There were 77 antisemitic incidents in Maryland during 2022, which is an increase of 60% over 2021, when there were 48 incidents, according to the 2022 Maryland Department of State Police Hate Bias Report.
One recent anti-Jewish incident occurred at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, where a group of students were seen filming themselves performing an antisemitic salute.
According to a Sept. 23 letter from Principal Renay Johnson, “One of our students reported witnessing a distressing incident during our lunch period.” She called it “a serious incident,” adding that “it goes against our school’s core values of respect, tolerance, and inclusion.”
School officials alerted police, Johnson wrote in her letter to Montgomery Blair High School families.
“[We] expect every member of our school community, both students and staff, to treat one another with respect and dignity, regardless of their personal characteristics or differences,” Johnson wrote in the letter to Montgomery Blair High School families.
According to the Montgomery County 2022 Annual Report on Bias Incidents, there were 157 reported bias incidents, which is almost 10% more than reported in 2021.
“This is the highest number of bias-related incidents reported to the MCPD since internal reporting processes changed in 2015. On average, the department recorded 13 bias incidents per month,” Police Chief Marcus Jones stated in the report.
Of those 157 incidents, 66 involved race, specifically anti-Black and anti-Asian. Another 53 incidents involved religion, of which 48 were considered anti-Jewish, according to the county police report.
The American Jewish Committee “expressed alarm” over the increase, which is detailed in the state police report. The report is scheduled for release Oct. 1
Statistics from the report recently were shared at the Central Maryland Hate Bias Forum, which was organized by the Maryland Office of the Attorney General, the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights, the Montgomery County Office of Human Rights, Howard County Office of Human Rights and Equity and Prince George’s County Office of Human Rights.
“These figures demonstrate that we need to take concrete steps to confront antisemitism; the time for simply talking about it has long passed,” said Alan Ronkin, American Jewish Committee Regional Director.
Ronkin said that bias and hate crimes are “vastly underreported.” He noted that in 2021, only 14% of Maryland police departments reported hate crime data to the FBI. He also noted that victims do not always report personal incidents.
“Antisemitism divides our community and its conspiratorial nature weakens our democratic institutions. We must take a stand in Maryland by rejecting all hate and bias and stand united; when Jews are treated as the “other,” it does not stop there.” Ronkin said in a news release.
