Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T05:19:51.390Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Homeland Violence and Diaspora Insecurity: An Analysis of Israel and American Jewry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2019

Ayal K. Feinberg*
Affiliation:
Texas A&M University-Commerce
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Ayal K. Feinberg, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Department of Political Science, Texas A&M University-Commerce, Commerce, Texas75429. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Jews and Jewish institutions have suffered the majority of reported religion-motivated hate crimes in the United States for nearly two decades. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in 2014 the 609 reported anti-Semitic incidents made up 59% of all religious bias hate crimes alone. Rates of reported anti-Semitic hate crimes vary considerably over the course of a year. Yet, little scholarly attention has been given to what factors cause reported anti-Semitic hate crimes to fluctuate so substantially in the United States. This paper hypothesizes that violent Israeli military engagements are critical in explaining weekly surges of reported anti-Semitic hate crimes. Utilizing FBI hate crime data from 2001 to 2014 and fixed effects negative binomial regression models, consistent findings underscore that violent Israeli military engagements significantly increase the likelihood of a state reporting anti-Semitic hate crime. Most dramatically, their occurrence increases the likelihood of reported hate crime intimidating individuals or characterized as violent by nearly 35%. This paper underscores that homeland perpetrated violence can directly impact the security of diaspora communities.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adorno, T.W., Levinson, D.J., Frenkel-Brunswik, E., and Sanford, R.N.. 1950. The Authoritarian Personality. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Ahuja, H. 2015. “The Vicious Cycle of Hate: Systemic Flaws in Hate Crime Documentation in the United States and the Impact on Minority Communities.” Cardozo Law Review 37:1867.Google Scholar
Ambrosewicz-Jacobs, J. 2003. Me-Us-Them: Ethnic Prejudices Among Youth and Alternative Methods of Education. The Case of Poland. Krakow, Poland: Towarzystwo Autorow i Wydawcow Prac Naukowych Universitas.Google Scholar
Anti-Defamation League 2001–2014. Annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents.Google Scholar
Anti-Defamation League 2016. ADL Urges More Vigorous Police Data Collection Efforts in Wake of Annual FBI Hate Crimes Report. ADL. http://www.adl.org/press-center/press-releases/hate-crimes/adl-urges-more-vigorous-police-data-collection.html (Accessed on December 11, 2016).Google Scholar
Bard, M. 2008. Chapter 4: AIPAC and US Middle East Policy. In US-Israel Relations in A New Era: Issues and Challenges After 9/11. eds Eytan, Gilboa and Efraim, Inbar. New York, NY: Routledge, 7690.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baser, B., and Swain, A.. 2008. “Diasporas as Peacemakers: Third Party Mediation in Homeland Conflicts.” International Journal on World Peace 25(3):728.Google Scholar
Bergmann, W. 2008. “Anti-Semitic Attitudes in Europe: A Comparative Perspective.” Journal of Social Issues 64(2):343362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergmann, W., and Erb, R.. 2003. Anti-Semitism in the Late 1990s. In Germans or Foreigners? Attitudes Toward Ethnic Minorities in Post-Reunification Germany. eds Richard, Alba, and Schmidt, Peter, Wasmer, Martina. New York, NY: Palgrave, 163186.Google Scholar
Bilewicz, M., Winiewski, M., Kofta, M., and Wójcik, A.. 2013. Harmful ideas, the structure and consequences of anti-semitic beliefs in Poland. Political Psychology 34(6):821839.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blank, T., and Schmidt, P.. 2003. “National Identity in a United Germany: Nationalism or Patriotism? An Empirical Test with Representative Data.” Political Psychology 24(2):289312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradley, M. M., Codispoti, M., Cuthbert, B. N., and Lang, P. J.. 2001. “Emotion and Motivation I: Defensive and Appetitive Reactions in Picture Processing.” Emotion 1(3):276.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brym, R. J. 1996. “Russian Attitudes Towards Jews: An Update.” East European Jewish Affairs 26(1):5564.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
B'Tselem 2016. Fatalities. https://www.btselem.org/statistics (Accessed on December 11, 2016).Google Scholar
