A total of 2,717 anti-Semitic incidents were reported last year, according to an annual audit released by the ADL. That’s an increase of 34% compared to 2,026 incidents reported in 2020, the group said.
The ADL has been tracking similar incidents since 1979 – and previous reports have found that anti-Semitism in America has been on the rise for years. Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of ADL, said Jews in the United States are experiencing the most anti-Semitism they have seen in the past 40 years, and this is a “deeply alarming indicator of major public rifts.”
Most of the incidents included in the report – 1776 – were described as harassment, meaning that one or more Jews or those who consider themselves Jews have been the subject of anti-Semitic insults, stereotypes or conspiracy theories, the report said.
A total of 853 incidents were acts of vandalism and 88 were assaults. There are no deaths related to anti-Semitic violence, the report said.
Although incidents have risen several times a year and for the most part defenders cannot determine motivation, the ADL noted a significant number of incidents reported as fighting between Israel and Hamas, a militant Islamist group that controls Gaza in May. 2021
There were 387 incidents in May 2021, most of them after the “official start of hostilities”, the ADL said.
Several people were attacked in US cities, including a Jew in New York who was beaten and kicked on May 20 while anti-Semitic insults were thrown at him. He was on his way to a pro-Israel demonstration in Times Square.
In Los Angeles, witnesses said people got out of a car in front of a sushi restaurant and began asking indiscriminately who the Jew was. The words “dirty Jew” were heard. Glass bottles were thrown on the table.
“Jews were attacked in the streets for no other reason than the fact that they were Jews, and it seemed as if the working assumption was that if you were a Jew, you were to blame for what was happening in half the world,” Greenblatt said.
Among the places where incidents have been reported are Jewish institutions, including community centers, synagogues, primary schools and colleges. There were 525 incidents in Jewish institutions; 331 were reported in non-Jewish K-12 schools and 155 in colleges and universities, the report said.
Every state and county in Columbia has reported incidents, with the largest numbers in New York, New Jersey, California, Florida, Michigan and Texas, the ADL audit found. Nearly 60% of all incidents were in these six states.
Earlier this year, experts and Jewish advocates called anti-Semitism a “growing crisis for the country” after a series of events, including hostage-taking at a Texas synagogue, vandalism at two synagogues in Chicago and anti-Semitic leaflets. distributed in several countries.
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