COVID-19: Fear, Hate, and Antisemitism 

March 24, 2020

 

During this challenging time of the Coronavirus, the JCRC continues our work of tracking incidents of antisemitism, bias, and hate. We know from history – as well as today – that widespread fear leads to an increase in hateful rhetoric as well as bias-related incidents and crimes.  On February 21, the Indy JCRC was proud to sign letter to the Chinese American communityexpressing the Jewish community’s support and partnership in fighting hate against their community. Over the past 6 weeks, we have observed a steady increase in expressions of bigotry, xenophobia, and antisemitism, including conspiracy theories, FBI reports that white supremacists are being encouraged to go into diverse and minority neighborhoods with the virus, and more blatant attacks against the Asian-American community. While the JCRC will continue working with partner organizations to monitor these incidents, each of us can help mitigate the spread of hate, misinformation, and fear.  Here are a few things you can do: 

  • Refer to the virus as COVID-19 or the Coronavirus. Recognize the damaging impact of calling it the “Chinese virus, which contributes to fear, causes pain, and leads to hate and violence. 
  • If you see something, say something. If you see a hateful image or rhetoric on social media, report the post to the platform.  If you see something locally (an incident, graffiti, etc), please report it to the JCRC ( info@indyjcrc.org ). 
  • Peruse the list of curated articles below. JCRC will continue to collect similar articles and reports and then post on our  COVID-19 page, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram which also contains public policy action alerts and updates regarding COVID-19.  

JCRC-curated list of articles:

Facebook
LinkedIn
LinkedIn
Instagram