Four months on from Oct. 7, aftershocks remain.
Antisemitic incidents usually go down during the holidays, according to Anti-Defamation League Philadelphia Regional Director Andrew Goretsky. Yet they were still up this year in the Philadelphia area compared to the December-January period in 2022 and 2023.
During the last weekend in January, a billboard on Interstate 95 in Chester paid for by JewBelong, the pro-Jewish nonprofit organization, was vandalized. The billboard’s message that “Hamas is your problem too” was met with graffiti stating, “Your charade is ending.”
Hamas is also still holding more than 100 hostages from its attack. On Feb. 4, a group of Jews gathered in the Belmont Plateau in Fairmount Park to hold up signs and pray.
Also, during the first week of February, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and 140 federations across the country sent representatives to Washington, D.C. The local contingent presented a Jewish platform of priorities to the Philadelphia-area congressional delegation, according to Jason Holtzman, the director of the Jewish Community Relations Council within the local Jewish Federation.
These aftershocks may require legislative solutions now.
Here’s a rundown of where they stand.
Antisemitic incidents
There were more than 100 complaints of antisemitic incidents submitted to ADL Philadelphia between Oct. 7 and December, according to Goretsky. In December and January, there were 70.
“We’re still seeing an extraordinarily high number,” Goretsky said. “You have to compare it from the same time last year.”
Goretsky also believes that Jews in the area are not reporting every incident. He did several speaking engagements at synagogues in December and January. After each event, someone came up to him and told him about an unreported incident.
A few people mentioned “Holocaust comments,” Goretsky said. Someone else had their front yard vandalized with toilet paper during Chanukah.
The Billboard
JewBelong paid for three such billboards on Philadelphia-area highways disseminating its message about Hamas. Co-founder Archie Gottesman is unsure of the details behind the vandalization of the Chester billboard, but she did file a police report.
There were also JewBelong billboards vandalized in Tennessee and California.
“It just shows why we’re doing the work we’re doing,” Gottesman said.
The billboard targeted in Chester is down now. But that’s only because billboards are paid for monthly, according to Gottesman. Three more are going up in the Philadelphia area in February.
“They can’t be given the ability to create more evil,” Gottesman said. “You have to fight.”
The rally
Hamas originally took more than 240 hostages during its attack. It continues to hold 136, according to Dafna Ofer, an Israeli who lives on the Main Line. Twenty-eight of those are dead. Yet it’s still important to bring them home, too.
“Having the word out may help release them sooner,” Ofer said. “There is still a 1-year-old and a 4-year-old. Women and families. Old people. There’s an 85-year-old.”
Federations go to D.C.
About 400 people representing 140 federations visited D.C., according to Holtzman. They advocated for increased funding for the federal nonprofit security grant program, passage of the Antisemitism Awareness Act and passage of the supplemental security aid package to give Israel more emergency funding.
Last year, the security grant program got $305 million, according to Holtzman. This year, it needs $500 million due to the increase in antisemitic and anti-Muslim incidents.
The Antisemitism Awareness Act would adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which includes “rhetorical manifestations of antisemitism,” according to holocaustremembrance.com. If this definition is adopted by the Department of Education, it could help “educational organizations define what antisemitism is,” Holtzman said. It could also help Jews when they file Title VI lawsuits under the Civil Rights Act, which prevents discrimination from organizations receiving federal funding.
The supplemental aid package would include $14.3 billion in emergency funding. That would include money for Israel’s Iron Dome, other missile defense systems and weapons systems, according to Holtzman.
Holtzman and other Philly-area representatives met with U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon and other members of the local congressional delegation.
“Our congressional delegation was very receptive,” Holtzman said. “We’re fortunate to have a congressional delegation like we do. I felt a warm embrace.”