Mitchell Silber
Briefing on the Unprecedented Rise in Anti-Semitism in America

Mitchell D. Silber | Briefing on the Unprecedented Rise in Anti-Semitism in America | 06.01.21

- Welcome back to all of you who are with us this morning, and to the rest of you, good afternoon, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. It is my great pleasure today to introduce Mitch Silver, who will present to us on the unprecedented rise in anti-Semitism in America. Mitch is the executive director of the Community Security Initiative, a new position created as part of UJA and JCRC, New York’s plan to help secure local Jewish institutions in the New York region. Mr. Silver spent more than two years working directly for Ambassador Ronald Lauder conduct security and threat assessment of diaspora Jewish communities all throughout Europe. Mr. Silver served as Director of Intelligent Analysis at the New York City Police Department from 2005 to 2012, where he was the principal advisor to the Department Commissioner of Intelligence on Counterterrorism Policy and Analysis.

So welcome to Carly Maisel. Welcome back, Carly, and thank you very much for being with us today as well. And so and I’m going to hand over to you and to Mitch. Thank you.

• Thank you very much, Wendy. So Mitch is actually running a couple of minutes late because he’s just been at a meeting with the Bronx Police Department, which as you can all imagine is very timely. So I wanted to take a minute to actually introduce tonight’s topic because it’s one that I’m particularly passionate about.

So I got involved with the Community Security Trust in the UK when I was 18. And basically once you get involved at a young age, you’re there for life. So for the next 10 years, I basically was a part of CST. And when I started to spend more time in America, I couldn’t believe the limited security around synagogues. And when I first went to a synagogue in Washington, DC, where I was interning, where Senator-then Lieberman was attending, I was amazed that I could wander in totally unrestricted and sit down where I’d pleased. And then we danced through the streets of Washington with a Sefer Torah, you know, no police, very minimal security. And to be honest, that was a very different experience for me than the one I was used to growing up in the UK.

And when I moved to New York nearly three years ago now, I had a number of conversations with leaders in the New York Jewish community explaining to them that as a British Jew, I was used to seeing CST and actually that bizarrely, it’s a comforting thing. If you know there is security outside at your synagogue, then you are reassured about what’s going on inside. And I was told by the New York leaders that America was different. And that the Jewish community in America didn’t need the same level of support and security. And that to be honest we would struggle to convince American Jewry that there was a need for a volunteer security force. That they had the NYPD, who you can pay for when they’re off duty, that they had the FBI, and that the American Jewish community just didn’t need it.

So, you know, for about a year I persisted and struggled. And then unfortunately, reality took over for me. And the anti-Semitic incidents in the US increased. And there were several states, be it Pittsburgh, be it Muncie, where extreme violence was carried out against the Jewish community and members of the Jewish community died. And the leaders of the New York Jewry came back to me and they said, you know, okay, unfortunately, it seems like things have started to change here. And over the next six to nine months, particularly in New York, they sat down, they learnt from the lessons around the world, and they built something which I think is now really quite remarkable and isn’t exactly the same as the CST in London, but manages to combine the expertise of the local law enforcement. It manages to navigate the sheer huge volume of the Jewish community there. And also is now working incredibly hard over the last year to help keep the New York Jewry safe.

So I’m going to try connecting Mitch over the phone because he’s having trouble dialling in. So if you all give me a second, we will see if we can do it this way. So Mitch, I’ve just given a little intro as to how I got involved with security, my background from the UK and the importance of the work that you are doing. So I want to start off by, perhaps you could tell our audience what’s happened over the last few weeks, particularly in New York, but in America in general with regards to anti-Semitism.

• [Mitch] Sure, apologies for the audiovisual difficulty as Carly mentioned, this was sort of a pressing meeting to have in the Bronx. Last night, there was a very large pro-Palestinian demonstration, and interestingly it ended up looping in members of a Blacks Lives Matter group. There were a few arrests. Fortunately, the police were able to keep it away from any Jewish neighbourhoods, but it was very vitriolic, lot of anger. And this is now, you know, close to a week since the ceasefire. But you know, unfortunately, you know, what we’re seeing in United States is a phenomena that we didn’t see in 2014 when Israel and Hamas went to war for a month, and where there were thousands of casualties on the Palestinian sides.

So this is new in the US to see such highly activated Palestinian political activity. And while the vast majority of the incidents have been in the Greater New York area, as you’ve all seen from the news, certainly not been limited to the New York area. Still in Los Angeles, Florida, Cleveland, you know, it’s been to certain degree a nationwide phenomena. And you know, what has happened? Well, you know, at the most basic level, we’ve seen a lot of these protests, pro-Palestinian, where on the periphery of the protest, people spun off. And those people who spun off from what was otherwise a sort of, you know, loud and angry protest actually turned to violence.

