Watchdog: Anti-Semitic Acts Spiked in US Since Trump's Election - BARBARA GOLDBERG REUTERS

A visitor places a flower next to the name of a former concentration camp as he visits the Hall of Remembrance at Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial during Holocaust Remembrance Day. (REUTERS/Amir Cohen TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

Watchdog: Anti-Semitic Acts Spiked in US Since Trump's Election

4/25/2017 BARBARA GOLDBERG/REUTERS

Anti-Semitic incidents, from bomb threats and cemetery desecration to assaults and bullying, have surged in the United States since the election of President Donald Trump, and a "heightened political atmosphere" played a role in the rise, the Anti-Defamation League said on Monday.

A sharp increase in the harassment of American Jews, including double the incidents of bullying of schoolchildren and vandalism at non-denominational grade schools, was cited in the ADL's "Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents."

Overall, the number of acts targeting Jews and Jewish institutions rose 34 percent in 2016 to 1,266 in 2016 and jumped 86 percent in the first quarter of 2017, the ADL said.

"The 2016 presidential election and the heightened political atmosphere played a role in the increase," the ADL concluded in its report.

White House spokesman Michael Short said Trump consistently called for an end to anti-Semitism, as recently as Sunday in a speech on Yom HaShoah, Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day.

"We must stamp out prejudice and anti-Semitism everywhere it is found," Trump told the World Jewish Congress Plenary Assembly in New York.

Trump had been criticized for waiting until late February to deliver his first public condemnation of anti-Semitic incidents, previously speaking more generally about his hope of making the nation less "divided."

He later called such incidents "horrible ... and a very sad reminder" of the work needed to root out hate, prejudice and evil.

The majority of anti-Semitic incidents were not carried out by organized extremists and should be seen in the context of a general resurgence of U.S. white supremacist activity, said Oren Segal, director of the League's Center on Extremism.

"Anti-Semitism is not the sole domain of any one group, and needs to be challenged wherever and whenever it arises," Segal said in a statement.

Among 34 election-linked incidents cited by the ADL was graffiti posted in Denver in May 2016 that exhorted readers to "Kill the Jews, Vote Trump."

The League also noted an incident from November when an assailant told a victim in St. Petersburg, Florida: "Trump is going to finish what Hitler started."

Technology that makes it easier to conduct harassment anonymously contributed to the rising numbers, the ADL said.

Michael Ron David Kadar, an 18-year-old Israeli-American, has been charged with making dozens of bomb threats to Jewish community centers in the United States earlier this year. 

© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.

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Amid Revival, At Least 26 Killed In West Virginia Flooding - LAILA KEARNEY AND BARBARA GOLDBERG/REUTERS CHARISMA NEWS

Amid Revival, At Least 26 Killed In West Virginia Flooding

 6/25/2016 LAILA KEARNEY AND BARBARA GOLDBERG/REUTERS  charisma news

Emergency crews take out boats on a flooded I-79 at the Clendenin Exit, after the state was pummeled by up to 10 inches of rain on Thursday, causing rivers and streams to overflow into neighboring communities, in Kanawha County, West Virginia. (West Virginia Department of Transportation/Handout via Reuters)

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At least 26 people in West Virginia have died in the U.S. state's worst flooding in more than a century, and hundreds more have been rescued from swamped homes, officials said on Friday.

READ: This Fiery Revival of Hope in West Virginia-Kentucky Gains Secular Media Attention

The mountainous state was pummeled by up to 10 inches of rain on Thursday, causing rivers and streams to overflow.

"The damage is widespread and devastating," Governor Earl Ray Tomblin said at a news conference. "Our biggest challenge continues to be high waters."

A spokeswoman for the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management put the death toll at 23. The hardest-hit area was Greenbrier County in the southeast of the state, with 15 deaths, she said.

Multiple rivers have risen to dangerous heights, including the Elk River, which reached 32 feet, the highest since 1888, Tomblin said.

Government officials are focusing resources on rescuing those trapped or swept away by the flooding, he said, adding that some 66,000 residences are without power.

The governor declared a state of emergency in 44 of 55 counties and deployed 200 members of the West Virginia National Guard to help rescue efforts on Friday.

Though rivers were expected to crest by Friday night and the rescue and recovery effort is likely to last through the weekend, said Tim Rock, spokesman for the West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

"There have been towns that have been completely surrounded by water," Rock said. "People say there is 8 to 9 feet of water in their house.

"It's at least into the hundreds forced to get emergency shelter," he said. "Even if you can get back into your home, who knows what kind of shape it's in."

West Virginia received one-quarter of its annual rainfall in a single day, National Weather Service meteorologist Frank Pereira said. Rains eased on Friday.

The storms that drenched West Virginia were part of a severe weather system that swept through the U.S. Midwest, triggering tornadoes.

© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. 

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