Civil rights groups in the United States, such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), [1] [2] American Jewish Committee (AJC) [3] and Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), [4] catalog antisemitic incidents, including assaults, harassment, vandalism, violence and threats of violence. [5]
Research has shown a rising level of antisemitism since the 2010s. [6] [7] According to the ADL, there were 8,873 antisemitic incidents across the United States in 2023, a 140% bump from the 3,698 incidents in 2022 and the highest since 1979. Compared to 2022, assaults, vandalism and harassment rose by 45%, 69% and 184% respectively in 2023. [8] The ADL reported a 200% increase in antisemitic incidents from October 7, 2023 to September 24, 2024, vis-à-vis 2022-23. They explained that the increase was due partly to their new methodology, [9] which was disputed by some current and former staff disagreeing with the ADL's methodology, e.g. definition of antisemitism being used. [10]
According to the FBI's 2023 statistics, antisemitic incidents accounted for 68% of all religion-based hate crimes, a 63% bump vis-à-vis 2022. The American Jewish Committee (AJC) commented that it was likely much lower than the actual number as hate crimes had been widely underreported across the country. [11]
Scholars claimed the rise signaled a shift in the nature and prevalence of antisemitism in United States that portended a return to the era of explicit and pervasive antisemitism. [12] [13] [14] According to an August 2024 survey by the Combat Antisemitism Movement, 3.5 million Jews in America have experienced antisemitism since the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel. Of the 1,075 American Jews interviewed, 28% claimed to have heard "Jews care too much about money", 25% heard "Jews control the world", 14% heard "American Jews care more about Israel than about the US", and 13% heard "the Holocaust did not happen" or its severity has been "exaggerated". [15] [16]
Date | Reported type | Dead | Injured | Location | Details |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
5 November 2023 | Involuntary manslaughter | 1 | 0 | Thousand Oaks, California | Jewish American man Paul Kessler was a victim of suspected involuntary manslaughter. The suspect, a Moorpark College professor, hit Kessler's head with a megaphone over disagreement at a rally. Kessler fell with another hit and died of intracerebral hemorrhage. [17] The suspect has pleaded not guilty. [18] Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued a condemnation, [19] while the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles called it an "antisemitic crime". [20] |
April 20, 2022 | Assault | 0 | 1 | Manhattan, New York | Attack on Matt Greenman : Matt Greenman, a Jewish man, was assaulted in an antisemitic hate crime in New York City while watching a rally organized by the group Within Our Lifetime. Saadah Masoud, one of the group's founders, pled guilty to the assault and was sentenced to 18 months in prison in March 2023. [21] [22] [23] |
January 15, 2022 | Hostage taking | 1 | 0 | Colleyville, Texas | Colleyville synagogue hostage crisis : Four people were taken hostage by a British Pakistani at a synagogue. After a standoff with police, the attacker was killed and all hostages escaped unharmed. [24] [25] [26] |
October 31, 2021 | Arson | 0 | 0 | Austin, Texas | Austin synagogue arson : 18-year old Franklin Barrett Sechriest set fire to the main doors of the sanctuary of Congregation Beth Israel, causing more than $250,000 in damage. Sechriest admitted he conducted the attack due to his hatred of Jews and had written, "I set a synagogue on fire," in his personal journal. [27] [28] [29] |
May 20, 2021 | Gang attack | 0 | 1 | Times Square, Manhattan, New York | Attack on Joseph Borgen : During the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis, five men attacked Joseph Borgen, a visibly Jewish man, as he walked through Times Square to a pro-Israel rally. Borgen was punched, kicked, bludgeoned with flag poles and a crutch, and maced and peppered spray, resulting in his hospitalization with a concussion. [30] [31] The attackers also yelled anti-Semitic slurs. [32] [31] Five activists were arrested, found guilty for the attack and received sentences of up to 7 years in prison. [33] [34] [35] |
April–May 2021 | Public school assignment | 0 | 0 | Tenafly, New Jersey | In early April 2021, [36] a fifth-grade teacher at Maugham Elementary School instructed a 5th grade student to dress up as Adolf Hitler and to write a first-person essay from the perspective of the Nazi leader touting his "accomplishments" as a part of a class assignment. [37] [38] After initially defending the teacher and the school's actions, [39] [40] [41] the board of Tenafly Public Schools suspended the teacher and the principal of the school with pay and opened an investigation into the incident. [42] [43] |
December 29, 2019 | Stabbing | 1 | 4 | Monsey, New York | Hasidic rabbi celebrating Hanukkah. He began stabbing the guests, leaving five wounded, two of which were hospitalized in critical condition. [44] [45] [46] 72-year-old-man Josef Neuman, who was in a coma for 59 days, succumbed to his wounds in March 2020. [47] The rabbi's son was also among the injured. [48] | Masked and wielding a large blade, Grafton E. Thomas invaded the home of a