And New York seemed to have a good handle on this until about a week and a half ago, 10 days ago, when there was a pro-Israel demonstration in Times Square, it was challenged by a pro-Palestinian unauthorised demonstration. And what happened there was immediately broke out. A firecracker was thrown by a spinoff group in the Diamond District in the 40s in Manhattan. There was a young man, Jewish man, who was wearing a kippah, who was unlucky enough to emerge from the subway at just that moment. He was set upon by a group of Palestinian men who attacked him in the street.

And then simultaneously you had a group of caravan reminiscent of what we saw in London travelling around Manhattan with flags hanging out the window, screaming and cursing Jews and Zionists interchangeably. So, you know, big picture, anti-Zionism has become the cover for this revealed anti-Semitism and certainly among a very active in all the incidents in New York. And we kept the 12 of them during the Israel-Palestinian hostilities that resulted in either some type of violence or some type of vandalism.

There have been nine arrests. And among those individuals, they’re all of Palestinian or Arab diaspora descent. So those have been the people who’ve been committing the violence at least in the Greater New York area. The investigations are still ongoing and NYPD believes there’ll be further arrests. But, you know, big picture, unlike 2014, you know, it’s been a much more activated and violent group of people, you know, involved in a protest activity. And we can talk about some of the reasons why, but that’s been the latest situation in the US and thankfully things have calmed down a little bit since the ceasefire.

But you know, these things turned out tend to have a long fuse. So our team has been running a sort of DEFCON 1, interacting with the police on a regular basis to make sure that the police has this covered. Not only the demonstrations, but making sure there are adequate police forces in front of synagogues, JCCs, schools, and other visible Jewish locations. And this unfortunately comes amid the background of this movement to defund the police and reduce resources for the police. So let me stop there, sort of a quick summary as just some of the dynamics of play here in US.

• Thank you, Mitch. So you touched on how this is different from 2014, perhaps you can tell us why that is, but also, you know, has this been building in America over the last 10 years? And, you know, the genie has been released. What do you think it was that’s been the tipping point this time?

• [Mitch] You know, certainly we’ve seen the number of anti-Semitic incidents been increasing over time and you know, we work closely with the anti-destination leagues, who tracks that data, you know, many of those incidents, as much as you could track an ideology in terms of who is behind them. Here in the US we’ve seen a lot of white supremacist driven anti-Semitic incidents. Obviously most clearingly the Tree of Life attack in Pittsburgh and one in Poway, California. So, you know, this is a different type of anti-Semitism. We have not seen a rising tide of sort of Arab diaspora, Muslim diaspora driven anti-Semitism in the US. So this was clearly stimulated, you know, by the conflict. And you know, I think we can’t talk about what happened in the US without talking about two other albums.

One is social media, and that’s certainly new, not new in the sense it didn’t exist in 2014, but I think as we’ve all spent the last year in quarantine, the degree to which we all rely on social media as one of our primary sources of information, you know, is just magnified and amplified. So people were listening to those channels, to those mediums, and those mediums have been profiting with people, you know, expressing their anti-Semitism. So I think social media is one and also just general media coverage in the US. It’s been, you know, very, yeah. Surprisingly unbalanced in some ways. You know, the New York Times on Friday, if you saw the cover of it, has a picture of 50 Samar and Palestinian children and one Israeli child who died in the conflict.

And you know some people who I consider measured observers of the, you know, Palestinian-Israeli conflict said, “Look, this is the equivalent of a blood libel.” You know, to put the pictures of 50 children and we know who the Times is suggesting is, you know, responsible. So I think, you know that sort of hyper volatile situation, social media pushing it. And then I think you’ve got dynamics post-COVID as well. People are angry, people are unemployed, people have lost loved ones. So you have sort of this perfect storm of grievances looking for an outlet.

• And let’s talk about social media a bit further. So, you know, we’ve obviously seen an increase in the last 10 years in social media and its importance in how people express themselves, but we’ve also seen perhaps an increase in the amount of unchecked conversation. You know, I happen to see that there was a talk on the Clubhouse app yesterday, you know, that said something along the lines of should we pick up where Hitler left off? You know, a totally uncensored discussion. You know, as we know, it can take a very long time for social media companies to react. How much do you think social media is responsible for the rise in anti-Semitism, and where are you seeing it transcend from social media to the streets of New York?

