Hate Crimes

Background

From RELIGIOUS ACTION CENTER

According to the annual FBI hate crimes report (required under the 1990 Hate Crimes Statistics Act), 11,690 law enforcement agencies across the country reported 8,063 incidents of hate crime in 2001. Although the numbers of agencies reporting hate crimes decreased by five percent from 1999, the total number of reported hate crimes increased by three percent.
Opponents argue that hate crimes laws are violations of First Amendment protections, but these laws do not target speech; rather, they target the criminal action that derives from the speech. Many opponents counter by claiming that criminal action is already punishable by law under the criminal code. But, it is important to recognize that hate crimes work like terrorism: although there may be as few as one victim, hate crimes target and terrorize an entire community. For instance, if a Jewish person is attacked because he is a Jew, a threatening message is sent to the entire Jewish population in that community: if we find Jews, we will attack them. It is this terror that extends beyond the ordinary crime that hate crimes punish.

While hate crimes laws are never going to eliminate bigotry, they are effective for a number of reasons. Hate crimes laws serve as a deterrent to those individuals who chose to act on their hatred. By imposing stricter penalties against the perpetrators of these crimes, hate criminals may think twice before acting. Equally as important, by collecting accurate information about these hate crimes, the government and non-governmental organizations can better plan and program educational activities to combat hatred. Although the stricter punishment is critical, the goal of hate crimes laws is often tied to the idea of educating perpetrators, law enforcement officers, and the general public about the scourge of hate in our society.

Hate Crimes and Jewish Values

From RELIGIOUS ACTION CENTER

In the Holiness Code, in Leviticus, we are commanded both that "You shall not hate your kinsfolk in your heart. Reprove your kinsman, but incur no guilt because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your countrymen. Love your fellow as yourself" (Leviticus 19:17-18) and that "You may not stand idly by when your neighbor's blood is being shed? (Leviticus 19:16). We are also taught, in the very beginning of the Torah, that "God created man in God's own image, in the image of God (b'tselem Elohim) God created him; male and female God created them" (Genesis 1:27). This quote forms the basis of much of our civil rights legislation, and is appropriate in the fight against hate crimes as well. We are all created in the Divine Image, and are therefore deserving of equal treatment. Judaism consistently teaches the importance of tolerance and the acceptance of others, even those different from ourselves. Even more than simply preaching tolerance, we must actively work to improve, open, and make safer our communities.

Further, a Midrash poses the question "Why was the Second Temple, in which people studied Torah, did mitzvot, and engaged in acts of loving-kindness, destroyed?" It goes on to give the following answer: "Because of senseless hatred. This is to teach you that senseless hatred is equal to three transgressions-idol worship, incest, and the shedding of blood." We should learn from this that in our own lives, we must constantly fight senseless hatred. According to our sages, all of our mitzvot, study, and gimilut chasidim can be negated by the existence of hatred in the world.

Advocacy Efforts from the Anti-Defamation League

101 Ways to Combat Prejudice, down-loadable book from ADL
ADL’s response to / take on recent hate crimes