According to the L.A. County Human Relations Commission, anti-Semitic hate crimes historically make up the largest number of reported hate crimes every year and the trend continued in 2009.

Rabbi Denise Eger, of Congregation Kol Ami, said the rise in hate crimes is an alarming trend. (photo by Rafael Guerrero)

The L.A. County Human Relations Commission released its annual report on hate crimes last week and found there were 530 hate crimes committed in 2009, down from 730 in 2008, but crimes against religious groups jumped from 120 in 2008 to 131 in 2009, with 88 percent of those crimes targeting the Jewish community.

The numbers for 2009 were released late this year because the Human Relations Commission merged with the Department of Community and Senior Services.

“We lost quite a few staff,” said Marshall Wong, of the Human Relations Commission.

The commission had to contract out much of the work to collect the data. While the commission received much of the data by the end of March, they did not collect all of the data until the end of the year.

The report attributed much of the increase in religious hate crimes to vandalism. There was a 40 percent increase in vandalism, while only 14 crimes involved violence. But that was little consolation to leaders of the Jewish community, who remain concerned.

“It’s an alarming trend,” said Rabbi Denise Eger, of Congregation Kol Ami in West Hollywood and president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California. “We should all be concerned about the fear of difference in our society.”

Eger said her congregation has faced hatred in the past. She recalled seeing protestors at the Gay Pride Parade in West Hollywood displaying both anti-gay and anti-Jewish slogans. There have also been phone and mail threats at Congregation Kol Ami but Eger was thankful the threats were not carried out.

“We are very disturbed by this trend,” said Rabbi Mark S. Diamond, vice president of the Board of Rabbis.

Diamond recalls experiencing hatred early in his life. He worked in a factory for an entire summer when he was 17 and experienced anti-Semitism firsthand. He worked alongside another boy his age and one day the boy asked Diamond what he “was.”

“I told him I was American,” Diamond said. “But I knew what he was getting at.”

When Diamond told the boy he was Jewish, he was hit with an onslaught of of anti-Jewish slurs.

“His mouth dropped,” Diamond said. “And then it all came out at once. Needless to say our friendship ended after that day.”

Eger and Diamond both said that educating the public on other cultures and religions is the key to solving the hate-crime problem.

“We need citizens and government to get involved and develop organizations and programs that will encourage people to get along,” Eger said.

Diamond and the Board of Rabbis have gotten involved with the International Visitors Council of Los Angeles (IVCLA), a non-profit organization aimed at increasing understanding between L.A. residents and the rest of the world. The IVCLA has made the Board of Rabbis a frequent stop for people from other countries to interact with leaders of the Jewish community. Diamond recalled a recent meeting with a group of religious scholars and journalists from Egypt and the Middle East.

“One of them turned to me and said he had read a book on the Internet that said Jews were deceitful,” Diamond said.

When Diamond heard the name of the book, he understood where the misconceptions came from.

“He was quoting ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’” Diamond said. “It is one of the most anti-Semitic books ever written.”

Diamond explained to the visitor that the book was all hateful rhetoric. The visitor thanked Diamond for clarifying the motivations of the book, and explained it was a book widely distributed in the Arab world.

“We change hearts and minds one person at a time,” Diamond said. “Education, ultimately, is the answer against hatred.”