Cameron, A. C., and Trivedi, P. K.. 2013. Regression Analysis of Count Data. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chanes 2008. Chapter 13 “America is Different!” In Not Your Father's Antisemitism: Hatred of the Jews in the Twenty-First Century. ed. Berenbaum, M.. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House Publishers, 221.Google Scholar
Cohen, F., Jussim, L., Harber, K. D., and Bhasin, G.. 2009. “Modern Anti-Semitism and Anti-Israeli Attitudes.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 97(2):290.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohn, N.R.C. (1967) 1996. Warrant for genocide: the myth of the Jewish world conspiracy and the Protocols of the elders of Zion. London: Serif.Google Scholar
Cohen, S. M. 2002. “Relationships of American Jews with Israel: What we Know and What We Need to Know.” Contemporary Jewry 23(1):132155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collier, P., and Hoeffler, A.. 2004. Greed and grievance in civil war. Oxford Economic Papers 56(4):563595.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, K.M. and Waldo, C.R.. 1996. “So, what's a hate crime anyway?” young adults' perceptions of hate crimes, victims, and perpetrators. Law and Human Behavior 20(2):113129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DellaPergola, Sergio. 2015. “World Jewish Population, 2015.” In The American Jewish Year Book, 2015, Volume 115 (2015), eds Dashefsky, Arnold and Sheskin, Ira M.. Dordrecht: Springer, 273364.Google Scholar
Dinnerstein, L. 2004. “Is There A new Anti-Semitism in the United States?Society 41(2):5358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FBI 2002. 2001 The National Uniform Crime Report. https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2001 (Accessed on March 25, 2019).Google Scholar
FBI 2016. UCR Publications. FBI. https://ucr.fbi.gov/ucr-publications (Accessed on December 11, 2016).Google Scholar
FBI 2019. UCR Publications. FBI. https://ucr.fbi.gov/ucr-publications (Accessed on December 30, 2019).Google Scholar
Green, D. P., McFalls, L. H., and Smith, J. K.. 2001. “Hate Crime: An Emergent Research Agenda.” Annual Review of Sociology 27(1):479504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hagendoorn, L. 1993. “Ethnic Categorization and Outgroup Exclusion: Cultural Values and Social Stereotypes in the Construction of Ethnic Hierarchies.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 16(1):2651.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holz, K. 2001. Nationaler Antisemitismus. Wissenssoziologie einer Weltanschauung. Hamburg: Hamburger Edition.Google Scholar
Human Rights Watch 2007. Why They Died: Civilian Casualties in Lebanon during the 2006 War. https://www.hrw.org/report/2007/09/05/why-they-died/civilian-casualties-lebanon-during-2006-war (Accessed on November 13th, 2018)Google Scholar
Israel Bonds 2017. Israel Bonds News: U.S. Sales Exceed $1 Billion for the Fifth Consecutive Year. http://www.israelbonds.com/News-Events/News/U-S-Sales-Exceed-$1-Billion.aspx (Accessed on November 13th, 2018)Google Scholar
Jacobs, D., Veny, Y., Callier, L., Herman, B., and Descamps, A.. 2011. “The Impact of the Conflict in Gaza on Antisemitism in Belgium.” Patterns of Prejudice 45(4):341360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaher 2008. Chapter 12 “The Experience of Jews in the United States and Europe Illuminates American Exceptionalism.” In Not Your Father's Antisemitism: Hatred of the Jews in the Twenty-First Century, ed. Berenbaum, M.. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House Publishers, 201210.Google Scholar
Jikeli, G. 2015a. European Muslim Antisemitism: Why Young Urban Males Say They Don't Like Jews. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Jikeli, G. 2015b. Antisemitic Attitudes among Muslims in Europe: A Survey Review. New York, NY: Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy.Google Scholar
Kane, J. G., Craig, S. C., and Wald, K. D.. 2004. “Religion and Presidential Politics in Florida: A List Experiment.” Social Science Quarterly 85(2):281293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, E. H., and Small, C. A.. 2006. “Anti-Israel Sentiment Predicts Anti-Semitism in Europe.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 50(4):548561.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ketkar, S. L., and Ratha, D.. 2010. “Diaspora Bonds: Tapping the Diaspora During Difficult Times.” Journal of International Commerce, Economics and Policy 1(02):251263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kopstein, J. S., and Wittenberg, J. 2018. Intimate Violence: Anti-Jewish Pogroms on the Eve of the Holocaust. Ithica, NY: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krichevsky, L. 1999. Russian Jewish Elites and Anti-Semitism. New York, NY: American Jewish Committee.Google Scholar
