In the year since the attack on Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, 12 white supremacists have been arrested for their alleged roles in terrorist plots, attacks or threats against the Jewish community, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported.
The ADL’s Center on Extremism reports record-high numbers of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States. In the first six months of 2019, there were 780 anti-Semitic incidents compared to 785 incidents during the same period in 2018.
“It is horrifying that in the year since the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history, at least a dozen white supremacists were arrested after threatening to target Jewish houses of worship,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said. “We are tremendously grateful to local, state, and federal law enforcement for taking these cases seriously and preventing further bloodshed against the Jewish community.”
Alleged plots in Monroe, Wash., Lehighton, Pa., and Las Vegas, Nev., were thwarted as ADL’s Center on Extremism provided intelligence to law enforcement that led to investigations and arrests.
“This is why we do what we do,” Greenblatt said. “We cannot and will not rest easy knowing the threat posed by white supremacists and other extremists against the Jewish community is clear and present. We are proud of our collaborative efforts with law enforcement to prevent such tragedies from taking place and ensuring would-be perpetrators of these heinous crimes are brought to justice.”
Since the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 28, 2018, white supremacists have targeted Jewish institutional property on at least 50 occasions, the ADL reported. These include 12 instances of vandalism using white supremacist symbols; 35 distributions of white supremacist propaganda; about 30 additional incidents in which individuals of unknown ideology committed arson, vandalism, or distributed propaganda that was not explicitly white supremacist in nature at Jewish institutions.