Reports: Hundreds of antisemitic, anti-Muslim incidents in Florida
Florida saw more than 400 antisemitic incidents in 2023, a dramatic increase over the previous year.
That’s according to data collected and released Tuesday by the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group. It documented 463 Florida incidents last year, compared to 269 in 2022 and 190 in 2021.
Florida, the state with the third largest population, had the fourthmost reported incidents, behind California, New York as well as New Jersey, which had the most per capita.
“Here in Florida, we have not been immune to the wave of antisemitism that has swept our country,” said Sarah Emmons, the group’s Florida regional director, breaking down the state-specific data at a virtual press conference Tuesday. “This is not a position in which you want to rank.”
Palm Beach County experienced the most documented incidents in Florida, 84 – an increase of 320% from last year.
“This was due, when we looked into the data, to a rise in bomb threats that targeted the Palm Beach community, antisemitic propaganda, which proliferated in early 2023, and vandalism,” Emmons said.
The number of antisemitic incidents recorded by the organization nationally far exceeded any other annual tally from the ADL in the past 45 years. The ADL tracked 8,873 incidents of antisemitic assault, harassment and vandalism across the country last year – representing a 140% increase from 2022.
More than 5,000 of them took place following Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, which left 1,200 people dead and hundreds taken hostage. Approximately 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli’s military action in Gaza over the last six months.
While ADL has received criticism in the past from some pro-Palestinian groups accusing it of conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism, the report said it documented “observed, explicitly antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric” at some antiIsrael rallies. Even removing those documented incidents, the report said, antisemitic incidents still rose by 65% compared to last year.
“We’re very fortunate to have had many elected leaders who’ve taken decisive action against antisemitism,” said Bonnie Dawson, associate regional director of ADL Florida. “We continue to call on all community and government leaders to continue to make combating and calling out antisemitism a priority.”
ADL’s report comes only several weeks after one by the Council on American Islamic Relations that documented more than 8,000 complaints of anti-Muslim incidents across the country in 2023 – the highest in its 30-year history. Nearly half of those complaints came in the final three months in the year.
In CAIR’s 2023 report, released earlier this month, the organization reported the “primary force behind this wave of heightened Islamophobia was the escalation of violence in Israel and Palestine in October 2023.” There were 8,061 complaints in 2023, shattering the previous high of just over 6,700 in 2021. Of those, 341 were in Florida.
“Employers, universities, and schools were among the central actors suppressing free speech by those who sought to vocally oppose Israel’s genocidal onslaught on Gaza and call attention to Palestinian human rights,” the report read.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attempted to disband two pro-Palestinian university students groups he accused of providing support to Hamas, and even bragged that he succeeded. But his top higher education official later said that didn’t happen, as the universities found evidence that accusation wasn’t true.
Contributed: USA TODAY. This reporting content is supported by a partnership with Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. USA TODAY Network-Florida First Amendment reporter Douglas Soule can be reached at DSoule@gannett.com.