FBI’s new tactic to reach Jewish community? Yiddish ads
The FBI has released new ads in both Yiddish and Hebrew, calling on members of marginalized groups to report hate crimes committed against them.
“Did you know many hate crimes are not reported? The FBI wants to help, but we need to hear from you. If you believe you’re the victim of or a witness to a hate crime, contact your local police department, call 1-800-CALL-FBI, or go to tips.fbi.gov,” reads the English translation of the ad.
Kudos to the @NewYorkFBI for once again demonstrating what community outreach is all about, encouraging Jewish hate crime victims/witnesses to report what happened in the languages that are most familiar to them. Now that’s what we call #culturalsensitivity. pic.twitter.com/8YsobaLJTY
— Rabbi Abe Friedman (@RabbiAFriedman) April 8, 2021
The FBI released a report last year which found that, in 2019, Jews were the targets of more than 60% of religious based hate crimes in the United States, despite only accounting for 2% of the national population.
One particular target were visibly Orthodox Jews, who make up the vast majority of Yiddish speakers in the U.S. and were likely the intended demographic for the ad.
In 2019 alone, Orthodox Jews were the targets of the Jersey City Kosher Supermarket shooting and a stabbing attack at a Hanukkah party in Monsey, New York.
According to the Jewish Virtual Library, 2019 saw a 7% increase in hate crimes against Jews compared to 2018.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.