JEWISH WORLD

JEWISH WORLD • JANUARY 26 - FEBRUARY 1, 2018 19 In 2017, there was a lot of talk from the Jewish organizational sphere about anti-Semitism. The two biggest stories in the news in this regard were incidences of Jewish cemetery vandalism (Philadelphia, New York, St. Louis) and robo-call bomb threats to JCCs. Rallies were held, monies donated, partnerships formed, statements released. The communal response was swift and decisive, as it should be in such cases. It should be noted, however, that we do not know for sure that the cemetery vandalism was actually motivated by anti-Semitism. In fact, in a historical survey of such inci- dents in Philadelphia starting in the 1960s, the Jewish Exponent found the majority of cemetery vandalism was the result of drunken kids. In addition, it was discovered that all of the bomb threats were fake, and most were called in by a Jewish Israeli teenager. This is not to say that these events didn’t deserve our attention. But I wonder at the lack of attention paid to the kind of everyday online hate I noticed on that TMZ article and on HQ Trivia. It’s hard to know how to respond to something that happens with such regularity, all while it comes from a place of such obvious idiocy. But I wonder if we’ve all become a bit too complacent, too jaded. Of course the ADL has guide- lines and best practices for counter- ing cyberhate, an effort they’ve been involved in since the dawn of the internet. But it’s going to require more from Jewish individuals to make actual change — people will- ing to reply to comments and create space for dialogue; people willing to call a company and say, “This isn’t right.” Organizations can only do so much. But if the internet is a bit of the wild, wild west, we need to get on our horses and become anti-hate cowboys. We cannot allow hatred to flourish. Liz Spikol is a staff member of the Jewish Exponent. Comments continued from page 13 There are plenty of options and tools out there for media outlets to deal with this, but TMZ has dropped the ball here...