• [Mitch] You know, certainly it has a role of exacerbating tensions, taking a complicated situation and few are as complicated as Palestinian, Israel, and Arab-Israeli issues and flattening them. Flattening them so that they end up being looked at through one particular prism. And in the US that prism that happens to be race relations. So, you know, I think social media has done all of us a disservice, especially to Jewish community in this situation. And then as you mentioned, Carly, you know, moderation, the moderation of these websites, the pulling off of extreme content, you know, whether it’s Facebook, whether it’s Twitter, YouTube, you know, three, four years ago the conversations with these companies were about pulling down, you know, things that were supportive of ISIS because that was exacerbating and motivating lone actors to carry out attacks.

And only reluctantly did the social media companies invest in personnel because look, it’s a cost area for them to have people moderating conversations and pulling down extremist content. And I think they’re inevitably they’re behind the eight ball in terms of being responsive, you know, and this again, politically charged, politically sensitive. What do you take down? What’s crossing the line or not? You know, in the hesitation of the social media companies came the proliferation of this extremist violent rhetoric. I think it’s difficult for us to connect it directly though, you know, until you have someone arrested and they say, yeah, you know, before I went out and you know, attacked the Jew on the street, I saw this video of a dead baby in Gaza and that’s what made me do it. So we don’t have that direct connective cause and effect relationship yet that it’s explicit, but you know, it’s hard to believe that they’re truly disconnected.

• And you know, over the last year we’ve seen a lot of protests on the streets in America, be they against Trump, be they in support of Black Lives Matter. How much do you think the last sort of two weeks and the level of protest is an expression of frustration and a kind of, you know, outlet that Americans already started to see and then the kind of inevitable challenging clash, or how much do you think is specific to this kind of Israel-Palestine issue and therefore also the anti-Semitism?

• [Mitch] You know, it’s a great question and frankly, you know, coming out of the meeting, you know, minutes ago from the commander of the patrol borough in the Bronx where I mentioned they had this, you know, pro-Palestinian rally, he said, “Listen, you know, this rally, there was a contingent of Black Lives Matter. There was an LGBTQ contingent there, and why are they there? Well, they’re there because there’s sort of comrade norms. You come to our demonstration and we will come to your demonstration.”

And, you know, hearing it straight from the patrol borough commander’s, you know, lips is that he said like this is a continuation in some ways of last summer. You know, some of the wildness, some of the protests that got out of control. And you know, to some degree, this is the flavoured du jour right now, you know, pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel, anti-Jewish, and you know, these other groups are coming out, you know, at least last night. And you know, and this is a protest that lasted for five hours long. So you’re seeing this sort of cross-pollination among some of these groups.

• And we’ve talked a lot about New York, which I know is your focus area, but you have colleagues around the country. How much is this a New York problem? You know, I’ve seen coverage in LA. Also, you know, your Northern neighbours in Canada. Is New York different or is this taking shape across the US?

• [Mitch] Clearly, it’s not only been a New York phenomenon, New York things tend to become more intense, you know, with a population Greater New York of 1.5 million Jews and you know, north of a million people of Muslim descent. Now you’ve got sort of people living cheek to jail in the same neighbourhoods in the Bronx, in Brooklyn. So you’re going to have those flashpoints. But you’re right, there have been these incidents in Los Angeles, in Florida, in other places, and you’ve seen, you know, weird partnerships where, you know, we were talking about the meme online, “Hitler was right”.

The fact that, you know, white supremacists online, are, you know, in support of Hamas, where normally white supremacists would have the same view toward people of Muslim and Arab descent as they have as Jews, just shows the strange bedfellows and partnerships that have developed. But you know, other parts of the country have seen it as well. And you know, we are in contact with Los Angeles, we’re in contact with Ohio, and Florida and other parts of the country, and everyone is trying to sort of batten down the hatches and make sure that their institutions are more secure and are working, you know, closely with the police.

And by the way, it’s not just the local police, the FBI has seen this to be such a threat that they too are getting involved on the investigative side to try and understand the phenomena. And that’s a good thing to bring their firepower, resources, technology, you know, that’s a great partnership to have.

• And in terms of the role of political leaders, you know, in these kinds of situations, politicians can calm a situation or they can inflame it. How have you seen over the last few weeks the role of both the national politicians and the New York based politicians in helping to both stand up against anti-Semitism and to draw a clear line, you know, in kind of pushing back on the violence and the way that the protests have taken place?

