PARIS -- French authorities say they are trying to identify and apprehend those responsible for a recent spate of anti-Semitic and anti-gay graffiti messages that have appeared on buildings in the southern city of Toulouse.

When I was a boy of 13, my grandmother took me to my first civil-rights demonstration to teach me about racism and social justice. She knew those issues well: Our family fled from the pogroms in Russia, others in our family perished in the Holocaust and Grandmom even fought for women’s rights.

Anti-Semitic vandalism, slurs, harassment and assaults are all on the rise in Florida, according to a new report by the Anti-Defamation League.