The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reports that there is an increase in Anti-Semitic crimes in the metropolitan area and the state as a whole, but your March 13, article on the subject cites some interesting facts on these statistics.
The total number of incidents include at least 39 reports of swastikas being painted on private property which were perpetrated by two Russian men, one of whom is Jewish, whose motives were not anti- Semitic.
The one violent incident reported was that of a gang of hooligans, who beat up on three helpless Jewish residents on the Q Train. They may, or may not, be prosecuted for hate crimes, but it appears that the cause for this attack could be due almost entirely to severe intoxication.
Anti-Semitism in New York City and New York State is a problem, of course, but the ADL does nobody any good by issuing reports of increasing attacks on Jews and their property using inflated statistics and faulty incomplete data.
Henry Ranz Finkelstein
Sheepshead Bay