• [Mitch] Yeah, you know, I’ve even add a third category sort of ducking, where there’ve been some politicians who in the New York area who were traditionally very supportive of Israel and of Jewish causes. And there were some politicians in New York who I have to say, you know, surprised that they were sort of tying their shoelaces when this was going on and didn’t speak up. And I can only imagine that that was because they were sensitive to not alienate, you know, the progressive left.

But I think the big story in the US is that President Biden, you know, about a week or so ago, you know, really in the wake of the most heinous violence in New York, came out very strongly, you know, against any type of violence against Jews and very supportive of the community nationwide. And you know, it all starts at the top. So having the president of the United States say that, you know, in very clear terms and specifically talking about unique element of anti-Semitism. And you’ve had some politicians who’ve come out and said, listen, you know, we’re obviously against anti-Semitism and every other type of hate. Look, that that’s great to have, but you know, to some degree that’s diluted because the phenomenon we’re talking about right at this moment is anti-Semitic violence.

You know, a month ago in the United States when there was a lot of anti-Asian assaults, I wouldn’t have expected a politician to contend that and condemn anti-Semitism in the same breath. You sort of have to deal with the phenomena that’s in play at the moment. You know, so we’ve got politicians who have sort of been absent, politicians who have, you know, the governor of New York, the mayor of New York, the mayor of Los Angeles, you know, certain congressmen and senators have been very, you know, vociferous in their support of Jews. And then you’ve obviously got a very vocal but small contingent in the United States Congress, you know, the Squad, who have been very supportive of, you know, Palestinian Congress.

Now, some of them in recent days have said, listen, we’re supportive of Palestinian causes, but that’s not a licence to carry out violence against Jews, you know, better late than ever, but it was late. So that, you know, that political support may have inflamed things.

• Now let’s take a step back from the last few weeks and talk about anti-Semitism across the US in general. You know, the Jewish community has come under attack not just from the far left or from Islamists, but also from the far right. You know, we saw the march in Charlottesville, and I know that your team has also done a lot to track far right extremism. Has there been, you know, the intersection at the back where far left and far right go so far around they meet each other? How have the far right responded over the last few weeks?

• [Mitch] You know, really as a cheerleader, you know, cheering Hamas on, you know, online, which has been so strange to see since then in any other situation, you know, they’re racist against Arabs and Muslims as well. So then that’s been a very bizarre, you know, phenomenon to see. You know, one physical manifestation, you know, of this is that there’s a group in, that’s small nationwide, but it’s called the GDL, the Goyim Defence League, quite a name. And you know, they were spotted in their van driving around Florida, making their presence known at some pro-Palestinian rallies. So there you had maybe a physical manifestation of that intersection. And you know, they’re all talk for the most part, they don’t really do anything, but just the idea that they would even emerge, you know, in the physical world to be supportive of Hamas in this situation.

• So it’s very important that, as you say, the politicians have spoken out, but you could say actions speak louder than words. So, you know, what is it that the Jewish community is looking for from New York? And both, I’m talking about from politicians, from funding, from the police. What is it that you hope to see going forwards?

• [Mitch] Well, a few things, you know, I think from politicians, we want to have condemnations of this activity, you know, regardless of one’s political views on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, you know, there should be a zero tolerance policy for any type of violence, you know, any type of vandalism. And that should be a clear, clear message that’s repeated again and again by our elected officials. I think the other element is that, you know, law enforcement takes their marching orders from elected officials. And we need elected officials to be clear to law enforcement that they, we expect them to be doing their job, and to be, you know, have a robust presence in places that can deter violence and to be able to devote resources to that.

Now that’s the other thing, you know, as much as there’s been this theme in the US to defund the police, reduce resources to law enforcement, I think the tide is starting to change primarily because of a rising tide of crime and murder in major cities. But this is another place where there’s really no substitute for having those sort of boots on the ground to serve as a barrier between hostile protestors and the community. So we need, you know, law enforcement to be given the green light to play their traditional role in being a buffer and protecting, you know, the communities that are being preyed upon.

And then resources, you know, in the United States, we’ve got a very, a great programme, we’re run through the Department of Homeland Security where Jewish institutions can apply for grants for physical security that enable them to win a hundred thousand or $150,000 in a given year to harden the doors, put blast mitigation film on their windows, their cameras, even to hire guards who in addition to whatever they have. And you know, the amount of money that is available for that, US Congress increased that last year from 90 million to 180 million. We would like to see that increase to 360 million. If we think about sort of the amount that the UK spends and gives to CST and we, you know, map that to the UK and our population, you know, a doubling of that to 360 million is probably about the right number. So we’d love to see Congress do that.

