Anti-Defamation League reports average of 24 U.S. antisemitic attacks per day in 2023

About 24 antisemitic acts occurred each day last year in the U.S., totaling 8,873 anti-Jewish incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism — more than the total for the three previous years combined, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

The Jewish advocacy group said nearly 60% of the antisemitic incidents (5,204) occurred after the Oct. 7 terrorist raid of southern Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The annual ADL Audit of Antisemitic Incidents noted that harassment increased by 184%, vandalism by 69% and physical assaults by 45% over 2022.

Attacks on synagogues, Jewish community centers and schools rose to 1,987 in 2023, up 237% from the 589 recorded in 2022. ADL said there was a “dramatic spike” in bomb threats against synagogues last fall.

Antisemitic incidents on college campuses rose 321% in 2023, the ADL said. Non-Jewish K-12 schools reported 1,162 incidents, up 135% over 2022.

The 6,535 acts of harassment — in which one or more Jews (or those perceived to be Jewish) were met with antisemitic slurs — comprised the bulk of incidents, followed by 2,177 acts of vandalism and 161 assaults.

The ADL said 1,009 bomb threats against Jewish institutions were reported in 2023, an 11-fold increase over the 91 reported the previous year. There were also 104 “swatting” incidents targeting Jewish facilities, the group said. An ADL official said its tracking of a “swatting network” allowed the organization to supply intelligence to law enforcement, obtain “accountability for perpetrators” and alert potential targets.

“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,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the organization’s CEO, said in a statement. 

Jews in the U.S. “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,” Mr. Greenblatt said. “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.”

The ADL wants states to adopt versions of the Biden administration’s “National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism,” which calls for increased awareness and understanding of antisemitism, improved safety and security for Jewish communities, reversing the “normalization” of antisemitism and building “cross-community solidarity and collective action” to counter hate activities.