December 10, 2019 | Shooting | 7 | 3 | Jersey City, New Jersey | [49] perpetrated a shooting at a kosher grocery store. Five people were killed, including the two assailants and three civilians whom they attacked. Additionally, the assailants wounded one civilian and two police officers. [50] [51] [52] Anderson had made posts on social media that were anti-police and anti-Semitic. His language was linked to that used by the Black Hebrew Israelite movement. [53] | David Nathaniel Anderson (age 47) and his girlfriend Francine Graham (age 50)
September 19, 2019 | Vandalism | 0 | 0 | Racine, Wisconsin and Hancock, Michigan | 2019 synagogue vandalism: In a campaign the group dubbed "Operation Kristallnacht", members of the neo-Nazi accelerationist paramilitary group The Base vandalized the synagogues Beth Israel Sinai Congregation and Temple Jacob. Three members of The Base were arrested and subsequently found guilty of vandalism. [54] [55] [56] On June 5, 2024, 24-year-old Nathan Weeden was sentenced to 26 months in prison and 3 months of supervised release for the incident. [57] |
April 27, 2019 | Shooting | 1 | 3 | Poway, California | Poway synagogue shooting : John Earnest fired shots inside the synagogue, Chabad of Poway. [58] [59] [60] One woman was killed and three others were injured, including the synagogue's rabbi. [61] [62] In an open letter posted on 8chan shortly before the shooting and signed with Earnest's name, the author blamed Jews for the "meticulously planned genocide of the European race", a white genocide conspiracy theory. [63] [ better source needed ] |
October 27, 2018 | Shooting | 11 | 6 | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | Pittsburgh synagogue shooting : Robert Gregory Bowers killed eleven people and wounded six in a mass shooting at the Tree of Life – Or L'Simcha Congregation. It was the deadliest attack on a local Jewish community in the United States. [64] Bowers had earlier posted anti-Semitic posted on Gab. [65] towards the organization HIAS. Referring to Central American migrant caravans and immigrants, he wrote that "HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in." [66] [67] |
August 11–12, 2017 | Riot | 3 | 49+ | Charlottesville, Virginia | vehicle-ramming attack on an opposing group. [68] [67] | In a far-right rally, attendees were filmed chanting "[the] Jews will not replace us". The rally turned deadly when James Alex Fields Jr., one of the attendees, launched a
April 13, 2014 | Shooting | 3 | 0 | Overland Park, Kansas | 2014 Overland Park shootings : 73-year-old Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., a Klansman and neo-Nazi, [69] perpetrated shootings at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and Village Shalom, a Jewish retirement community. A total of three people were killed in the shootings, two of whom were shot at the community center and one shot at the retirement community. [70] |
June 10, 2009 | Shooting | 1 | 1 | Washington, D.C. | United States Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting : At about 12:50 p.m. on June 10, 2009, 88-year-old white supremacist James Wenneker von Brunn entered the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum with a rifle and fatally shot Museum Special Police Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns. Other security guards returned fire, wounding von Brunn, who was apprehended. [71] [72] [73] [74] |
July 28, 2006 | Shooting | 1 | 6 | Seattle, Washington | Seattle Jewish Federation shooting : at around 4:00 p.m. Naveed Afzal Haq entered the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle building and shot six women, one fatally. [75] Witnesses reported that before Haq began shooting he shouted, "I'm a Muslim American; I'm angry at Israel." [76] |
August 6, 2003 | Stabbing | 1 | 0 | Houston, Texas | Murder of Ariel Sellouk : Mohammed Ali Alayed, who had stopped socializing with his Jewish friend Ariel Sellouk due to becoming a religiously strict Muslim, came back to Alayed's apartment after not seeing each other for a year. Alayed slit Sellouk's throat and nearly decapitated him. Alayed pled guilty and was sentenced to 60 years in prison on April 19, 2004. [77] [78] |
July 4, 2002 | Shooting | 2 | 5 | Los Angeles, California | 2002 Los Angeles International Airport shooting : Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, a 41-year-old Egyptian national, [79] opened fire at the airline ticket counter of El Al, Israel's national airline, at Los Angeles International Airport. Two people were killed and four others were injured before the gunman was fatally shot by an El Al security guard. [80] In September 2002, federal investigators concluded that Hadayet hoped to influence U.S. government policy in favor of the Palestinians, and that the incident was a terrorist act. [81] [82] |
August 10, 1999 | Shooting | 1 | 5 | Los Angeles, California | Los Angeles Jewish Community Center shooting : at around 10:50 a.m. white supremacist Buford O. Furrow, Jr. walked into the lobby of the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills and opened fire with a semi-automatic weapon, firing 70 shots into the complex. The gunfire wounded five people: three children, a teenage counselor, and an office worker. Shortly thereafter, Furrow murdered a mail carrier, fled the state, and finally surrendered to authorities. [83] [84] |
