Unprecedented levels of antisemitic incidents in US in final months of 2023 - ADL

US antisemitic incidents have increased 360% in the three months since October 7 compared to the same period in the year prior, totaling 3,283 incidents in only three months, the ADL reported on Wednesday.

This three-month total is higher than the total number of antisemitic incidents tracked in any year in the last decade, except for the 2022 calendar year, where the total number reached 3,697 incidents.

Since October 7, there have been an average of 34 antisemitic incidents per day, putting 2023 on track to be the year with the highest number of antisemitic attacks against Jews since the ADL started tracking in the late 1970s, the organization said.

These incidents include 60 incidents of physical assault, 553 incidents of vandalism, 1,353 incidents of verbal or written harassment, and 1,317 rallies, including antisemitic rhetoric, expressions of support for terrorism against the state of Israel, and/or anti-Zionism.

“The American Jewish community is facing a threat level that’s now unprecedented in modern history. It's shocking that we’ve recorded more antisemitic acts in three months than we usually would in an entire year,” expressed ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. 

Of the total number of incidents, at least 505 occured on college campuses, and another 246 were reported in K-12 schools. At least 628 incidents were reported against Jewish institutions, such as synagogues and community centers. About two-thirds of the incidents could be directly related to the Israel-Hamas war.

The most recent incidents

A high school basketball game in Yonkers, NY, was canceled after antisemitic slurs were yelled at players from a competing team last Thursday.

Last Wednesday, antisemitic postcards were sent to the entire Newburyport, MA city council, as well as the city’s mayor, included antisemitic characters and said that “the Holocaust never happened.” 

On the same day, Chicago Police said 40 to 50 pieces of antisemitic propaganda were found on several cars in the Andersonville neighborhood, and at least six Jewish synagogues in San Diego County were threatened after someone sent a message saying a bomb was hidden in their buildings. These synagogues were among 91 synagogues in California that were threatened that day. 

On New Year's Day, a teenager wearing an IDF sweatshirt was told “free Palestine” and “you’re a whore” at the American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, NJ, and a Portland woman was arrested in Chicago on multiple felony hate crimes and criminal defense charges after swastikas were found on a Jewish school and multiple businesses. 

In late December, two eating clubs at Princeton University were vandalized with pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel graffiti, including the words, “F*** Israel.” Two days earlier, Amazon suspended an employee who slipped a note into a customer’s order that read, “Death to Zionists.”

“In this difficult moment, antisemitism is spreading and mutating in alarming ways. This onslaught of hate includes a dramatic increase in fake bomb threats that disrupt services at synagogues and put communities on edge across the country,” Greenblatt stated.