In a little over a month the San Diego community has seen a series of antisemitic incidents in local schools, offering a pointed reminder that we all need to step up to combat antisemitism.
On Friday two large swastikas were found graffitied on the walls of the boys bathroom at Torrey Pines High School. And at the start of November antisemitic and homophobic graffiti was discovered on the campuses of Bonita Vista High School and Bonita Vista Middle School in Chula Vista.
While these events are striking — especially in San Diego, where just two years ago we had the fatal shooting at the Chabad of Poway synagogue — unfortunately they are not outliers with what has occurred nationally.
Over the summer, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights raised the alarm about a spike in violence and hate directed at Jewish Americans and a notable rise in antisemitic rhetoric across social media platforms. A few months later a report by the American Jewish Committee revealed that 1 in 4 Jewish Americans have reported experiencing some form of antisemitism in the past year.
Nationally the Anti-Defamation League says the number of antisemitic incidents it tracked last year was was the third highest year on record.
“Across the country this year, we’ve seen all religious-based hate crimes up,” said Kelsey Young, education director of the Anti-Defamation League San Diego, referencing Department of Justice data. “Fifty-seven percent of those have targeted Jews, and in California it’s even higher at 64 percent.
“We get reports daily, whether it’s vandalism or a swastika somewhere, a sign that says ‘death to Jews’… or what people are seeing on social media, which may be free speech but is still very troubling and antisemitic.”
Young said that antisemitism spans the political spectrum, and often antisemitic tropes, stereotypes and jokes can end up sneaking into everyday conversation. She added that across the country there have been many examples of people, including elected officials, making “irresponsible and hurtful” analogies to the Holocaust.
“The words we use to describe any situation we’re in can have an antisemitic undertone if we’re not careful and paying attention,” Young said.
“We don’t want to have folks brushing it off as, ‘oh, I didn’t mean it that way’, or ‘I was just trying to make a point.’ If you are making a Holocaust analogy or comparing anybody, including Jews, to Nazis, it is always going to be antisemitic.”
Young also noted that in discussions about bias in the workplace, schools and other settings, antisemitism is sometimes left out.
Part of that may be because of how antisemitism is expressed in certain stereotypes, leading people to question how Jews could be oppressed, she said. For example, some of the stereotypes and tropes don’t portray Jewish people as less than, but rather as ultra-powerful, which in turn feeds insulting and sometimes dangerous conspiracy theories.
As far as why San Diego County seems to have had a recent uptick in these incidents targeting schools, Young said it likely has to do with the context of the national landscape as well as the cloud of the pandemic still hanging over many students, impacting their behavior.
“Our schools are microcosms of our community,” she said, “so if students are hearing and seeing rhetoric … (showing) that using these kind of words or analogies are either not a big deal or acceptable, I am not surprised at all that it is popping up in our schools even more.”
Fortunately, we have also seen several school districts of late taking steps toward addressing antisemitism. For example, San Diego Unified and San Dieguito Union High districts have both adopted resolutions denouncing antisemitic rhetoric.
Young said those are encouraging first steps, but it’s important to couple that with action such as education opportunities, where people can learn about the history of Jews in America and learn to unpack and challenge stereotypes. She said that the ADL has resources to help schools do that such as lesson plans that focus on challenging all forms of biases including antisemitism.
Young added that the education piece extends to adults in the community as well. It’s important for all of us to try and educate ourselves. She said adults can take steps to combat antisemitism by incorporating it into diversity, equity and inclusion efforts that many businesses and organizations have adopted of late.
Overall, she said, we all can make a difference by using our voices to speak out and report incidents of antisemitism when we see them, the way Chula Vista Mayor Mary Casillas Salas, Councilmember Stephen Padilla, San Diego County Supervisor Nora Vargas and other local leaders spoke out about the hateful incidents at Bonita.
“San Diego is a community just like everybody else; we have folks who willingly stand up and speak out and we have folks who just let things go,” Young said. “So it’s really incumbent on all of us to recognize we can always be doing better.”
She added that antisemitism, like other issues of bias, should not be viewed as a partisan issue.
“Hate against Jews and hate against anyone has no political leanings … It should be universally accepted as something we all need to stand together against,” she said.
