THE FORWARD EDITORIAL: You can see how the perception took hold. Two professors from Trinity College who have been studying American Jewish college students for years included a question about anti-Semitism in their latest survey. The results were startling: 54% percent said that they had experienced or witnessed anti-Semitism on campus during the first six months of the 2013-2014 academic year.
From this, Trinity sent out a press release trumpeting the findings — a “high rate of anti-Semitism” the headline declared. Religion News Services termed it “the new anti-Semitism.” The Connecticut Jewish Ledger said the survey indicated “an alarming trend.”…
But to say that this marks an increase, a growing trend, a cause for alarm, is premature because we simply don’t know. We do know what the ADL’s data tells us. In its audit of 2014, set to be released April 1 and shared with the Forward, the ADL said there were 47 incidents of anti-Semitism on campuses nationwide, where hundreds of thousands of Jews study. The number organically fluctuates year to year — 37 in 2013, 61 in 2012, 22 in 2011 — but this is one trend that’s unmistakable. Overall, anti-Semitic incidents are at the lowest point in 15 years… (more)
WATCHDOG: Two wags of the tail for the editors of the Jewish Forward. Minorities, including many of their readers, often jump at the chance to feel endangered. The editors have the courage to set them straight.
