NEWS Community:

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“We are ready to do what is required of us,” Lower said.

The ADL-led community discussion centered around defining antisemitism, with several attendees detailing various examples. Presenter Eric Ross described the need to discuss actions, not people, as antisemitic because it allows room for apology and growth.

Also discussed was the need for allyship and standing up for oppressed people who face injustice. Presenters referenced the complacency of the general public and the lack of allies the Jewish community had in the beginning stages of the Holocaust.

The importance of solidarity across faiths and among marginalized groups and the need to publicly reject hatred were themes present throughout the event.

“The ADL can’t be everywhere, but I can be where I am,” one attendee said.

The community event is largely in response to antisemitic flyers distributed in Dunwoody and Sandy Springs in early February. Georgia State House Rep. Esther Panitch, the state’s only Jewish legislator, was among several concerned citizens who awoke to find antisemitic flyers in their driveways.

Panitch said that such events can feel isolating and that seeing so many nonJewish community members show their outrage was comforting.

Dunwoody Mayor Lynn Deutsch, who is also Jewish, said that while she was upset, she was not surprised because similar flyers had been spread in a nearby area months before.

Free speech vs hate speech

The spreading of antisemitic flyers in February is one of the latest in a disturbing trend of increasing acts of hatred against Jewish people.

Multiple acts of antisemitic acts of gun violence have occurred in the U.S. over the past five years.

Last week, a Los Angeles man was charged with two hate crimes after shooting two Jewish men as they were leaving religious services.

In January 2022, a gunman took a Rabbi and three others hostage at the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas. In October 2018, 11 people were killed in a mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Months later, in April 2019, one person was killed and three injured by a shooter at Chabad of Poway Synagogue in San Diego, California.

An Anti-Defamation League audit recorded approximately 2,700 antisemitic incidents in 2021, the highest number on record since the league began tracking them in 1979.

Temple Emanu-El project volunteer Rich Lapin said he believes that Antisemitism is a community issue, not just a Jewish issue.

“The degree to which antisemitism is present becomes an indicator of the quality of life in a country and or community,” Lapin said.

Many speakers at the event shared the same sentiment. Several described the Jewish people as the “canaries in the coal mine” of a society. ADL Regional Director Eytan Davidson expressed the need to stand in solidarity with all marginalized people, including people of color and the LGBTQ+ community.

Georgia State House Rep. Long Tran called attention to the rhetoric of rightwing politicians as a likely contributing factor to increased hate speech, specifically referencing the “locker room talk” of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Davidson described the group who distributed the flyers as “loosely organized White supremacists hiding behind the first amendment.”

Besides containing antisemitic content, the flyers suggested that people who might take issue with them are unAmerican, rhetorically asking “You don’t support free speech?”

Dunwoody police chief Billy Grogan told WSBTV that those who distributed the flyers will not be charged because it is a free speech issue. Davidson assured the community that the ADL and law enforcement are keeping an eye on extremist groups.

Georgia House Bill 30 Rep. Panitch spoke about Georgia House Bill 30 at the event, explaining that it was introduced in 2022 and seeks to provide a legal definition and examples of antisemitism. Similar bills have received bipartisan support and have been adopted by several states. The bill seeks to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of antisemitism.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee has taken issue with the definition’s discussion of Israel and has condemned the bill as potentially criminalizing pro-Palestinian speech.

Rep Panitch said the law contains examples of anti-Zionism and that “not all anti-Zionism is antisemitism.”

Panitch said in a previous interview that the bill would not affect incidents like the spreading of antisemitic flyers, because that is considered free speech and is protected under the First Amendment.

To view the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of antisemitism, go to holocaustremembrance.com.

To learn more about the Anti-Defamation League, visit adl.org.

To learn about how to report hate speech on various platforms, visit adl. org/cyber-safety-action-guide.

To learn about the services and resources offered by Temple Emanu-El, go to templeemanuelatlanta.org.