Soc.Culture.Jewish Newsgroups
Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

URL: www.scjfaq.org/faq/01-20.html
[SCJ FAQ Logo]
www.scjfaq.org/faq
< Q1.19 TOC Q1.21 >

Question 1.20:
I've just gotten this antisemitic email. What should I do?

Answer:

First, calm down. They win if they get you upset. The first thing to do is to write a polite letter to the postmaster of the site that sent the email. Emphasis on the word POLITE. It may take investigation to determine the real site. Look at the From: line, the Reply-To: line, the References: line, the Received: lines, and the Message-Id: lines. Often, people like to hide under fake addresses. In your letter, explain that you have received unsolicited hate mail from a user at their site, and request that the administrator discuss proper use of Email with their user. Remember: the user may have left their terminal logged on (and someone came by and sent the message), or someone may have forged their address, so you don't want to be too vindictive on the first mailing. In your message, you should forward the COMPLETE message received, including all headers. For some sites, you may need to send mail to an address other than postmaster. Usually, the site provides an alternate address, such as abuse@... Here are some for the more common internet service providers: abuse@netcom.com

If the mail you received contains specific threats against you, you should consider contacting your site security office, if you have one. In addition to contacting the postmaster, you should also report the incident to Jewish organizations that keep track of antisemitic activites. Such sites include the following:

If you have suggestions for additional sites to add to this list, please contact the FAQ maintainer at maintainer@scjfaq.org.


The FAQ is a collection of documents that is an attempt to answer questions that are continually asked on the soc.culture.jewish family of newsgroups. It was written by cooperating laypeople from the various Judaic movements. You should not make any assumption as to accuracy and/or authoritativeness of the answers provided herein. In all cases, it is always best to consult a competent authority--your local rabbi is a good place to start.

[Got Questions?]Hopefully, the FAQ will provide the answer to your questions. If it doesn't, please drop Email to questions@scjfaq.org. The FAQ maintainer will endeavor to direct your query to an appropriate individual that can answer it. If you would like to be part of the group to which the maintainer directs questions, please drop a note to the FAQ maintainer at maintainer@scjfaq.org.

[Prev ?]
[Sect Index]
[Next ?]
[Prev Sect]
[Global Index]
[Next Sect]
  [Reading Lists]  

© (c) 1993-2002 Daniel P. Faigin <maintainer@scjfaq.org>