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According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), antisemitic incidents in the U.S. more than doubled last year, reaching a new record.
The ADL attributes this sharp increase primarily to a surge in incidents following the October 7th attack by Hamas in Israel.
Last year, antisemitic incidents surged to more than double the previous record set in 2022, with a 140% increase, according to the Jewish civil rights advocacy group. The group documented over 8,800 incidents, including harassment, vandalism, and assault—a significant rise from the nearly 3,700 cases reported in 2022.
The ADL reported that the majority of these incidents, totaling 6,535, involved harassment.
This category encompasses situations where one or more Jewish individuals, or those perceived as Jewish, face antisemitic slurs, stereotypes, or conspiracy theories, occurring both online and in person. Additionally, the ADL tracked 2,177 incidents of vandalism and 161 assaults.
The ADL says this spike represents the highest level recorded since the ADL first started tracking this data in 1979, the group said.
According to a report by Axios, the data encompasses not only hate crimes—which are acts of violence motivated by factors such as race, color, sexuality, religion, or national origin—but also includes verbal harassment and speeches delivered on college campuses.
Axios notes that the ADL has been criticized for counting campus protests against Israel’s actions in Gaza and criticisms of those actions as antisemitic incidents. However, the organization defends its methodology, stating that it considers cases involving the "glorification of terrorist groups and extreme anti-Zionism" in its assessments.
Meanwhile, the Council on American-Islamic Relations reported a record-breaking 8,061 complaints of anti-Muslim incidents nationwide in 2023, the highest number in the organization's 30-year history.
Additionally, during the last three months of 2023 alone, the Muslim civil rights group received 3,578 complaints, marking a staggering 178% increase over the same period in the previous year.