The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Wednesday released statistics demonstrating 3,697 antisemitic incidents in the US during 2022, a 36 percent increase from the 2,717 incidents recorded in 2021.
This is the third year in five years that the number of antisemitic incidents has been higher than the year previous, save for a slight dip in 2020 during stay-at-home orders for COVID. 2022 saw an average of seven antisemitic incidences a day. This report also marks an all-time high number of total incidents since the ADL began tracking this data in 1979.
Harassment of Jews jumped 29 percent, antisemitic vandalism increased 51 percent, and antisemitic assaults increased 26 percent. 53 percent of these assaults were targeted towards Orthodox Jews. The ADL reports that the significant surges in antisemitic activity do not come only from one source and attributes the spikes to things like the increase in organized white supremacist propaganda, claimed antizionist activity which targets American Jews and rapper Kanye West’s recent antisemitic claims about Jews.
Importantly, these increased events occur in nearly all sectors of Jewish life. Institutions like Jewish middle and high schools, college campuses, Jewish Community Centers and Synagogues have all been targeted. Neighborhoods with large Jewish populations have also seen this increase first hand, with incidents reported in all 50 states.
The ADL’s report is in line with the latest Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) hate crime reports, indicating that 49 percent of religiously motivated hate crimes in 2021 were towards Jews, despite Jews making up only 2 percent of the American population.