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| Dear John, |
I am writing to you with a critical request: help combat rising hate in America by joining American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council in urging Congress to pass the Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act, a bipartisan bill that was just reintroduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Go to AJC.org/NOHATE to take action.
We are seeing an alarming rise in hate crimes in our country, in part due to xenophobic and antisemitic COVID conspiracy theories:
- Anti-Asian hate has increased 150% since March of 2020, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.
- American Jews and Muslims are the top two targets of hate crimes based on religious bias, according to the FBI’s 2019 hate crimes report.
- African American victims account for nearly half of all race-based hate crimes.
As alarming as these statistics are, we know the reality is much worse. The severe underreporting of hate crimes predates the pandemic.
Over 71 cities with populations of over 100,000 reported zero hate crimes in 2019. A study the same year by the bipartisan U.S. Commission on Civil Rights identified “massive underreporting” of hate crimes, resulting in “far-reaching deleterious effects in terms of investigations and also for the prevention efforts for all.” Since we don’t understand the extent of the problem we are hampered in our ability to address it.
This is unacceptable.
TAKE ACTION NOW and urge Congress to pass the Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act, named for two victims who, despite their killers being convicted of hate crimes, never were included in an FBI report. |
This crucial legislation provides much-needed funds to train local law enforcement about hate crimes, create reporting hotlines, and increase resources for affected communities.
We must act now to strengthen our country’s response to hate crimes.
Will you join us?
Sincerely,
Julie Rayman
AJC Senior Director, Policy and Political Affairs |
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