March 1, 1994 | Shooting | 1 | 3 | New York, New York | 1994 Brooklyn Bridge shooting : Rashid Baz shot at a van of 15 Chabad Orthodox Jewish students who were traveling on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, killing one and injuring three others. [85] Baz was arrested and found to be in possession of anti-Jewish literature, a .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol, a stun gun, a bulletproof vest, and two 50-round ammunition magazines. Initially, Baz claimed a traffic dispute led him to commit the shootings, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation initially classified the case as road rage. [86] Witnesses testified that on the day of the shooting Baz had attended "a raging anti-Semitic sermon" by Imam Reda Shata at the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge. [87] |
August 19 – August 21, 1991 | Riot | 1 | New York, New York | Crown Heights riot : a race riot that took place in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York City in which black residents turned against Orthodox Jewish Chabad residents. The riots began on August 19, 1991, after two children of Guyanese immigrants were accidentally struck by one of the cars in the motorcade of Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the leader of Chabad, a Jewish religious movement. One child died and the second was severely injured. In the wake of the fatal accident, some black youths attacked several Jews on the street, seriously injuring several and fatally injuring Yankel Rosenbaum, an Orthodox Jewish student from Australia. [88] | |
April 17, 1986 | Murder | 1 | 0 | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | Neal Rosenblum: was shot and killed because of his Jewish appearance, wearing Haredi attire. The killer was released from prison on October 23, 2017, after serving 15 years of the maximum 20. |
June 18, 1984 | Shooting | 1 | 0 | Denver, Colorado | Members of the white nationalist group The Order murdered Jewish talk radio host Alan Berg in a shooting. [89] |
October 8, 1977 | Shooting | 1 | 2 | St. Louis, Missouri | Guests who attended a bar mitzvah were leaving Brith Sholom Kneseth Israel synagogue when white supremacist Joseph Paul Franklin began shooting at them, killing Gerald Gordon, and wounding Steven Goldman and William Ash. [90] [91] [92] |
November 11, 1957 and October 14, 1958 | Bombing | 0 | 0 | Temple Beth-El, Nashville, Tennessee. Temple Emanuel, Gastonia, North Carolina. Temple Beth-El, Miami, Florida. Jewish Community Center, Nashville, Tennessee. Jewish Community Center, Jacksonville, Florida. Temple Beth-El, Birmingham, Alabama. The Temple, Atlanta, Georgia. Temple Anshei Emeth, Peoria, Illinois. | 1950s synagogue bombings : Five bombings and three attempted bombings of synagogues, seven in the Southern United States and one in the Midwest United States. There were no deaths or injuries. Some of the bombings are unsolved to this day. |
August 17, 1915 | Lynching | 1 | 0 | Marietta, Georgia | Lynching of Leo Frank : Leo Frank was an American factory superintendent who was wrongly convicted in 1913 of the murder of a 13-year-old employee, Mary Phagan, in Atlanta, Georgia. [94] [96] His trial, conviction, and appeals attracted national attention. A mob lynched him on August 17, 1915, in response to the commutation of his death sentence. |
December 17, 1862 | Order | Parts of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky | General Order No. 11 was an order issued by Union Major-General Ulysses S. Grant on December 17, 1862, during the Vicksburg Campaign, that took place during the American Civil War. The order expelled all Jews from Grant's military district, comprising areas of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky. Grant issued the order in an effort to reduce Union military corruption, and stop an illicit trade of Southern cotton, which Grant thought was being run "mostly by Jews and other unprincipled traders." [97] At Holly Springs, Mississippi, Grant's Union Army supply depot, Jewish persons were rounded up and forced to leave the city by foot. On December 20, 1862, three days after Grant's order, Confederate Major General Earl Van Dorn's Confederate Army raided Holly Springs, that prevented many Jewish persons from potential expulsion. Although delayed by Van Dorn's raid, Grant's order was fully implemented at Paducah, Kentucky. Thirty Jewish families were expelled and roughly treated from the city. Jewish community leaders protested, and there was an outcry by members of Congress and the press; President Abraham Lincoln countermanded the General Order on January 4, 1863. Grant claimed during his 1868 Presidential campaign that he had issued the order without prejudice against Jews as a way to address a problem that "certain Jews had caused". [98] |
A number of organizations and academics consider the Nation of Islam (NOI) to be antisemitic. The NOI has engaged in Holocaust denial, and exaggerates the role of Jews in the African slave trade; mainstream historians, such as Saul S. Friedman, have said Jews had a negligible role. The NOI has repeatedly rejected charges made against it as false and politically motivated.
