Regional Breakdown

Listing of Reported
Campus Incidents

Executive Summary

• In 1999, 39 states and the District of Columbia reported 1,547 anti-Semitic incidents to the Anti-Defamation League. This marks approximately a 4 percent decrease in anti-Jewish incidents from 1998. This decline maintains the downward trend (interrupted by a small upturn in 1998) of the past five years.
  
• Ironically, the latest decrease occurred in a year. that also saw three of the most violent anti Semitic incidents in many years, during the late spring and summer. On June 18, three synagogues were set afire in the Sacramento, CA, area, resulting in more than $1 million in damage. On the July 4 weekend, a lone gunman went on a shooting rampage in the Midwest, killing two and seriously wounding eight, including six Chicago-area Jews. On August 10, a lone gunman walked into a Los Angeles day care center and opened fire, injuring five people.
  
• Anti-Semitic activity reported in 1999 comprises 868 acts of harassment (intimidation, threats and assaults) and 679 of vandalism (property damage as well as arson and cemetery desecrations).
  
• As in the past, harassment directed at individuals and institutions made up more than half of all incidents reported.
  
• The trend of decrease in anti-Semitic incidents comes at a time of growing public awareness about hate crime activity. Heightened sensitivity to this issue has led to the enactment of hate crime penalty enhancement statutes in 41 states and the District of Columbia; the Federal Hate Crime Statistics Act; and the formation of anti-bias education programs nationwide. At the same time, it must be noted that many incidents comprising the Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents are not crimes.
  
• Sixty incidents of anti-Semitism occurred on college campuses, a 30 percent decrease from 1998. This finding represents a continuation of a sharp decline in campus incidents over the past five years. During that period, anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses have declined by more than 50 percent.
  
• The Audit does not exist in a vacuum. While crime rates have declined, there are still many groups dedicated to promoting their racist and anti-Semitic worldviews. In addition to their mass mailings of anti-Semitic propaganda and printings of anti Jewish and racist publications, these extremist groups continue to find in the Internet a growing vehicle for their hate. As a medium that is inexpensive and almost impossible to regulate, the Internet has become an increasingly active component of the anti-Semitic propaganda machine.