Jews in America faced more than 25 antisemitic incidents per day last year — or more than one per hour — with most of the hatred for the first time related to opposition to Israel, a startling new report released Tuesday by the Anti-Defamation League found.
There were a record-breaking 9,354 incidents of antisemitic assault, harassment and vandalism across the country in 2024, according to ADL’s annual audit.
The total represents a 5% increase from 2023, a 344% increase over the past five years, an 893% increase over the past 10 years and the highest level recorded since ADL started tracking this data in 1979.
The 12-month total for 2024 averaged more than 25 targeted anti-Jewish incidents in the US per day, more than one an hour.
“This horrifying level of antisemitism should never be accepted and yet, as our data shows, it has become a persistent and grim reality for American Jewish communities,” said ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.
“Jewish Americans continue to be harassed, assaulted and targeted for who they are on a daily basis and everywhere they go.
“But let’s be clear: we will remain proud of our Jewish culture, religion and identities, and we will not be intimidated by bigots.”
It’s the first time that discrimination related to Israel or Zionism made up a majority of all incidents — 58% of the total, amid anti-Israel campus and street protests.
Campus and street protests skyrocketed during the war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’s invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Hate spews in New York
States with the largest Jewish populations reported the highest number of incidents.
New York led the country with 1,437 incidents, followed by California with 1,344 and New Jersey with 719 reports of Jew hatred.
But even states with small Jewish populations reported big jumps in reported antisemitism — including Colorado and Virginia.
ADL said opposition to Israel’s policy does not equate to antisemitism — but often the protests spew Jew hatred, the audit said.
College campuses — including Columbia and Cornell — became hotbeds of anti-Israel and antisemitic activity, with 1,694 or an 84% increase in incidents, comprising nearly one in five of all reported cases nationwide.
“Protesters displayed ‘justification or glorification of antisemitic violence’ by framing terror attacks against Israel and the Jewish community as justified ‘resistance,’” the ADL said.
Some demonstrators “openly displayed” their support for US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and even “glorified” their leaders “by wearing Hamas headbands and waving Hezbollah and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) flags,” the report added.
“Many protests featured rhetoric widely interpreted as a call to destroy Israel through slogans like ‘Death to Israel’ or ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ alongside rhetoric explicitly marginalizing Jews with a connection to Israel, such as, ‘We don’t want no Zionists here,’” the ADL said.
The organization also said classic “antisemitic tropes” were also often displayed by protesters, including references to “blood libel, conspiracy theories about ‘Zionist media’ manipulation and equating swastikas with Stars of David — a direct attack on Jewish religious symbols.”
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) were the two most active organizers of protests where antisemitic incidents occurred, the report said.
At an anti-Israel encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), protesters displayed signs that included: “Death 2 Zionism,” “Israelis are native 2 hell” and “Long live the intifada.”
At the University of California, Berkeley, agitators occupied and vandalized a condemned building and left behind messages including: “Zionism is Nazism,” “For the martyrs,” “Intifada” and multiple instances of imagery equating a Star of David with a swastika.
Other findings from ADL’s Audit of Antisemitic Incidents 2024
- There were 196 assaults, a 21% increase from 2023. Orthodox Jews, identified by their religious garb, accounted for nearly a third of the victims.
- 2,606 incidents of vandalism, a 20% jump from 2023. Swastikas were present in nearly 40% of the cases
- Harassment: 6,552 incidents, up from 6,535 incidents recorded in 2023. This category includes antisemitic slurs and bomb threats.
The ADL audit includes both criminal and non-criminal acts of harassment, vandalism and assault against individuals and groups as reported by victims, law enforcement, the media and other partner organizations and evaluated by its experts.
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