ADL: 12 supremacists arrested for threats, violence against Jews

WASHINGTON – At least 12 white supremacists were arrested for threats or attacks against the Jewish community in the United States in the year after the horrific massacre at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found in a report released on Sunday.

According to the report, since October 27, 2018, "white supremacists have targeted Jewish institutions' property on at least 50 occasions," including 12 incidents of vandalism and 35 distributions of white supremacist propaganda, according to the ADL Center on Extremism research.

ADL mentioned that a synagogue in New York was vandalized with the phrase "Jews better be ready," and white supremacists also disrupted a Holocaust remembrance event in Arkansas by waving swastika flags, holding antisemitic posters and shouting antisemitic slurs and phrases, including, "Six million more."

An additional 30 incidents were antisemitic in nature but could not explicitly be classified as acts by a white supremacist. These incidents included fires that were set on multiple Jewish institutions in New York and Massachusetts. On another occasion, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at synagogue windows in Chicago.

Analysis from the ADL's Center on Extremism indicates a similar level of violence like last year: preliminary reporting shows 780 antisemitic incidents in the first half of 2019, compared to 785 incidents reported for the same period in 2018.

"It is horrifying that in the year since the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history, at least a dozen white supremacists were arrested after threatening to target Jewish houses of worship," said ADL CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt. "We are tremendously grateful to local, state and federal law enforcement for taking these cases seriously and preventing further bloodshed against the Jewish community."