Forceful statements by members of the clergy, educators and elected officials at every level are needed to reinforce the message that anti-Semitism and related forms of hatred are not OK.
For many New Jersey residents, the most terrifying aspect of President Donald Trump's rise to power has been the hatred it unleashed among some of his followers.
Muslims were at the receiving end of much of that venom, as were Mexicans and other American minority groups.
Now the Anti-Defamation League recently has released the sobering finding that anti-Semitic attacks in New Jersey rose by 15 percent in 2016 over the year before - this in a state which already was home to the third highest number of such incidents in the country behind New York and California.
That equals at least three anti-Semitic incidents that come to the organization's attention every week.
And the number is deceptive, says Ross Pearlson, ADL New Jersey regional board chair: "We know that for every incident reported, there's likely another that goes unreported."
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The vile episodes have only continued since Trump's inaugural, with the Garden State witnessing nine case of anti-Semitic vandalism and 15 cases of harassments and threats in the first three months of his tenure alone.
Police in Toms River were called when someone scratched the crude words "Burn the Jews," as well as crude obscenities, into playground equipment. Similar sentiments were scrawled in chalk at an elementary school in Manalapan.
To be sure, Trump did not cause this loathing for "the other." That scourge that goes back to the beginnings of recorded religious history. But Trump took advantage of it - and probably rode its coattails into the White House.
The billionaire's populist shout-outs, his willingness to surround himself with the Steve Bannons and Steve Millers of the world, his reluctance to denounce the white supremacist David Duke and other like-minded thugs - these factors have permitted the haters to slither out from beneath their rocks.
Now that they're here, what are we going to do about them?
Writing in The Link, a newspaper covering six counties in northern New Jersey, the Holocaust scholar Rafael Medoff reflects that there is no simple explanation for anti-Semitism.
"Sometimes it is influenced by religious or political factors, sometimes by socioeconomic situations. Often it is triggered by deeply personal circumstances. Anti-Semitism has no single cause, and no single cure," he says.
There may be no single cure, but organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the Jewish community relations councils at local Jewish Federations throughout the state are working overtime to combat hate's insidious effects.
Through outreach, education and carefully nurtured interfaith partnerships, these groups are staffing the front lines in that battle, and we salute their efforts.
Denunciations help. Forceful statements by members of the clergy, educators and elected officials at every level reinforce the message that anti-Semitism and related forms of hatred are not OK.
Definitely. Not. OK.
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