Rochelle Wilner President	Frank Dimant Chief Executive Officer	Prof. Stephen Scheinberg National Chair	Ruth Klein National Director of Advocacy

1997 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents

Antisemitism

For many years, scholars including Professor Yehuda Bauer and Rabbi Emil Fackenheim, have advocated dropping the hyphen from the term “anti-semitism”, and in most academic writing, the new spelling has become the norm. Originally, with the hyphen, it was a concept coined by Wilhelm Marr in 1879 to connote jew-hatred. But grammatically it was incorrect, implying that there is such a thing as “semitism” which it is against, or that it is equally applied to all Semites, neither of which is the case. Beginning with the 1997 Audit, the League recommends that every effort be made to change the spelling in all documents and publications.

As Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin write in Why the Jews?: The Reasons for Antisemitism, Simon & Shuster, New York, 1983, p. 199; “…in order to avoid any confusion we have adopted the approach that antisemitism be written as one word. Emil Fackenheim, the Jewish philosopher, had also adopted this spelling, explaining “…the spelling ought to be antisemitism without the hyphen, dispelling the notion that there is an entity "Semitism" which "anti-Semitism" opposes”. (Emil Fackenheim, “Post-Holocaust Anti-Jewishness, Jewish Identity and the Centrality of Israel,” in World Jewry and the State of Israel. ed. Moshe David, p11, n2.)

Introduction

 

Definitions and Data Collection

Vandalism

Harrassment

 

Summary of Data

Nature of Incidents by Year

Geographic Distribution of Incidents

Highlights of Specific Incidents

 

Hate in Canada: An Overview

The State of the Neo-Nazi Right in Canada

Hate on the Internet

Hate Propaganda and Holocaust Denial

 

Antisemitism in Canada — Current Climate and Trends

The Climate in British Columbia

The Climate in Quebec

The Climate in Ontario

Climate in the Maritimes

Missionaries and “Messianic” Churches

Campuses and School Yards

Trends in the Media

Systemic Antisemitism

 

The Struggle Against Antisemitism and Hate:

Protection, Prevention, and Partnerships

Education, Training and Research

Legal/Legislative Initiatives

Intercultural Dialogue and Community Action

 

Appendices:

A — The Jewish Community in Canada: A Brief Overview

B — Hate on the Internet Symposium: Executive Summary and Reccommendations

C — Recent Publications on Antisemitism and Hate

D — Incident Reporting Form

 

Tables and Figures

Table 1: Nature of Incidents by Year

Figure 1: Nature of Antisemitic Incidents by Year

Figure 1(A): Three Year Average of Antisemitic Incidents

Figure 1(B): Incidents of Antisemitic Vandalism by Year

Figure 1(C): Incidents of Antisemitic Harassment by Year

Figure 2: Antisemitic Incidents by Region

Figure 2(A): Regional Distribution of the Jewish Community in Canada

Figure 2(B): Comparison of Incidents to Jewish Population

Table 2: Geographic Distribution of Incidents

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