• And then let’s talk about campus because you know, I know that university students unfortunately have actually been feeling the strain of this for longer than the wider community. How have you found universities responding? I know in some cases that students are not on, like not back on campus, and there was also the unfortunate, I think for one of a better word, issue with Rutgers’s University who issued the condemnation of us anti-Semitism, then apologised for also not supporting the Palestinians, and then sent a statement saying they condemned all hate. How have you found university institutions have responded to this?

• [Mitch] In general, you know, universities were quick to issue statements of support last summer for Black Lives Matter. The universities were quick to issue statements supportive or condemning anti-Asian violence. Universities have been pretty much absent from having a comment on this anti-Semitic violence. You know, I know. I teach up at Columbia University, so I get their emails. And then, you know, this Rutgers situation we actually had a university who their inclination was to do the right thing and condemn anti-Semitism.

And they took such a fusillade of response from BDS and pro-Palestinian groups and other ultra progressive groups that, as you say, Carly, they rescinded, you know, their original statement and then came out with something much more mealy-mouth equivocal and not clear in what it actually, what they were condemning, which, you know, I’m not sure it would’ve been worse if they said nothing and actually retract what they had said. So universities have ducked, if you will.

• And you briefly touched on the role of the media and the New York Times front cover, how has the media in New York responded to this increase in anti-Semitism? And, you know, in the past we’ve seen callouts, you know, let’s take the Black Lives Matter protests, you know, callouts with opinion pages or even corporations coming forwards and expressing their solidarity. What’s the reaction of the media been?

• [Mitch] You know, listen, to stick with the New York Times for a moment, you know, I thought their reporting of the details of the incident and how the conflict began was actually fairly balanced. But, you know, the headline and what you put on the front page is often much more meaningful than what’s buried in page 23, you know, in the detail and the history of how this all happened going back to 1875 and the Sheikh Jarrah, you know, neighbourhood, and the Ottoman Empire.

But, you know, one of the problems has been is that, you know, within a few days, there were events in London, events in Paris, events in New York, events in Los Angeles, and there was no article in the New York Times or any of the other large leading papers talking about the phenomena of anti-Semitic incidents in response to the war. So again, eventually, there was a response and there had been articles covering this phenomena, but they were late. And, you know, almost to the point where people were wondering certainly on, you know, people I follow on social media, where are, you know, the New York Times and the Washington Post on this issue? You know, these events happened three, four days ago in Toronto, so on and so forth. So they’ve been late to it. And, you know, I think the timing matters significantly.

• So you’ve just touched on events in London and elsewhere around the world. Before you joined, I explained my connection to CST. You know, do you engage with your counterparts? And what did you learn during your time working for Ambassador Lauder about the way that security works in both Europe and the UK?

• [Mitch] Yeah, you know, one of the benefits of doing this work for Ambassador Lauder, travelling around Europe, meeting with the heads of CST and the SBCJ in France, and other equivalent organisations, you know, throughout the continent, is that there’s a ready network of people who are in a similar role to myself and my team to hear with their experience. And in fact, you know, from London from CST, was really the first warning that we got about these caravans of hate that were driving through London, waving flags, spitting issues, cursing Jews, and we were able to take that information, and we were able to pass that along to NYPD.

Now the fact that they weren’t prepared and didn’t respond is different, but the intelligence was shared and we benefited, you know, from that direct relationship with European partners because frankly, you know, European partners have seen this movie before. You know, 2014 was what a lot of Europe experienced, Paris and London and Berlin is exactly the type of phenomena that we’re seeing now in the US. So being able to tap their expertise, hear how they dealt with it, some of their tactical responses are all very helpful and worthwhile.

• So do you think that this is a kind of watershed moment for American Jews? You know, the kind of comfort that American Jews always told me as a British Jew that they had, you know, do you now see this as a permanent change? You know, or are you hoping it’s a blip under on the radar?

• [Mitch] Well, you know what, I think the permanent change happened in October 18. And I’ve often described the horrific attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, you know, where there were 11 Jews killed. That was really a 911 moment for the Jewish community in the United States where it sort of shattered that sense of safety and security that Jews have had since they arrived in the United States, you know, in the Virginia Colonies in the 1600s. So I think that was really the sea change moment. I think what you’re seeing now is some continued erosion in safety, you know, while that attack was directed at an institution and six months later a similar attack in Southern California was directed at a institution here in New York.