The history of Jews in Sweden can be traced from the 17th century, when their presence is verified in the baptism records of the Stockholm Cathedral. Several Jewish families were baptised into the Lutheran Church, a requirement for permission to settle in Sweden. In 1681, for example, 28 members of the families of Israel Mandel and Moses Jacob were baptised in the Stockholm German Church in the presence of King Charles XI of Sweden, the dowager queen Hedvig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, and several other high state officials.
Historians continue to study and debate the extent of antisemitism in American history and how American antisemitism has similarities and distinctions with its European counterpart.
Antisemitism, the prejudice or discrimination against Jews, has had a long history since the ancient times. While antisemitism had already been prevalent in ancient Greece and Roman Empire, its institutionalization in European Christianity after the destruction of the ancient Jewish cultural center in Jerusalem caused two millennia of segregation, expulsions, persecutions, pogroms, genocides of Jews, which culminated in the 20th-century Holocaust in Nazi German-occupied European states, where 67% European Jews were murdered.
Antisemitism has long existed in the United States. Most Jewish community relations agencies in the United States draw distinctions between antisemitism, which is measured in terms of attitudes and behaviors, and the security and status of American Jews, which are both measured by the occurrence of specific incidents. FBI data shows that in every year since 1991, Jews were the most frequent victims of religiously motivated hate crimes. The number of hate crimes against Jews may be underreported, as in the case for many other targeted groups.
Antisemitic incidents escalated worldwide in frequency and intensity during the Gaza War, and were widely considered to be a wave of reprisal attacks in response to the conflict.
Antisemitism in Canada is the manifestation of hatred, hostility, harm, prejudice or discrimination against the Canadian Jewish people or Judaism as a religious, ethnic or racial group.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), formerly known as the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, is a New York–based international non-governmental organization that was founded to combat antisemitism, bigotry and discrimination. ADL is also known for its pro-Israel advocacy. Its current CEO is Jonathan Greenblatt. ADL headquarters are located in Murray Hill, in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The ADL has 25 regional offices in the United States including a Government Relations Office in Washington, D.C., as well as an office in Israel and staff in Europe. In its 2019 annual information Form 990, ADL reported total revenues of $92 million, the vast majority from contributions and grants. Its total operating revenue is reported at $80.9 million.
Antisemitism in France has become heightened since the late 20th century and into the 21st century. In the early 21st century, most Jews in France, like most Muslims in France, are of North African origin. France has the largest population of Jews in the diaspora after the United States—an estimated 500,000–600,000 persons. Paris has the highest population, followed by Marseille, which has 70,000 Jews. Expressions of antisemitism were seen to rise during the Six-Day War of 1967 and the French anti-Zionist campaign of the 1970s and 1980s. Following the electoral successes achieved by the extreme right-wing National Front and an increasing denial of the Holocaust among some persons in the 1990s, surveys showed an increase in stereotypical antisemitic beliefs among the general French population.
Since World War II, antisemitic prejudice in Italy has seldom taken on aggressive forms.
British Jews have experienced antisemitism - discrimination and persecution as Jews - since a Jewish community was first established in England in 1070. They experienced a series of massacres in the Medieval period, which culminated in their expulsion from England in 1290. They were readmitted by Oliver Cromwell in 1655. By the 1800s, an increasing toleration of religious minorities gradually helped to eliminate legal restrictions on public employment and political representation. However, Jewish financiers were seen by some as holding disproportionate influence on British government policy, particularly concerning the British Empire and foreign affairs.
