Michael Silver says he began to observe antisemitic behavior almost immediately after moving to Baltimore five years ago.

He said he hasn’t encountered violence personally, but remembered hearing a conversation in a Station North bar where college students were trivializing the Holocaust.

“They were saying there was too much emphasis put on it,” the 33-year-old Pigtown resident recalled. “Two weeks ago, I had a manager [at work] say, ‘Jews are really cheap.’ … It is a big deal, and it is a racial thing. I’ve had a lot of people say things that are bombastic and incendiary.”

Maryland saw 109 reported incidents of antisemitism in 2022, a 98% increase from 2021, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents. There were 55 incidents in 2021, 47 in 2020 and 20 in 2019.

“I’m very hurt. I don’t know the best way to solve this. When I hear these numbers, I feel reactionary. I feel angry and defensive. Those are all the exact opposite of what we need,” said Silver, whose grandfather survived the concentration camps at Auschwitz during World War II.

This story continues. Read the rest at The Baltimore Banner:  Antisemitic incidents nearly double in Maryland in 2022 over previous year, audit finds

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