Antisemitism summit

continues from page 1 every targeted group is protected,” he said, pointing out that state government is working on legislation to broaden protections. the ADL Center on Extremism.

The state legislature is also working to adopt the widely recognized International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. Making that definition official would give Pennsylvania law enforcement a more solid foundation for investigating incidents and making arrests.

The organized groups supply a sort of basis for their convictions and promote that through social media, said Dave Wilson, director of the duty desk of the Secure Community Network. Individual sympathizers and small clusters of them cobble together their own makeshift credos from what they find. “Every one is a very unique brand of extremism,” he said, “cherrypicking ideas to match their political beliefs.” said. “All our work can be undercut but people who have infiltrated those organizations.’

Social media also provides this sympathetic audience with methods and procedures for sowing chaos. The information spreads quickly and widely. “Every single day there’s a new tactic, a new trend,” said Wilson.

Others panelists were concerned about online gaming and the connections naïve youths may make while playing. John Piser, regional director for SCN, believes that the upward trend for incidents of antisemitism and acts of hate will continue.

But there’s reason for optimism too. “What keeps me up is the level of hatred that’s out there and the growth of it,” Piser said. “What gives me hope is the response to that.”

The systems in place and the responses to incidents often succeed, Wilson said, despite that “almost every week we’re finding a direct credible threat.” Ben Popp continued along that line. “We don’t hear about when information gets sent and nothing happens,” he said. “We only hear about the bad things. But rest assured that actions get thwarted.”

Success is a result of surveillance, reporting, tracking, cooperation, investigation and decisive action. All of those began to be pursued in earnest after the Tree of Life attack, Wilson said. SCN and ADL both grew, monitoring mechanisms were upgraded, and communication and cooperation among the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the host of state and local emergency and law enforcement authorities improved.

In the end, there’s no substitute for the training, planning, funding and other elements required to combat antisemitism effectively. Persistence is also crucial. As Aaron Gorodzinsky put it, “Everything we’ve accomplished in the Lehigh Valley took years and hundreds of hours.”

Crimes of hate, contrary to what many people think, are not the result of centralized planning. They aren’t typically coordinated by organized extremist groups. “It’s useful to think of extremism as loosely organized networks, bound mostly by ideology,” said Ben Popp of

There are some recent trends panelists found particularly troubling. “I’m really concerned about the harassment of kids in middle school, high school and college,” said Andrew Goretsky, regional director for the ADL. “It’s really important that were taking steps to combat that.”

Congresswoman Wild said she’s worried about insiders working to undermine organizations. “One of my deepest concerns is infiltration into our police forces, military services and positions of authority,” she