Simon Wiesenthal Center urges US task force on anti-Semitism

The Simon Wiesenthal Center calls on the US attorney general to establish a task force to deal with a recent torrent of bomb threats against Jewish community centers across the US, and urged President Donald Trump, who just condemned the threats for the first time, to lay out a plan to combat “surging anti-Semitism.”

“The multipronged threats of anti-Semitism today demand concerted action. We look to President Trump to take a leadership role in addressing the problem of anti-Semitism and hate in America head-on in a speech at a time and place of his choosing,” rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center say in a statement.

“American Jewry is being targeted by extremists from multiple sources: On our nation’s campuses, where incessant anti-Israel campaigns have created a climate of intimidation; in New York, home to the world’s largest Jewish community, which reports a spike in anti-Semitic incidents, and just this week, 100 headstones in a Jewish cemetery in Missouri were overturned,” they say.

“Further, social media is being deployed 24/7 by extremists to target and demonize individual Jews, entire communities, our faith and values. We need lead leadership from the top to effectively combat the hate.”