EXTREMISMU.S. Antisemitic Incidents Soared 140 Percent in 2023 – Breaking All Previous Records
Massive spike Post-Oct. 7 recorded; campus incidents tripled; bomb threats targeting Jewish institutions up 10 times.
Driven in part by a massive spike in antisemitic reactions to the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel and the ongoing war in Gaza, the U.S. Jewish community last year experienced an unprecedented increase in antisemitic incidents, far exceeding any other annual tally in the past 45 years.
ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today released the final statistics for antisemitic incidents in 2023, reporting a total of 8,873 incidents of assault, harassment, and vandalism across the country. The total represents a 140-percent increase from 2022 – already a record-setting year – and the highest level recorded since ADL started tracking this data in 1979.
The ADL Audit of Antisemitic Incidents also recorded a dramatic spike of 5,204 antisemitic acts post-Oct. 7, reflecting global trends as Jewish communities worldwide faced heightened tensions and hatred in response to the massacre and conflict – on campuses, in the public square and at anti-Israel demonstrations. With those incidents, the 12-month total for 2023 surpassed the totals of all the past three years combined and averaged about 24 anti-Jewish incidents in the U.S. per day.
In response to the new findings, ADL today called on governor’s offices across the country to create their own state-level versions of the White House’s landmark National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, the first of its kind, comprehensive effort to address antisemitism from across the political spectrum.
“Antisemitism is nothing short of a national emergency, a five-alarm fire that is still raging across the country and in our local communities and campuses,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO. “Jewish Americans are being targeted for who they are at school, at work, on the street, in Jewish institutions and even at home. This crisis demands immediate action from every sector of society and every state in the union. We need every governor to develop and put in place a comprehensive strategy to fight antisemitism, just as the administration has done at the national level.”
According to the ADL Center on Extremism, which leads Audit research and data collection, incidents increased in all three categories: Incidents of harassment surged by 184 percent compared to 2022; acts of vandalism rose 69 percent; and physical assaults jumped 45 percent.
