The number of antisemitic incidents in the U.S. has surged over 200 percent this past year, as Israel’s war against Hamas sparked an outpouring of Jewish hatred on college campuses and elsewhere.
From October 7, 2023, to September 24, 2024, the U.S. saw more than 10,000 antisemitic incidents, an increase of over 200 percent from the same period a year before, which saw 3,325 incidents, according to preliminary data released by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a left-wing antisemitism watchdog.
“Today, we mourn the victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel, marking one year since the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. From that day on, Jewish Americans haven’t had a single moment of respite,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement.
“Instead, we’ve faced a shocking number of antisemitic threats and experienced calls for more violence against Israelis and Jews everywhere.”
Most of the antisemitic incidents recorded in the ADL’s database involved verbal or written harassment. More than 8,015 instances of antisemitic harassment took place during the relevant time period, on top of 1,840 incidents of vandalism and more than 150 physical assaults, the ADL found.
On college campuses, roughly 1,200 antisemitic incidents took place, a 500 percent increase from the year before, when the ADL had recorded about 200 of them. Earlier this year, anti-Israel demonstrations and tent encampments formed on college campuses nationwide, especially after Columbia University’s anti-Israel encampment received national attention and required the NYPD to break it up.
Antisemitic activity and outright advocacy for the extermination of Israel were common around the encampment sites. A prominent example was the Jew-free zones at the University of California, Los Angeles. A judge ruled in August that UCLA must stop aiding and abetting the antisemitic campus activists who attempted to prevent Jews from passing by certain parts of campus unless they disavowed Israel. UCLA initially decided to fight the ruling but quickly pulled its appeal.
Outside of college campuses, rallies across American cities often featured terrorist banners and chants calling for the destruction of Israel. The ADL found that more than 3,000 antisemitic incidents occurred at anti-Israel demonstrations, where protesters chanted in support of Hamas and other terrorist groups.
Monday marks the first anniversary of Hamas’s mass civilian slaughter of October 7 that claimed the lives of more than 1,000 innocent Israelis. As the Israel–Hamas war rages on, the terrorist organization continues to hold hostages kidnapped on October 7. American citizens were among those slaughtered and kidnapped by Hamas fighters a year ago.
A recent poll of 1,000 Americans and 500 Muslims found that 39 percent of Muslims deny that the October 7 atrocities took place, compared with only 7 percent of the American public. The survey also found that a third of Muslims believe in Israel’s right to exist, and 58 percent believe that Jewish people have “too much power” over the media, a common antisemitic trope. J.L. Partners conducted the survey, for the Heritage Foundation, and the Daily Signal first reported it.