The Rise of Hate Crimes on the Jewish Population: Nationally and New Orleans

Jewish Population: Nationally and New Orleans

This is a collaboration in which a Jew and a Gentile write about prejudice and antisemitism in New Orleans and beyond.

Nolan Storey:

I am not Jewish, not by heritage and not by faith. That doesn’t mean that I can’t see what’s happening around me in both the city of New Orleans that I’ve called home for eleven years and the country at large.

Hate crimes against the Jewish population are on the rise, significantly. According to the FBI (via CBS News), nationally, hate crimes were up 17 percent in 2017 compared to 2016.

Furthermore, over 58 percent of the hate crimes that were motivated by religion in 2017 were directed at Jewish peoples. This is a significant increase from 2016 where that number was closer to 52 percent. Until a few weeks ago I hadn’t had much direct experience with the effects of this beyond what I’d seen in the news.

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