Anti-Semitic incidents surged in U.S. last year
A record number of antiSemitic incidents were reported in the United States last year, more than in any year since the Anti-Defamation League began tracking them four decades ago, the civil rights group said Tuesday.
In its annual audit, the ADL identified 2,107 anti-Semitic incidents in 2019, an increase of 12 percent from the 1,879 that were recorded in 2018.The surge in reports, grouped in the categories of assault, harassment and vandalism, came as Jewish communities in Monsey, N.Y.; Jersey City, N.J.; and Poway, Calif., were the targets of deadly attacks last year.
“This was a year of unprecedented anti-Semitic activity, a time when many Jewish communities across the country had direct encounters with hate,” the ADL’s chief executive, Jonathan Greenblatt, said in a statement.
“This contributed to a rising climate of anxiety and fear in our communities,” he said. “We are committed to fighting back against this rising tide of hate and will double down on our work with elected leaders, schools and communities to end the cycle of hatred.”
Among the report’s key findings:
• There were 1,127 reports of harassment, an increase of 6 percent from 2018. The group described these as cases “where one or more Jews reported feeling harassed” by anti-Semitic language or actions.
• There were 919 acts of vandalism, an increase of 19 percent from the previous year. The group said these were cases in which property was damaged “in a manner that harmed or intimidated Jews,” such as with swastikas.
• There were 61 cases of assault, a 56 percent increase from 2018. These were cases in which people were physically threatened with violence, such as with guns or knives, “accompanied by evidence of anti-Semitic animus,” the ADL said. The assaults involved 95 victims, five of whom died.
Incidents were reported in every state except Alaska and Hawaii. The states with the most cases were New York, with 430; New Jersey, with 345; California, with 330; Massachusetts, with 114; and Pennsylvania, with 109. Those states accounted for nearly 45 percent of the total number of reported incidents.
Last year, a rash of violent anti-Semitic attacks gripped the New York area. A 72year-old Hasidic rabbi was one of five people who were injured in a machete attack during a Hanukkah celebration at a home in Monsey in December. He died from his injuries in March.
Other attacks included a shootout in December in which five people were killed inside a kosher market in Jersey City. An Orthodox Jewish man was also stabbed outside a synagogue in Ramapo, N.Y., in November. For its report, the ADL included criminal and noncriminal acts of harassment and intimidation, “including distribution of hate propaganda, threats and slurs.” The group said it gathered the data from victims, law enforcement and community leaders.