According to the Montgomery County Department of Police 2023 Annual Bias Incident Report released March 2024, 41% of all bias incidents were anti-Jewish, 30% were anti Black, 7% were anti-Homosexual, 5% were anti-Asian, 4% were anti Hispanic, and 3% were anti-Arab or anti-Islamic.
The statistics are more remarkable when you consider the County population is about 20% Black,20% Hispanic, 15% Asian and 10% Jewish. What this means is, the percent of anti-Asian and anti-Hispanic incidents are 65-75% lower than their representation in the population, the rate of anti-Black incidents is 50% higher than their representation in the population, and the rate of anti-Jewish incidents is 300% higher than representation in the population.
According to police statistics, a Jewish person in the County is three times more likely to experience a hate bias incident than an African American person. Additionally, 90% of all religion based bias incidents in the County were anti-Jewish.
While hate against all groups should be addressed, resources should be allocated in proportion to the degree of the problem, which is not the case in Montgomery County.
Whenever County officials mention anti Semitism they include it with Islamophobia even though the number of anti Jewish incidents are 14x greater than the number of Anti Arab / Islamophobic incidents.
According to an analysis by Moderately Moco, 60% of bias incidents in MCPS were anti-Jewish. What has been MCPS response? MCPS recently revised their hate bias reporting protocols, creating a three-tier system which will reduce the number of hate / bias incidents reported to police.
While this will reduce the number of anti-Semitic incidents reported in MCPD’s annual report, it will do nothing to reduce the actual number of anti-Semitic incidents in the schools.
A possible explanation for County officials ignoring what is an epidemic of anti-Semitic hate in the County and its schools may be their anti-racism and social justice ideologies which view Jews as white and therefore oppressors.
Viewing anti Semitism as a problem worthy of public attention and resources does not appear to fit the ideological framework embraced by MCPS, the BOE and the County Council.
