US Antisemitic Incidents Surge to Record High

Reports of antisemitic incidents in the US have reached a record high since last year's Hamas attack in Israel, according to a preliminary report from the Anti-Defamation League Center for Extremism (ADL). The group found over10,000 incidents from 7 October 2023 to 24 September of this year, more than a 200% increase compared to the same period last year. It is the highest ever since the ADL began tracking such incidents in 1979.

The report is days after the FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a joint statement warning of possible violent threats amid the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East. Since last October’s Hamas attack on Israel which saw around 1,200 people killed "Jewish Americans haven’t had a single moment of respite,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “Instead, we’ve faced a shocking number of antisemitic threats and experienced calls for more violence against Israelis and Jews everywhere.”

The antisemitism episodes reported by the ADL included about 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 were California, with 1,266 incidents, New York 1,218, New Jersey  830, and Florida 463. The ADL expects its preliminary numbers to increase as it receives more data. The final report for 2024 will be published in the spring of 2025.

Part of the overall increase comes from a change in methodology to include "expressions of opposition to Zionism, as well as support for resistance against Israel or Zionists that could be perceived as supporting terrorism", the ADL said. The ADL's preliminary report counted over 3,000 of incidents during anti-Israel rallies "which featured regular explicit expressions of support for terrorist groups", including Hamas and Hezbollah. Excluding these incidents, the ADL counted 7,523 episodes of antisemitism, a 103% increase from 2022.

The continued violence in the Middle East region has led to a surge in anti-Muslim and Islamophobic incidents across the US. Anti-Muslim incidents were 8,061 in 2023, according to a report from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released this April. This was the highest level since CAIR began tallying almost 30 years ago, with nearly half coming after the 7 October attack.

Read the October 6, 2024 BBC News article.

ADL Alleges Philadelphia School District has not Protected Jewish Students from Antisemitism

 

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has filed a formal complaint to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights alleging that the Philadelphia school district has failed to protect Jewish students from “a virulent wave of antisemitism” that swept through classrooms after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th.

The district, among the largest public school systems in the U.S., has ignored persistent harassment and bullying of Jewish students, some of whom have been forced to drop out, lawyers wrote in the complaint. Some teachers and administrators have spread inflammatory anti-Jewish and anti-Israel messages on social media and even in the classroom without repercussion, the complaint said.

The ADL asked the Office of Civil Rights to order the district: (1) to issue a statement denouncing antisemitism, and (2) to take disciplinary action against teachers and students who engage in discrimination and harassment. The ADL also argued that it was necessary to provide training for faculty, staff, and students and the removal of antisemitic posters, flags, and other material on school property.

A school district spokesperson declined to comment on an active investigation, but said in a statement Tuesday night that the district “seeks to create safe learning spaces while navigating diverse perspectives and how students and staff are experiencing complex current events.” 

A recent congressional hearing on antisemitism in K-12 education, with the leaders of New York City Public Schools, the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, and the Berkeley Unified School District in California all denying they had failed to address hostility toward Jewish people.

 

Read the July 23, 2024 AP news article.