Trump ’emboldening’ bigots is blamed for 57% leap in anti-Semitic acts

New York: The number of anti-Semitic incidents in the US surged by 57 per cent last year, according to a tally by the Anti-Defamation League, an increase the advocacy group’s chief executive blamed in part on President Donald Trump.

The group’s Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents counted 1986 such incidents last year, including physical assaults, vandalism and attacks on Jewish institutions, up from 1267 incidents in 2016, making it the largest single-year increase on record.

The league’s chief executive, Jonathan Greenblatt, said that Trump bore some responsibility for the increase for not condemning events such as last summer’s white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, as well as scattered incidences of bomb threats, cemetery desecration and school bullying.

Read the story by Gina Cherelus on WAToday.