FBI: Jews were victims of most religion-based hate crimes in 2018

But despite Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, bureau records drop in the overall number of anti-Semitic incidents in America from 2017

By Ben Sales

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13 November 2019, 7:05 pm

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Ben Sales is a news editor at The Times of Israel

A young boy looks at the fenced off entrance to the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on October 27, 2019, the first anniversary of the shooting at the synagogue, that killed 11 worshipers. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

JTA — Despite the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting last year, hate crimes against American Jews decreased 11 percent overall in 2018, according to the FBI’s annual hate crimes report.

But Jews were again were the victims of the majority of hate crimes that were based on religion last year in the United States.

The 2018 Hate Crimes Statistics Report found that of 1,419 incidents of hate last year based on religion, Jews suffered 835, or about 58 percent of the total. That’s a drop of 11 percent in anti-Semitic incidents from 2017, when Jews suffered 938 incidents. Religion-based hate crimes also decreased approximately 10 percent from 2017.

But hate crime murders totaled 24 — the highest number since the FBI began tracking statistics in 1991, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The ADL said that the high number was attributable to the 11 victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in October 2018.

Overall, hate crimes decreased slightly, to 7,120 in 2018 from 7,175 the previous year, with the majority based on race. Almost 19 percent were based on religion and nearly 17 percent on sexual orientation.