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 month following the Oct. 7 attack.
From Oct. 8 to Nov. 8, 2023, CAIR-LA received 116 requests for help and reports of bias— a 300% increase in cases compared to the previous month, officials said. Of these intakes, 85 were for cases related to Palestine, with nearly 40% being hate crimes, hate incidents, or both.
In Orange County, 32% of hate crimes reported in 2022 targeted people based on religion — primarily the Jewish community, according to the latest Hate Crimes Report by the Orange County Human Relations Commission. And 81% of reported religious hate crimes were against Jewish communities, according to an L.A. County Human Relations Commission report. Statewide, hate crimes — except for anti-Asian crimes — rose 20% in 2022.
Hannah Yu, representing the New York County District Attorney’s Office, and UCI’s Jeff Kopstein, from the Director of the Center for Jewish Studies, presented further data that supports the rise of hate crimes across the board, and what their offices are doing to address this.
Kopstein is currently working on a mass survey of antisemitism on the UCI campus. He said that the levels of antisemitism and general anti-Israel sentiment have “soared.”
“You can predict somebody’s antisemitic attitudes if they’re really ‘anti-Israel,’” Kopstein said.
For some, such statements have become a point of contention in recent months — as many pro-Palestine activists, even Jews and historians, have claimed that criticizing Israel and its treatment of Gaza isn’t “automatically antisemitism.”
“These are not easy conversations. These are the conversations that most of us steer away from,” Ludwig said during a panel. “We wanted to steer directly into the conversation. We wanted to do it data-based… experts can tell us the human toll of hate.”
Another panel focused on how local communities and leaders can address antisemitism; featuring Orange County District 5 Supervisor Katrina Foley, District Attorney Todd Spitzer, and Rabbi Richard Steinberg, the OC Human Relations Commissioner and leader of Congregation Shir Ha-Ma’alot.
Last fall, Foley and other supervisors faced backlash for past comments condemning the Hamas attacks, and seemingly supporting Israel’s response, in a joint statement with District 3 Supervisor Don Wagner and District 1 Supervisor Andrew Do.
Their statement received criticism, with some — including leaders from CAIR-LA — calling it “one-sided” and “deeply problematic” against local Arab, Muslim and Palestinian communities.
At Thursday’s summit, the panelists discussed how to address antisemitism — and all hate — in Orange County, especially in local communities. Some solutions included more education on Jewish history and people, restrictions for online harassment, diversity and inclusion of underrepresented groups, and zero tolerance of hate speech.
Some ways that UCI has been addressing the rise of antisemitism over the last few years is by ensuring student and staff accountability, while promoting education and training, according to UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman.
Jenn Lundblad, a teacher with the Laguna Beach Unified School District, attended the summit in hopes of learning more about what Jewish students are going through.
While Lundblad hasn’t personally witnessed or dealt with antisemitism on campus, she said she wants to support students of both Israeli and Palestinian backgrounds, especially during this “tricky” time.
“Our particular district is not very diverse, so sometimes we don’t get all the information,” Lundblad, 45, said. “We’re making a really strong effort this year in particular, by moving forward to recognize culture and ethnicity and just different diverse groups, and we found that the students really want you to get it right.”
Staff writer Destiny Torres contributed to this report.
