A student says to another, “We need to send you to the oven so you can be with your people,” a man engraves a swastika onto a marble column in front of a synagogue and trespassing teenagers yell anti-Semitic epithets at children at a Hebrew academy.
Those are some of the many anti-Semitic incidents recently reported in the Las Vegas Valley, part of an uptick in cases logged across the country in the past year, said Jolie Brislin, Nevada regional director of the Anti-Defamation League. The rhetoric and threats have intensified in the past months, she added.
The oven comment was reported Tuesday.
The swastika engraving happened on Feb. 4 during a mid-day service at Chabad of Southern Nevada, 1261 Arville St. Metro Police said the incident was being investigated as part of a destruction of property report; it may later be enhanced to a hate crime during prosecution.
And the incident at the Adelson Educational Campus, 9700 Hillpointe Road, involved teenagers jumping a fence on Feb. 5 and yelling anti-Semitic epithets at a group of children who were playing on a field, said Officer Michael Rodriguez, a Metro spokesman. Five teens were later identified and cited for the trespassing, Rodriguez said. Four of them had trespassed at least on one other occasion at the school. The two incidents appear to be isolated and not a coordinated hate crime, Rodriguez added.
President Donald Trump, whose candidacy was hailed by white nationalists and white supremacists throughout 2016, has been criticized for being slow to condemn anti-Semitic acts. On Tuesday, Trump addressed the rash of anti-Semitic incidents across the country — including 11 separate bomb scares called into Jewish community centers and vandalism at a Jewish cemetery near St. Louis on Monday — labeling the targeting as “painful.”
“The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community at community centers are horrible and are painful and a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil,” he said.
Steven Goldstein, executive director of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, said in a Facebook post that Trump’s words did not go far enough: “The president’s sudden acknowledgment of anti-Semitism is a Band-Aid on the cancer of anti-Semitism that has infected his own administration. ...When President Trump responds to anti-Semitism proactively and in real time, and without pleas and pressure, that’s when we’ll be able to say this president has turned a corner. This is not that moment.”
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish human rights group based in Los Angeles, said Trump needed “to show leadership. We are suggesting he give a speech on how his administration is going to handle the hate and anti-Semitism.”
Cooper expressed concern over the national incidents.
“We are hopeful, but it’s going to take leadership from the top – President Trump, Vice President (Mike) Pence and others — to get beyond the political stuff,” Cooper said. “I never pretend to speak for all Americans, but the last thing we need in America is a full-blown cultural war.”
Traditionally, Las Vegas had not seen hate and bigotry rise at the levels seen today, Brislin said.
“Daily, I have received calls, complaints and incident reports” from across the valley, including in public, private and charter schools,” she said.
And it’s not just reports from the Jewish community. Hispanic, Muslim and other minorities also have seen an increase in incidents, Brislin said. For example, she said, there have been reports of “build the wall” chants in school lunch rooms.
Other reports from schools include children telling Holocaust jokes and bullying, behavior that thanks to social media, now can follow the victims home, Brislin said.
Among the examples was a student whose face was juxtaposed over an image of Adolf Hitler. A girl received a photo of what appeared to be an anorexic child with the caption, “How did she get out of camp?” Brislin said. “I can go on and on and on.”
Brislin said Metro and the Clark County School District Police Department have been prompt in their responses to reported incidents, and the three organizations recently participated in a forum to educate the public on bullying and what actions can be taken.
Metro’s Office of Community Engagement maintains a presence at, among other places, synagogues and mosques, Rodriguez said.
Society should not allow discriminatory behavior, which sometimes can be heightened through political discourse, to become the norm, Brislin said.
“We can’t allow our community to start to accept that this is not just another incident, another hate speech, another kid being funny. We need to take these incidents seriously,” she said.
The Anti-Defamation League offers a way to report anti-Semitic incidents or hate crimes at lasvegas.adl.org.
Staff members Ray Brewer and Jesse Granger contributed to this report.