Lang, P. J., Bradley, M. M., and Cuthbert, B. N.. 1997. “Motivated Attention: Affect, Activation, and Action.” Attention and Orienting: Sensory and Motivational Processes 97:135.Google Scholar
Library of Congress (LOC) 2018. From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America. A Century of Immigration, 1820–1924. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/haventohome/haven-century.html (Accessed on November 13th, 2018)Google Scholar
Lin, M. H., Kwan, V. S., Cheung, A., and Fiske, S. T.. 2005. “Stereotype Content Model Explains Prejudice for an Envied Outgroup: Scale of Anti-Asian American Stereotypes.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 31(1):3447.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lipstadt, D. E. 2012. Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Long, J. S. 1997. Regression Models for Categorical and Limited Dependent Variables. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Mearsheimer, J. J., and Walt, S. M.. 2006. “The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy.” Middle East Policy 13(3):2987.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parke, C. 2018. Largest pro-Israel group membership swells to 5 million thanks to Evangelicals. Fox News. Available at: https://www.foxnews.com/us/largest-pro-israel-group-membership-swells-to-5-million-thanks-to-evangelicals (Accessed on March 25, 2019).Google Scholar
Patterson, R. 2006. “Transnationalism: Diaspora-Homeland Development.” Social Forces 84(4):18911907.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, B. 2001. In the Name of Hate: Understanding Hate Crimes. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pew Research Center. 2013. A portrait of Jewish Americans. Pew Religion and Life Project. Washington D.C.Google Scholar
Pinderhughes, H. 1993. “The Anatomy of Racially Motivated Violence in New York City: A Case Study of Youth in Southern Brooklyn.” Social Problems 40(4):478492.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richemond-Barak, D., and Feinberg, A.. 2015. “The Irony of the Iron Dome: Intelligent Defense Systems, Law, and Security.” Harvard National Security Journal 7:469.Google Scholar
Shamir, E., and Hecht, E.. 2014. “Gaza 2014: Israel's Attrition vs Hamas’ Exhaustion.” Parameters 44(4):8190.Google Scholar
Shain, Y., and Barth, A.. 2003. “Diasporas and International Relations Theory.” International Organization 57(3):449479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sheffer, G. 1996. “Israel Diaspora Relations in Comparative Perspective.” Israel in Comparative Perspective 5384.Google Scholar
Sheffer, G. 2012. “Loyalty and Criticism in the Relations Between World Jewry and Israel.” Israel Studies 17(2):7785.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherif, M., and University of Oklahoma Institute of Group Relations. 1961. Intergroup Conflict and Cooperation: The Robbers Cave Experiment (Vol. 10). Norman, OK: University Book Exchange, 150198.Google Scholar
Sidanius, J. P., and Pratto, F. (1999). Social dominance: An intergroup theory of social hierarchy and oppression.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stock, J. H., and Watson, M. W.. 2003. Introduction to Econometrics. New York: Prentice Hall, 289290.Google Scholar
Telhami, Shibley. “American Attitudes on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” Brookings.edu. December 07, 2016. (Accessed on January 16, 2019). https://www.brookings.edu/research/american-attitudes-on-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict/.Google Scholar
Tolnay, S. E., and Beck, E. M. 1995. A Festival of Violence: An Analysis of Southern Lynchings, 1882–1930. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
USAID. 2002. US Overseas Loans and Grants (Greenbook). Washington, D.C. USAID. http://qesbd.cdie.org/gbk/index.html (Accessed on November 17th, 2016)Google Scholar
Wistrich, R. S. 2002. Muslim Anti-Semitism: A Clear and Present Danger. New York: American Jewish Committee, 2.Google Scholar
Zieve, T. 2017. 200 French olim arrive aboard summer's largest aliya flight from Europe. The Jerusalem Post, JPost.com. Available at: https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/200-French-olim-arrive-aboard-summers-largest-aliya-flight-from-Europe-499299 (Accessed on January 20, 2018).Google Scholar