ADL report: Antisemitic incidents spiked in 2023
Driven in part by reactions to the Israel-Hamas war, 2023 saw by far the highest number of antisemitic incidents against Jewish Americans recorded by the Anti-Defamation League since the Jewish civil rights group began tracking attacks in 1979.
The ADL tracked 8,873 incidents of antisemitic assault, harassment and vandalism across the United States last year – a 140% increase from 2022. Incidents have risen consistently since 2014.
An American Jewish Committee report released earlier this year said that 78% of Jewish people in the United States said they felt less safe following the Oct. 7 attack.
“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,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “This crisis demands immediate action from every sector of society and every state in the union.”
Of the incidents, 59% took place in roughly the last quarter of the year, following Hamas' attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that left 1,200 people dead and hundreds taken hostage.
For the first time, antisemitic incidents referencing Israel or Zionism constituted the majority of the painful moments recorded by the group. Such events accounted for 59% of the overall total in October and 60% in November, according to the audit. In total, 36% of incidents the ADL tracked last year directly related to Israel or Zionism. Only 7% of the 2022 incidents included similar references.
Approximately 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli's military response in the last six months. The Council on American-Islamic Relations warned earlier this year that it received 8,061 complaints of Islamophobia in 2023, nearly half of which came in the last three months of the year.
The ADL documented 1,009 bomb threats against Jewish institutions in 2023, another dramatic increase from the 2022 total of 91.
In December alone, bomb threats targeted 747 synagogues.
The audit also highlighted “swatting” – individuals who allegedly contacted law enforcement and crisis hotlines with false claims. The ADL recorded 104 swatting incidents in 2023, with 66 occurring at Jewish institutions last summer.
ADL Center on Extremism Vice President Oren Segal said its documentation aimed to prevent further activity aiming to terrorize the American Jewish community. “Our tracking of a swatting network enabled ADL to offer crucial intelligence to law enforcement, ensuring accountability for perpetrators, while also preemptively alerting targeted communities and mitigating potential harm,” Segal said in a statement.
The ADL's audit revealed that while antisemitic incidents increased in multiple settings in 2023, schools experienced a drastic spike.
Occurrences at K-12 schools increased by 135%, according to the report. Antisemitic incidents on college campuses increased by 321%, with most happening after Oct. 7.