Extremism, Anti-Semitism In Georgia: 60 Incidents In 2019

GEORGIA — In 2019, there were 60 incidents of extremism and anti-Semitism in Georgia, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The figure for 2019 decreased from the 91 incidents reported in the Peach State during 2018.

The occurrences in Georgia were among the 4,015 examples of extremist and anti-Semitic incidents that happened nationwide in 2019. The figure reported for 2019 is up almost 32 percent from the 3,052 incidents reported in 2018, according to the ADL.

Here is a sampling of the incidents in Georgia that the non-governmental organization included in its registry:

Anti-Semitic Incident - Vandalism: November 2019

• Location: Athens
• Description: A student at the University of Georgia discovered that a swastika had been drawn on the laminated name tag on her dorm room door.

Anti-Semitic Incident - Harassment: October, 2019

• Location: Dunwoody
• Description: Jewish organization received an anti-Semitic email with the message "I despise Jews and want to send them all to hell."

Anti-Semitic Incident - Harassment; White Supremacist Propaganda: July 22, 2019

• Location: Lavonia
• Ideology: Right-wing/white supremacist
• Description: Daily Stormer Book Club, an alt right group, distributed anti-Semitic propaganda that read: "HOLO-CAUST=FAKE NEWS The people that lied about soap, lampshades are lying about gas chambers and ovens."

Anti-Semitic Incident - Harassment: July 2019

• Location: Atlanta
• Description: Jewsish newspaper received harassing email which read in part, "there are no jews in atlanta. nice try 'jews' aka communists."

Anti-Semitic Incident - Harassment: April 2019

• Location: Gwinnett County
• Description: A Jewish student at a middle was harassed by another student who said "death to all the Jews" and mocked the Jewish student.

Anti-Semitic Incident - Harassment: February 2019

• Location: Alpharetta
• Description: Jewish boy received anti-Semitic text messages from his neighbor that included images of swastikas.

Related:

• Hate Crimes In Georgia: FBI Report Shows Increase
• 41 Hate Groups Are Active In Georgia
• White-Supremacist Activity In Georgia Spikes In Interactive Map

The Anti-Defamation League tracks the incidents through news and media reports, government documents (including police reports), victim reports, extremist-related sources and the Center on Extremism investigations, according to a “Frequently Asked Questions” section on the ADL’s website.

The Anti-Defamation League’s interactive map includes information on incidents involving anti-Semitism, white supremacist propaganda, white supremacist events, extremist-police shootouts, terrorist plots and attacks and extremist murders.

Along with providing the first-of-its-kind interactive and customizable map detailing extremist and anti-Semitic incidents around the nation, the ADL also provides information on the annual quantity of white supremacist propaganda that gets spread throughout the country.

The Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism reported 2,713 cases of circulated propaganda by white supremacist groups in 2019, compared with 1,214 cases in 2018.

Oren Segal, director of the League’s Center on Extremism, pointed to the prominence of more subtly biased rhetoric in some white supremacist material, emphasizing “patriotism.”

By emphasizing language “about empowerment, without some of the blatant racism and hatred,” Segal told the Associated Press, white supremacists are using a “tactic to try to get eyes onto their ideas in a way that’s cheap, and that brings it to a new generation of people who are learning how to even make sense out of these messages.”

The Anti-Defamation League, which was founded in 1913 to combat anti-Semitism as well as other biases, describes its mission as “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.”

You can find the complete interactive map on the ADL’s website.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.