By Adam Pagnucco.
Almost lost in the debate over the Montgomery County Council’s recently passed antisemitism resolution is this fact: antisemitism is real. It’s real not just in other parts of the country and the world – it’s real right here in MoCo.
Consider what has occurred in just the last few months.
Today, Council Member Andrew Friedson shared images of antisemitic graffiti on the Bethesda Trolley trail, which is in his district. He reports that similar graffiti appeared on Tuckerman Lane.
Swastikas and white power graffiti appeared on the same trail in August, as noted by Delegate Ariana Kelly.
Also in August, WJLA reported that police officers “found racist writing on the footbridge off of Fleming Local Park in the 9900 block of Fleming Avenue, and on the footbridge across from Bradley Boulevard and Arlington Road. Later Sunday morning, officers were called to St. Paul Park in the 10500 block of St. Paul Street in Kensington for the report of an anti-Semitic poster.”
Last week, Potomac resident Barbara Goldberg Goldman wrote that “a white supremacist group rallied taking Heil Hitler stances on the Bradley Boulevard bridge overlooking I-270 and I-495.”
The Montgomery County Police Department recently reported that bias incidents last year were at the highest levels since the department changed its reporting methodology in 2015. In its 2021 Annual Report on Bias Incidents, the department wrote, “Of the 34 incidents motivated by religious bias, 85.3% (29) were considered anti-Jewish, despite Jewish persons making up only 10% of the population. The next most significant religious bias motivator was anti-Hindu, of which there were only two reports this year.”
Whatever one thinks of Israeli government policies or foreign affairs, let’s agree on one thing: antisemitism is real and it’s active right here where we live. We should all join forces to fight it together.