Evidence for the presence of Jewish communities in the geographical area today covered by Austria can be traced back to the 12th century. In 1848 Jews were granted civil rights and the right to establish an autonomous religious community, but full citizenship rights were given only in 1867. In an atmosphere of economic, religious and social freedom, the Jewish population grew from 6,000 in 1860 to almost 185,000 in 1938. In March 1938, Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany and thousands of Austrians and Austrian Jews who opposed Nazi rule were sent to concentration camps. Of the 65,000 Viennese Jews deported to concentration camps, only about 2,000 survived, while around 800 survived World War II in hiding.
Religious discrimination in the United States is valuing or treating a person or group differently because of what they do or do not believe. Specifically, it occurs when adherents of different religions are treated unequally, either before the law or in institutional settings such as employment or housing.
Belgium is a European country with a Jewish population of approximately 35,000 out of a total population of about 11.4 million. It is among the countries experiencing an increase in both antisemitic attitudes and in physical attacks on Jews.
Antisemitism is a growing problem in 21st-century Germany.
The Pittsburgh synagogue shooting was an antisemitic terrorist attack that took place at the Tree of Life – Or L'Simcha Congregation synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The congregation, along with New Light Congregation and Congregation Dor Hadash, which also worshipped in the building, was attacked during Shabbat morning services on October 27, 2018. The perpetrator killed eleven people and wounded six, including several Holocaust survivors. It has so far been the deadliest attack on a local Jewish community in American history, seconded by the 2019 Jersey City shooting committed by a Black Hebrew Israelite (BHI).
Evan R. Bernstein is an American public figure and community leader, known for his work with Jewish NGOs. He worked for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) from 2013 and became the inaugural CEO and National Director of Community Security Service (CSS) in May 2020. Since November 2023, Bernstein has been the vice president of community relations at the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA).
The Goyim Defense League (GDL) is an American neo-Nazi, reactionary and antisemitic hate group and conspiracy theory network of individuals who are active on social media websites and operate an online video platform called GoyimTV. The GDL also performs banner drops, papering neighborhoods with flyers, and other stunts to harass Jews. The GDL emerged in 2018 and is led by the antisemitic provocateur Jon Minadeo II. The GDL is currently tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.
Following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war, there has been a surge of antisemitism around the world. Israeli Immigration Minister Ofir Sofer has stated that Israel is bracing to expect a large wave of Jews migrating to Israel due to the rising antisemitism around the world.
Each year, ADL tracks incidents of antisemitic harassment, vandalism and assault in the United States. Since 1979 we have published this information in an annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents.
Take an in-depth look at antisemitic incidents in the U.S. and compare annual trends.
Throughout 2023, antisemitism persisted as a serious threat to Jewish communities. The year was marked both by an increase in antisemitic harassment, vandalism and violence as well as by concerted efforts by the federal government and community organizations to confront these threats. The number of active antisemitic hate groups remained relatively stagnant compared to the previous year; their activities, however, continued to affect communities across the country.
With the FBI reporting that hate crimes against Jews increased a staggering 63% year over year, from 1,124 in 2022 to 1,832 in 2023, AJC recognizes that the actual numbers of incidents is likely greater, as hate crimes are widely underreported across the country. Despite Jews only accounting for 2% of the U.S. population, the community was the target of 68% of religiously motivated hate crimes committed in 2023.
Although Jews only make up around 2 percent of the U.S. population, reported single-bias anti-Jewish hate crimes comprised 15 percent of all hate crimes and 68 percent of all reported religion-based hate crimes in 2023, which is consistent with patterns from prior years.
Antisemitic incidents were 15% of all hate crimes in 2023, and 68% of all religion-based hate crimes, according to the data — even though Jews only make up some 2% of the US population.
The FBI reported 1,832 anti-Jewish hate crimes in 2023, the second-largest category of hate crimes reported last year
A total of 10,000 antisemitic incidents were recorded in the US since October 7 - the highest number of incidents in the ADL's history.
Saadah Masoud wanted to punish supporters of Israel, prosecutors said. His assaults came amid a rising wave of antisemitism in the United States.
The international pro bono legal group continues to call for an investigation into Masoud's co-conspirators.