These were just, you know, visible Jews on the street by virtue of wearing a kippah that meant you were fair game for this mob to attack you. And that’s a different type of erosion of personal security than having your physical security of an institution attack. Neither are good. This is just sort of a further diminution of that sense of security because, you know, you’re then looking around. Who else is around me if I’m wearing a kippah, if I have a beard? If I have a, you know, Magen David, or I’m wearing my Chai on a necklace. So deterioration I think is how I would describe it and unclear where we go from here. You know, is this a pivot point to the better or is there more deterioration off the top of it.

• So over the last kind of 18 months prior to this particular incident, there has been the slow creep upwards of anti-Semitic incidents targeting, you know, visibly Jewish people, mainly those of the ultra-orthodox persuasion, who I think have felt that they haven’t necessarily received the limelight on this issue that others have. Has the incidents also increased in the ultra-orthodox areas during the last few weeks? And how has that been engaged?

• [Mitch] Yeah, there were 12 incidents in New York that we’ve tracked, you know, nine of them were in Manhattan, three of them were in Brooklyn. Most of the incidents in Manhattan weren’t, you know, directed to people who are obviously, you know, orthodox. Whereas in Brooklyn, you know, that was more likely to be the case. You know, Brooklyn has developed some unique, you know, sort of security elements that, you know, I think help protect those communities. They call them the Shomrim or Shmira. These are community-based security initiatives where people who are driving around that patrol car and essentially, you know, are volunteers in the community. And I think that’s helped provide an extra layer of protection for those visibly Jewish communities and maybe contributed to fewer incidents occurring in those neighbourhoods over these volatile two weeks.

• And what is it that you think New York Jews can do themselves? You know, I’ve been in London for the last week or two, but I will be returning to the US in July when the Americans finally let me back in the country. You know and to realise that many visibly Jewish Americans are walking around, you know, feeling unsafe. What is it that you would advise them to do to deal with that?

• [Mitch] You know, unfortunately there aren’t a lot of easy answers to that one. I think, you know, one of them is having greater, greater situational awareness of what’s around you. And I think that sort of, you know, security bubble has been punctured. And now if you choose to wear a kippah or something else that visibly identifies you as Jewish, you know, even in Manhattan, you’ve got to sort of be looking around a little bit and being more aware, you know, of your surroundings.

And I think, you know, the other thing that we hope is that law enforcement and prosecutor’s office, offices pursue these people who have carried out these incidents and that they get real, there’s real punishment. That there’ll be an element of deterrence that people realise that if you do carry out an attack like this, there’s significant consequences to it. And I think, you know, those are two things in the short run, you know, that might contribute to a reduction in some of the street violence, which, you know, as you say, is different from attacking a physical institution.

• So one of the things we touched on early on was the role of social media, but I wanted to return to a phenomenon that happened particularly during COVID when a lot of the Jewish community took their activity online, and this was this anti-Semitic Zoom bombing. You know, we also saw a hacking in the UK of Norwood, one of the Jewish charities here. How has the cyberspace been in the last few weeks, particularly towards threats to both Jewish institutions and individuals?

• [Mitch] Well, you know, cyber is the medium, that obviously where a lot of this hate has been expressed. You know, cyber from a functional role in terms of cyber hacks and attacks and Zoom bombing, you know, only an incremental increase, you know, over the last couple weeks. But as you touched about Carly, you know, if we widen the lens and we look, you know, throughout the whole COVID period, you know, Zoom bombing attacks were seen as a new angle for anti-Semites to go after Jews. You know, it’s required us to now devote resources to help our institutions better protect themselves and improve their cyber hygiene.

So that their Zoom events are no longer unfortunately being able to be advertised on a public facing website. You know, for fear that someone is going to Zoom bomb them. You know, some of the profiles of the member, of the leadership of institution, some institutions have taken it down. In person events as they start to happen are not being advertised on the public facing elements of the website. So, you know, we’ve had to take action that, you know, 15 months ago, 18 months ago, we wouldn’t have ever thought were needed. And unfortunately, this is just a response to the way things have developed here.

• And one of the things that I guess is a part of the what can the Jewish community do is around education, both internally within the community, you know, both on antisemitism and also on kind of self-protection and security. You know, the other thing is that the Jewish community in America needs to get comfortable with reporting. Is that something that you think the community have increased and are they, you know, do they know how it works with the Hate Crime unit and the NYPD and what that whole process looks like? Have you found the people are prepared to say, actually I was the victim of a hate crime?

