Civic leaders, Jewish community members and educators discussed paths to address systematic antisemitism, and other kinds of hate, at a “Countering Hate” Summit hosted at UC Irvine on Thursday, Feb. 8.
Attendees and panelists discussed rising hate crimes and reports of antisemitism, both at the local and national level, and discussed solutions for working together to fight hate in the U.S. and abroad.
Thursday’s event was hosted by the Jewish Federation of Orange County and UCI’s School of Social Ecology.
“The summit is designed to explore — through the lens of criminology, criminal justice and sociology — the questions that pop up in everyday lives,” said Erik Ludwig, President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of OC, before the event.
Ludwig said that reports of antisemitism have “skyrocketed,” leading to “widespread fear and anguish” both in Orange County and nationwide.
Leaders at the summit also discussed the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, which officially began Oct. 7, when Hamas militants killed over 1,000 and kidnapped over 200 people in southern Israel. In retaliation, Israeli forces launched a brutal attack — which many advocates are calling a genocide — on the Palestinian people in Gaza. The death toll recently passed 25,000 at the end of January.
Hundreds of Jewish institutions, including synagogues, were threatened with hoax bombings across the U.S. in late 2023. Since the Oct. 7 attack, the Anti-Defamation League has recorded 3,283 reported antisemitic incidents in the U.S., including 1,353 incidents of harassment. About 73% of Jewish college students surveyed have experienced or witnessed some form of antisemitism since the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year alone.
Last November, the Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA), based in Anaheim, announced an “unprecedented increase” in complaints of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian bias in the…
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