Incident to be Investigated, Possible Hate Crime in Omaha

by addie costello

An unknown man placed stickers promoting neo-Nazism outside of Temple Israel, a Jewish synagogue serving 642 Omaha families, on April 15. The incident will be “investigated as a hate crime” according to an official with the Omaha Police Department.

Video surveillance outside of the temple captured a man walking his dog and placing two large stickers on poles outside of the synagogue. This promotion of neo-Nazi groups follows a local and national rise in hate crimes that has been steadily rising since 2014, according to usafacts.org. Hate crimes targeting Jewish people increased from 835 in 2018 to 953 in 2019.

Temple Israel is a part of Omaha’s Tri-Faith Initiative. The synagogue resides in West Omaha alongside a Christian church, a Muslim mosque, and an interfaith center promoting relationships between people of all different faiths on a shared campus.

Gary Nachman, the regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, said that the organization is working to combat the rise in local hate crimes without elevating individual hateful incidents like what happened on Thursday. Nachaman said that even negative attention is still attention. 

People wanting to take action against hate crimes should report incidents they witness to law enforcement and organizations like the ADL that track trends on hate crimes, said Nachman. He also added that people should educate themselves on various types of hate crimes and hate symbols so they can act as an ally to groups receiving attacks of hate online and in person. 

These statistics, provided by USAFacts, reflect total incidents, although a single hate crime can have multiple victims and constitute various legal offenses by multiple people.