of the American Jewish Committee, who moderated the panel discussion, said in an interview with Patch. "There’s a general concern among the Jewish community that we need to stand up and confront this."

About 200 people attended the event Thursday night at the Bender JCC of Greater Washington in Rockville. Titled "A Community Conversation: Antisemitism in Montgomery County," the forum included Evan Glass, Montgomery County Council president; Ezra Meyer, a student at George Washington University and a graduate of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School; Lt. Ari Elkin with the Montgomery County Police Department; and Jennifer Rubin, a Washington Post columnist.

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At the forum, Glass spoke about how it is the county council's priority to make sure everybody in Montgomery County feels safe.

"Every member of the Montgomery County Council has been standing with us," Ronkin said. "Montgomery County is a great place to live and has great public officials who will stand up for people who are discriminated against or targeted."

Antisemitic graffiti was found last November along the Bethesda Trolley Trail in Montgomery County. Also, antisemitic graffiti was found last fall at Old Georgetown Road and Tuckerman Lane that included a swastika and symbols for white power. Montgomery County Public Schools has seen a rise in antisemitic incidents in recent months.

The American Jewish Committee recently released a report, "State of Antisemitism in America 2022," based on new national polling of the U.S. Jewish and general adult populations. The annual report found that 41 percent of American Jews say their status in the United States is less secure compared to a year ago, up from AJC’s 2021 report, when 31 percent gave that answer.

The polling also found that young people between the ages of 18 and 29 are the most affected by the antisemitism. Among people in this age group, 85 percent were either targeted by online antisemitism or have seen it online, and among those respondents, one in four felt physically threatened, according to the report. For people 30 or older, a smaller percentage — 65 percent — said they either experienced antisemitism directly or witnessed it online in the last year.

"So clearly, there’s a big difference in what’s going on with young people. They are disproportionately impacted by incidents of antisemitism," Ronkin told Patch.

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Many of the young people, including students in high schools and colleges, are experiencing the hatred online. Ronkin said the disproportionate effect on young people is one of the reasons why Ezra Meyer, the student at George Washington University, was invited to participate in Thursday's panel discussion.

"It’s so easy for someone sitting behind the computer to threaten someone, or send an image or put out hate speech. It used to be if you wanted to really threaten someone, you had to go threaten them. You couldn’t do it from home," Ronkin noted. "It’s allowing people who hate to have a platform to express themselves in a way that historically they never did."

Ronkin said he appreciates how the Montgomery County Police Department is taking the incidents of antisemitism seriously. He also noted that the police department's relationship with Montgomery County Public Schools has changed slightly.

At one time, bias incidents, such as antisemitic or racist graffiti, were handled inside the schools. Now, the police are more involved when some of these incidents take place.

The American Jewish Committee offers practical suggestions that people can use to address antisemitism in their communities, including a three-part program.

The first part is for all people, not just Jewish residents, to educate themselves about antisemitism. The second part is confronting incidents of antisemitism, "which means when you see something, you have to say something," Ronkin said.

"Sometimes it involves speaking to authorities, and sometimes it involves interacting with the person who says something that they ought not to say," he explained.

The third part is prevention. "The best way to prevent antisemitism, in our view, is to build strong relationships," Ronkin said. "Antisemitism is not a Jewish problem. It’s a societal problem. Just like we wouldn’t ask the Black community to solve racism on its own, we can’t ask the Jewish community to solve antisemitism on its own."

Throughout history, antisemitism has been "the canary in the coal mine," he emphasized, with bigotries against other communities very quickly follow.

"It never ends with the Jews. Good people in our community need to stand up together and reject this kind of extremism and make sure that it does not get normalized," he said.

As for Thursday's discussion on antisemitism in Montgomery County, Ronkin said he hopes "people walked away feeling empowered with a sense of some of the things that they personally can do to confront antisemitism."

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