How Local Jewish And Muslim Communities Are Dealing With Geopolitical Anxiety As Potential For Hate Crimes Increase

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LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 20: In this handout provided by Covid-19 Bereaved Families For Justice, The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, Rabbi Daniel Epstein and Imam Kareem Farai visit the National Covid Memorial Wall on April 20, 2021, in London, England. Bereaved families created a vast Covid-19 Memorial Wall, on the Embankment opposite the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London. Painting 150,000 individual red hearts for each of the lives lost to the virus in the UK, the group hopes to put personal stories at the heart of the Government's approach to learn lessons from the pandemic. The project was started without permission and the bereaved families group are now campaigning to make it a permanent site of remembrance. (Photo by Chris J Ratcliffe For Covid-19 Bereaved Families For Justice/Getty Images) — In this handout provided by Covid-19 Bereaved Families For Justice, The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, Rabbi Daniel Epstein and Imam Kareem Farai visit the National Covid Memorial Wall on April 20, 2021, in London, England.

In 2020 the United States saw a 4% decline in recorded incidents of antisemitism, with this year’s number coming to a total of 2,204 according to the Anti-Defamation League. That decrease comes following an increase that occurred in 2019, making for a trend line that leaves uncertainty as to how this year will turn out.

In 2020 the United States saw a 4% decline in recorded incidents of antisemitism, with this year’s number coming to a total of 2,204 according to the Anti-Defamation League.

That decrease comes following an increase that occurred in 2019, making for a trend line that leaves uncertainty as to how this year will turn out.

The L.A. Police Department is investigating a Tuesday night assault on a party of Jewish men dining in Beverly Grove by a pro-Palestinian group earlier this week as a possible hate crime. Although this incident has so far not been part of a larger trend, it has left local Jewish and Muslim communities worried that the current geopolitical problems occurring in the Gaza Strip may lead to an increase in hate incidents against both communities.

Today on AirTalk, we focus on anxiety over local hate incidents, if it holds back any inner-faith dialogue between the two communities, and how locals are reckoning with the 227 deaths that have occurred in Gaza. Join the conversation, call us at 866-893-5722.

Guests:

Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism and professor of Criminal Justice at California State University, San Bernardino; he tweets

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Salam Al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a national nonprofit that focuses on American Muslims issues; he tweets

Tweets by SalamAlmarayati

Rabbi Naomi Levy, rabbi and author of many books, including her latest, “Einstein and the Rabbi” (Flatiron Books, 2017); founder and leader of NASHUVA, a Jewish spiritual outreach movement based in L.A.