ADL records more than 3,200 antisemitic incidents since start of Israel-Hamas war

By Nicole Chavez, CNN

(CNN) — Antisemitism has “skyrocketed” across the United States in the three months since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, according to new data released Wednesday by the Anti-Defamation League.

The ADL has tracked a total of 3,283 antisemitic incidents between October 7 and January 7, the group said.

This marks a 361% increase in reported antisemitic incidents when compared to the 712 incidents the organization said were reported during the same period the year before.

However, since October 7, the ADL added a category to count rallies that they say have included “antisemitic rhetoric, expressions of support for terrorism against the state of Israel and/or anti-Zionism.” It’s unclear whether rallies were tracked last year.

This new category has helped to account for the increase in antisemitic incidents over the last three months, with the ADL tracking 1,317 such incidents.

Without those numbers, the US has seen a 176% increase in antisemitic incidents of harassment, vandalism and physical attacks compared to the same three-month period last year.

The organization, which has tracked hate incidents against Jewish people since the 1970s, said the number of incidents reported in the last three months are higher than those tracked “in any year in the last decade” except for 2022. That year, there were 3,697 incidents, the ADL said, nearly triple the number from 2013.

While the final totals for 2023 have not yet tabulated, the ADL says it expects the number of antisemitic incidents to surpass record totals for 2022, which were already at a historic high.

“The American Jewish community is facing a threat level that’s now unprecedented in modern history,” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL, said in a news release.  “It’s shocking that we’ve recorded more antisemitic acts in three months than we usually would in an entire year.”

About 40% or 1,353 antisemitic incidents involved verbal or written harassment, the ADL said. There were 553 incidents involving vandalism and 60 were physical assaults, the ADL said.

Greenblatt said there has also been a “dramatic increase in fake bomb threats that disrupt services at synagogues and put communities on edge across the country.”

More than 400 Jewish facilities in the US received false bomb threats over email between December 16-18, CNN previously reported, citing the ADL.

The new data collected by the ADL between October 7 and January 7 lists at least 628 incidents involving Jewish institutions including synagogues and community centers.

Hundreds of incidents were also reported in schools with at least 505 at college campuses and 246 in K-12 schools, the ADL said.

Clarification: This story has been updated to include additional information about how the ADL tracks incidents of antisemitism since the start of the Israel-Hamas War.

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