Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) called on the federal government to expand the Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service in response to an ADL report that found antisemitic incidents in the state doubled in 2022, according to CTInsider.
The ADL study found that incidents in the state doubled from 34 to 68 last year, far outpacing the 36 percent rise that occurred across the United States. In response, Blumenthal called for $40 million to be allocated to the program which would be made available to cities and towns dealing with hate incidents.
"Hate crimes are designed to intimidate and divide," Blumenthal told the media on Monday, speaking at the Jewish Federation for Greater Hartford. "Even though they may look like pranks for defacing a property that does no injury to people directly, they are designed to terrorize, to frighten, to intimidate and most of all to divide. What the Community Relations Service does is it brings a community together ... to talk, but also to seek solutions that reassure people, that say to the targets of that hate crime, you are not alone."
The ADL noted that 55 of the 68 reported incidents in Connecticut were harassment and 13 consisted of vandalism. While there were no assaults reported in 2022, 1 in every 5 Connecticut towns experienced an incident, Stacey Sobel, the regional director for the Connecticut ADL, told reporters.
The report also found that there were 21 instances of swastikas being found in public areas, including schools, parks and a coffee shop. There was also a bomb threat delivered to a Connecticut synagogue and three Zoom bomb threats made during Holocaust remembrance events.
Sobel also pointed out that one-third of the antisemitic incidents took place in the state’s schools.
"A college student in Connecticut returns from class to find three swastikas carved into his dorm door. He looks around. There are no swastikas anywhere else. He is Jewish and he has been targeted," Sobel said. "Each of these incidents has a profound and life-altering impact on the victims, their families, their schools and their communities. People are afraid."
The Community Relations Service only receives $25 million a year for providing its service throughout the US. Blumenthal described the funding as “inadequate.”
"No place, no community is immune from hate and hate crime," Blumenthal said. "We need to take additional steps to stem and stop hate crimes and generally hatred."