Karen Hochhauser is the executive director of the Jewish Federation of Dutchess County. She's been all across the world and lived in Asia for over a decade.

"You're in a foreign country, but yet, when you meet somebody who is Jewish, you have this automatic connection and bond," said Hochhauser.

But her roots started in the Hudson Valley when her grandfather moved to Poughkeepsie in 1941. Hochhauser says she has not experienced much anti-Semitism abroad, but in fact, the most hate she's felt is in America, the place she calls home.

"You are on guard, you have to be. You have to be aware," Hochhauser said. "In the past, it was you just have to be cognizant of your environment, [but] now there's a whole different level that you need to be conscious of."

She says it's important for people to realize that, in light of recent Jewish attacks in Jersey City, N.J., and Rockland County, anti-Semitism has many forms.

"And it's not the large things only, it's the small things, whether it's somebody being called negative words, one incident where somebody was locked into a freezer and said something about 'now you're in a gas chamber' type of comment, and that's all locally," Hochhauser said.

She says anti-Semitism is nothing new, and that hate only makes the Jewish people stronger. 

"So whether it was the pogroms in Russia, whether it was the Spanish Inquisition, whether it was the Holocaust, there has always been always historically some reason people use us as the target, as the scapegoat," Hochhauser said.

She says the solution is young people, and growing support from government officials. 

"And the reason being is there needs to be a very verbal very loud announcement that hate has no home here," Hochhauser said.

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