BY CLARE HOWARD

More than 200 people filled the sanctuary at Temple Sholom in Galesburg recently to hear the outreach director from Southern Poverty Law Center talk about the uptick in hate crime since the presidential election, and she recommended what people can do to combat the trend.

There was standing-room-only as Lecia Brooks said more than 1,000 hate crimes were reported within 10 days in early November following the election.

“The swastika has reappeared in ways we have not seen before,” she said.

Her organization tallied hate crimes and found most were committed against immigrants, followed by Black, Muslim and LGBT groups. The swastika was the next leading hate crime and is used in antisemitism and as a symbol of white supremacy.

Lecia Brooks, outreach director at the Southern Poverty Law Center, is interviewed by a television news crew before her presentation at Temple Sholom in Galesburg recently.

She said teachers in kindergarten through grade 12 have reported they have never seen such a sharp rise in expressions and acts of hate. Children are repeating the rhetoric from the campaign and using it as racial slurs.

“This was such an ugly campaign,” Brooks said, noting that over 50 Jewish community centers across the country in 20 states and Canada have received bomb threats.

“Just yesterday, there were 11 bomb threats to Jewish community centers, and a Jewish cemetery was desecrated,” she said.

Islamophobia is higher today than it was immediately after 9-11, and the numbers of anti-Muslim hate groups have increased from 34 in 2015 to 101 in 2016.

Individuals and communities can fight back, Brooks said, by hosting and attending educational forums, holding community rallies, supporting tolerance and taking individual action.

“Be an upstander not a bystander,” she said. “If you witness harassment, be prepared to say something.”

She urged people to get out their cell phones and record the incident. If a gun is not being used, then move forward and stand with the person being victimized.

SPLC has identified 917 hate groups in the United States. There are groups in Bloomington, Canton, Springfield, Rockford and outside of Peoria. To find the SPLC map of hate groups, go to https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map.