• [Mitch] I think it’s an evolving process. I think that, you know, since most Jews are not familiar with having to report it, we’re having to promote it with the ADL, the FBI just set up a line where people can call and report an incident in either Yiddish or Hebrew, you know, obviously in addition to English. So we’re trying to open up some more mediums through which they can be reported. But I think it’s also a change in mindset, a change in mindset that, you know, reporting these incidents is meaningful, and it allows organisations like the ADL, like ours, to then put pressure on elected officials because there is a metric that we’re tracking and that metric shows change, change to the negative, but at least that allows us to have those conversations and potentially garner the resources and attention to respond to that change. So this, I think American Jews are getting used to, or it’s evolving process to get used to reporting.

• And in terms of across the rest of America, you know, New York obviously has a large Jewish population. They have their own security infrastructure. If there are isolated Jewish communities, you know, in you know, I don’t know, South Dakota, or other states where they have limited support, are the Jewish security organisations around the US working together to help prepare those communities who are, you know, often just as likely to come under threat?

• [Mitch] Again, you know, this is an evolving process really that was reinvigorated after Tree of Life in Pittsburgh. You know, there is a national organisation for the Secure Community Network, and that essentially ends up being the medium through which, you know, New York speaks to Chicago and LA and Detroit and Houston and Miami, and there are weekly calls where the whole network gets together. So I think the big cities are generally more organised, have some type of security infrastructure, have people devoted to security. You know, the trickier thing is when you get to sort of communities that are off the beaten path that are not in major metro areas. So those communities are trying to, we’re trying to figure out solutions at a national level for those institutions.

• And, you know, if the Jewish community in New York or elsewhere is looking to encourage their politicians to put more funding together to make sure there are more prosecutions, you know, how should they be applying that pressure? Is it through letter writing? You know, is it through calling? What is it that can help make sure that the politicians are taking this seriously?

• [Mitch] Yeah, and just, you know, one other thing I should mention, you know, one element that we saw work so well, you know, in the UK and other places in Europe was really incorporating volunteers into communities to help keep them safe. You know, volunteers who know who’s irregular and who’s not, volunteers who know what’s normal in their community and what’s not. You know, we’ve partnered here in New York with the Community Security Service, which is that volunteer group, it’s a national group and is strong, strong in New York and have other pockets around the US where they’re building up their capabilities. But I think that’s another sort of force multiplier for communities who maybe don’t have the resources to have a paid security specialist.

But just to address your last question, you know, elections count. Right now, we were coming up upon an election in New York, not only for the mayor, but for the Manhattan District Attorney. The way New York’s works is that whoever wins the Democratic primary is likely to be the winner in both of those races. And there are a spectrum of candidates, both for mayor and for Manhattan District Attorney. Some favour a more traditional law and order, you know, prosecute, you know, even small crimes. Others have a more laissez-faire, don’t prosecute attitude. And I think the choices that are made in this primary coming up in June are going to have longstanding effects as to the security of New York City going forward.

• So let’s reflect again on the last few weeks. How has the NYPD done in terms of arrests, and what do you hope in terms of prosecution in order to send a clear signal to those who would be tempted to come do copycats or follow in these footsteps that this won’t be accepted on the streets of New York?

• [Mitch] You know, Carly, in the wake of that Thursday night demonstration that got out of hand, and a subsequent firecracker attack in the Diamond District and the attack against the Jewish young man, you know, by the mob, you know, the CEO of the UJA, Jewish Federation of New York, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council in New York and myself had a very frank conversation with the NYPD. And you know, I say especially my NYPD because I, you know, an organisation I care a lot about. And we really said we were disappointed, you know, in the performance of the department that night and felt let down. And you know, really demanded, you know, more from them. And I’m pleased to say that, you know, they took that critique honestly, and vow to do better and opened up a whole host of new channels of communication for myself and my team to interact directly with the police, you know, in order to make sure that even in this time when their resources are scarce, they don’t, you know, leave the Jewish community, you know, in the lurch.

And, you know, the results have been visible. They’ve been on the ground up in Riverdale, which is a Jewish community up in the Bronx. Almost every Jewish institution has 24/7 coverage. You know, the Bronx commander, who I just met with, he’s responsible for sharing resources across all of his precincts to the precinct where that is, to make sure that it’s covered. And, you know, last Shabbat, the Shabbat before, again, patrol cars, patrol, stopping in, visiting, visible presence, so I think that’s been great and you know, we’re waiting to see how these prosecutions play out, but you know, there’s been great intelligence sharing from my team and NYPD in the hope that, you know, these people can be prosecuted to carry out violent acts, you know, to the fullest.

