CINCINNATI — Bias incidents in the Tri-State are at record levels since the surprise Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, local leaders said.
“The local numbers are really bad right now,” said Rabbi Ari Jun, Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council. “Since the conflict began, we’ve been dealing with an antisemitic incident in schools everyday or every other day, on average.”
He’s certain their data, which is self-reported from students, parents, and schools, is an under count: “The snapshot of the data that we have is fragmentary, and even from that snapshot, it's a pretty bad situation.”
Jun said while incidents in the area do not include any violent acts against Jews, it does include verbal harassment, intimidation, and use of Nazi imagery.
“We’re seeing a whole range of things that we would consider severe acts of antisemitism, and now they’re happening close to daily,” Jun said.
Anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate is at an all-time high locally as well, said Amina Barhumi, Executive Director of the Council on American Islamic Relations-Ohio's Columbus and Cincinnati offices.
“Our last two weeks of folks calling into our office and asking for help has been more than we’ve received since the beginning of the year,” Barhumi said.
The organization is getting reports of heightened level of intimidation and retaliation for those speaking up for the human rights of Palestinians, which Barhumi said is especially problematic.
“There’s a conflation with standing up for Palestinians and that being equated with antisemitism, and that’s very problematic,” she said. “We have to be very cautious of what we're calling what, and our words here matter, and how we're labeling matters.”
Along the same lines, Jun said that taking a stance on the political conflict is different than engaging in hate speech. He said that’s a difference many school officials don’t distinguish between.
“There is no reason that condemning antisemitism means you're taking a side on the conflict,” he said. “Those are two independent concepts.”
Some phrases that can be seen as political may have multiple meanings, Jun said. That is when the line between hate speech and political speech might intersect.
Jun said he would desperately like to see the Jewish and Muslim community come together to address the recent increase in bias incidents.
Islamophobia in Cincinnati is not predominantly the product of Jews, and antisemitism in Cincinnati is not predominantly the product of Muslims,” he said. “These are external forces of hate coming at both of our communities separately, we should be coming together to fight against it.”
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