A preliminary report from the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism (ADL) shows that reports of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States have hit a record high since Hamas attacked Israel last year.
The organization found more than 10,000 incidents occurred between October 7, 2023, and September 24 this year, an increase of more than 200% compared to the same period last year.
This is the highest level since the ADL began tracking such incidents in 1979.
The report comes just days after the FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a joint statement warning of possible threats of violence amid ongoing unrest in the Middle East.
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement that “Jewish Americans have not had a moment of respite” since Hamas attacked Israel last October, killing about 1,200 people.
“Instead, we face an alarming number of anti-Semitic threats and experience calls for more violence against Israelis and Jews around the world.”
The more than 10,000 anti-Semitic incidents reported by the ADL included approximately 8,015 incidents of verbal or written harassment, 1,840 incidents of vandalism and 150 incidents of physical assault.
The states with the highest number of recorded cases in the report were California with 1,266 incidents, New York with 1,218 incidents, New Jersey with 830 incidents and Florida with 463 incidents.
The ADL said it expects the preliminary numbers to increase as more data is received. The final 2024 report will be released in spring 2025.
The Anti-Defamation League said part of the overall growth is due to changes in approach, including “expressions of opposition to Zionism and support for resistance to Israel or Zionists that may be viewed as supporting terrorism.”
The ADL’s preliminary report counted more than 3,000 incidents during anti-Israel rallies “in which support for terrorist groups was often expressed explicitly,” including Hamas and Hezbollah.
Excluding these incidents, the ADL counted 7,523 anti-Semitic incidents, a 103% increase from 2022.
After the October 7 attack, Israel launched a large-scale military operation in the Gaza corridor with the stated goal of wiping out Hamas.
Since then, 41,870 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and more than 97,000 injured, the majority of them women and children, the Hamas health ministry said.
The war sparked a wave of demonstrations across the United States, especially on college campuses, with many protesting the mounting humanitarian toll.
In Lebanon, More than 1,000 people were killed As many as one million people may have been displaced since Israel launched its attack on Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Ongoing violence in the region has led to a surge in anti-Muslim and Islamophobic incidents across the United States.
According to a report released in April by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), anti-Muslim incidents reached 8,061 in 2023. The report marked the highest level since CAIR began keeping statistics nearly 30 years ago, nearly half of which was released after the Oct. 7 attacks.
