We like to assume that it will never happen again. No, we are far too sophisticated and we have experienced far too much obliteration of human life to ever witness, allow, tolerate such gross inhumanity. No, it won’t happen again.

But it is back. It is real. The pernicious specter of antisemitism has emerged from its Stygian crypt and is displaying its dog whistles, its ugly, vile rhetoric, its nonsense fused with abject hatred. The evidence is as real as the sun is in the sky.

In the year 2022, the Anti-Defamation League pinpointed 3,697 antisemitic incidents throughout the United States, a 36% increase over 2,717 incidents amassed in the year 2021. The 2022 tally was the highest mark since the ADL began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979.

As the ADL clearly and dramatically clarifies on its website: “The dramatic increase in antisemitic incidents in 2022 in almost all categories cannot be attributed to any one cause or ideology.

“Significant surges in incidents include high volume increases in organized white supremacist propaganda activity (102% increase to 852 incidents), K-12 schools (49% increase to 494 incidents) and college campuses (41% increase to 219 incidents), as well as deeply troubling percentage increases in attacks on Orthodox Jews (69% increase to 59 incidents) and bomb threats toward Jewish institutions (an increase from eight to 91 incidents).”

The ADL goes on to state that: “The states with the highest number of incidents are New York (580), California ( 518), New Jersey (408), Florida (269) and Texas (211).”

This ignominy does not bespeak the New York that I know. It is a shameful distinction that needs to be addressed at the state and local level. I, as a citizen of North Hempstead, would like to know exactly what the current administration in North Hempstead is doing to combat this scourge, offering hopefully an appropriate antidote for any possible anti-semitic outburst in our Town.

Brian Kilgannon

Carle Place