• So you just mentioned you and your team, help our audience understand, you know, what CSI is made up of and the kind of brief that it carries out across New York.

• [Mitch] Sure, so you know, the area that the Jewish Federation and the JCRC, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York cover spans eight counties. The five boroughs of New York City, Manhattan, Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, Brooklyn, and then three suburban counties, Westchester, just north of the city, and then Nassau and Suffolk, which are all on Long Island. So those eight counties constitute our sort of area of responsibility. We’ve taken those eight counties and organised them into five regions.

And I have a team of five regional security managers. Each one of them is responsible for every shul, school, JCC, camp, museum in their particular area of responsibility. Responsible for making them physically secure, responsible for making sure that they know the police and the police know them, making sure that we can with a press of a button, send out an emergency communications to every institution in Queens or Queens and Brooklyn or Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan if we wanted. And so that team of five has been very busy, you know, tracking these protests, making sure that the local police knew about them and responded.

Our intelligence analyst, who we’ve had since October, is in the deep and dark web looking to identify actions and people before they come to fruition. And you know, as I mentioned, we’re in close contact, FBI, DHS, NYPD, Nassau County, Suffolk County. So it’s a really good network, you know, locally and also nationally.

• And you just touched on the role of your analyst doing the intel work and how important that is to pass over to the NYPD. So what does that mean in reality?

• [Mitch] Well, it’s a really interesting development that we were able to hire an intelligence analyst and not only, you know, do they work for us, but we share this intelligence analyst with the CSS, the Community Security Service, the volunteer organisation, because we thought it was beneficial that she be the recipient of things that CSS was seeing on the ground, you know, so coming into her, but then also being able to push out things that we may see in the deep and dark web that the volunteers may not see. And this analyst, they add another layer to this. We’ve embedded her inside the Anti-Defamation League, who has a team of 18 people who are looking at anti-Semitism nationally.

And as we know, the internet isn’t organised geographically, it’s thematically, so it makes sense for her to be partnered with these people. And she just pulls out the New York threads that we’re most interested in. And when we have that information, it might be about a person who’s saying threatening things, who has a picture with themselves on Facebook with weapons saying hateful things. We’ll look to identify that person and we’ll pass that on to law enforcement and say, listen, we think this person may have be a concern. We’re passing it to you to decide if you want to investigate or not. And, you know, some of these leads have resulted in arrests. So, you know, it’s been a way that we take a very active participation in protecting ourselves and being an extra set of eyes and ears for law enforcement.

• So, you know, Mitch, as we come up towards the end of the discussion, and I appreciate our audience hanging in there, despite the fact that you are the voice looming out of my telephone right now, what should we look for over the next few weeks to know if this is going the right way or the wrong way for Jews, particularly in New York?

• [Mitch] You know, I think at the broadest level, we’ll see if the protest activity dies down, know since the ceasefire is in place, and whether this becomes the flavour of protests for the summer of 2021. You know, I think we’ll look at vandalism and graffiti type incidents, and then of course we’ll be looking for violent assaults and at the same time, you know, having our thermometer finally tuned to measure, you know, if the temperature is heating up or not online. So I think those four sort of areas are areas that we can measure and look at, you know, metrics to see if things are continuing to heat up, if they’re sort of levelling off or people hopefully move on and find some issue dujour to focus on.

• Thank you very much. So, Mitch, I really appreciate this, and I know that the technical challenges were not easy. We’ve had a lot of audience questions around some of the more political elements around anti-Semitism and the intersectionality between anti-Zionism, anti-Semitism, and you know, what’s led to the last year. So perhaps we’ll get another guest on who can talk a bit more about the political side of things, but from the security perspective, we really appreciate you walking us through the threats and as I say, as someone who’s been very passionate about this space for the last 10 years and, you know, is very appreciative of the work that you and your team do. So I’m going to hand back over to Wendy, who’s going to wrap it up.

• Mitch.

• [Mitch] Thank you, Carly.

• Yeah, thank you, Carly and thank you, Mitch. Thank you so much for joining us and persisting with your tech issues. I know it can be a real, real headache. Both you and your team do crucial work especially now. And I must say that we, our family, are honoured to support your work through UJA and we hope that others will join us in doing so. As we’ve heard from you and as we’ve seen in the media and as we’re reading on a day-to-day basis, we are going through really, really challenging times. It really seems that the tide has shifted. So once again, Mitch, thank you very much. Carl, thank you. And to Shauna, as always, thank you for being there to help us. To all of you, thank you for joining us. Goodnight and good afternoon.