ADL says antisemitic incidents more than doubled last year, driven by post-Oct. 7 surge

• Published date: 16 April 2024
• Author: LUKE TRESS/JTA
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The ADL and other Jewish organizations, in addition to law enforcement agencies, have reported a spike in antisemitism after Oct. 7, as protests against Israel have taken place across the country

But the ADL report found that antisemitic incidents were rising prior to Oct. 7, and that even after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, nearly half of the reported incidents did not directly involve Israel.

The report, published Tuesday, tabulated a total of 8,873 incidents over the course of 2023. Of those, more than half — 5,204 — occurred after Oct. 7.

By contrast, the group tallied 3,697 incidents over all of 2022. At the time, that was a record in the more than 40 years since the ADL began issuing the reports. It has since been shattered.

Last year's tally includes increases in the number of antisemitic assaults (161), acts of vandalism (2,177) and harassment (6,535). The number of swastikas reported, 1,117, represents a 41% increase from 2022. Ten percent of all anti-Jewish incidents, or 922, happened on college campuses.

Part of the increase in recent years is due to more robust reporting methods, such as including incidents reported by partner organizations, which started in 2021. Tuesday's report also includes an update in the ADL's methodology that classifies certain anti-Israel activities as antisemitic, which accounts for 15% of the annual total.

The ADL has come under fire from left-wing activists for portraying pro-Palestinian activism as antisemitism, a charge the group denies. But even without its methodology update, according to the report, 2023 still would have seen more than 7,000 acts of antisemitism, far more than any previous year. And the report says that even if all Israel-related incidents were removed, antisemitism still would have risen 65%.

"Antisemitism is nothing short of a national emergency, a five-alarm fire that is still raging across the country and in our local communities and campuses," the CEO of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, said in a statement. "Jewish Americans are being targeted for who they are at school, at work, on the street, in Jewish institutions and even at home. This crisis demands immediate action from every sector of society and every state in the union."

To combat the rise in hate, the ADL is calling on governors to implement strategies to counter antisemitism in state-level programs analogous to the White House's National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism released last year.

The report shows that even before...