EXTREMISMJewish Community Faces Unprecedentedly High Threat Environment
Jewish communities in the U.S. and across the world are facing and environment of unprecedentedly high threats. Between July 2024 and May 2025, law enforcement has documented 15 terrorist plots or attacks targeting Jews, Zionists or Jewish institutions in the U.S.
The May 21, 2025, murders of Israeli Embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim as they walked out of an event for young Jewish professionals and diplomats at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington D.C., highlight a concerning environment of unprecedentedly high threats facing Jewish communities in the U.S. and across the world.
Since January 2020, the ADL Center on Extremism has documented 15 terrorist plots or attacks targeting Jews, Zionists or Jewish institutions in the U.S. Notably, eight of those incidents occurred within just the past 11 months (July 2024 to May 2025), marking a sharp increase compared to the seven incidents recorded over the previous 54 months (January 2020 to June 2024).
Plots and Attacks, 2021-2025
May 21, 2025, Washington D.C.: Elias Rodriguez allegedly shot and killed two Israeli embassy staff members as they were leaving an AJC (American Jewish Committee) Young Diplomats event at the Capital Jewish Museum. As he was taken into custody, Rodriguez shouted, “Free, free Palestine.”
April 13, 2025, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Cody Balmer allegedly broke into Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, set multiple fires, then called 911 and referred to Shapiro as a “monster” and blamed him for Palestinian deaths in the Israel-Hamas war.
December 28, 2024. Gainesville, Florida: The FBI arrested Forrest Pemberton of Gainesville, Florida, and subsequently charged him in a plot to travel to the south Florida offices of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel advocacy group, with the intent of harming people there, possibly in a suicide attack.
December 17, 2024. Fairfax, Virginia: FBI agents arrested an Egyptian citizen and George Mason University student, Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan, and charged him with plotting to perpetrate a mass casualty attack at the Israeli consulate in New York City.
October 26, 2024, Chicago, Illinois: Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi shot a Jewish man walking to his synagogue and then opened fire on responding police and paramedics. Local authorities later filed felony hate crime and terrorism charges against Abdallahi, saying that evidence from his phone indicated that the suspect planned the shooting and intentionally sought to target Jews. Abdallah was found dead of apparent suicide in his jail cell in November 2024.
