US antisemitism up 337% since October 7 in all-time record, ADL says

Antisemitism watchdog also cites rise in global incidents since Hamas massacre, including 591% increase in Australia, and 1,563 antisemitic incidents across the UK

A woman holds a sign reading 'Well Done Israel, Hitler Would Be Proud' as people rally in Brooklyn, New York in support of Palestinians and against Israel in the wake of the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught, October 21, 2023 (KENA BETANCUR / AFP)
A woman holds a sign reading 'Well Done Israel, Hitler Would Be Proud' as people rally in Brooklyn, New York in support of Palestinians and against Israel in the wake of the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught, October 21, 2023 (KENA BETANCUR / AFP)

Antisemitic incidents in the US hit an unprecedented record in the two months since Hamas’s shock attack on Israel on October 7, the Anti-Defamation League announced Monday.

The organization said it recorded 2,031 incidents between October 7 and December 7, the highest ever two-month number since the ADL began tracking antisemitism in the country in 1979. It also represented a 337 percent increase over the same period in 2022.

Details on the incidents can be found on an interactive map posted on the ADL website.

The cases in question included 40 incidents of physical violence, 749 of verbal attacks, 337 cases of vandalism and 905 rallies that featured antisemitic speech, support for terrorism or anti-Zionism, the latter being defined by the ADL as an expression of antisemitism for denying the Jewish right to self-determination.

The data also showed 250 incidents that targeted Jewish institutions including synagogues and campus Hillels, and 400 incidents on campuses.

Universities across the US have been accused of failing to protect Jewish students amid rising fears of antisemitism, with the presidents of three prominent US universities facing backlash for their evasive responses to questioning at a congressional hearing about antisemitism on campuses amid the Israel-Hamas war.

A demonstrator holds a sign at the ‘All out for Gaza’ protest at Columbia University in New York City on November 15, 2023. (Photo by Bryan R. Smith / AFP)

“This terrifying pattern of antisemitic attacks has been relentless since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, with no signs of diminishing,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a Monday statement. “The lid to the sewers is off, and Jewish communities all across the country are being inundated with hate. Public officials and college leaders must turn down the temperature and take clear action to show this behavior is unacceptable to prevent more violence.”

The ADL also published a select list of antisemitic incidents around the world “with an apparent connection to the events in Israel.”

In Australia, where pro-Palestinian protesters chanted “gas the Jews” at a Sydney rally in the aftermath of October 7, has seen a 591% increase in reported antisemitic incidents, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

FILE – Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered at the Sydney Opera House, which was planned to be illuminated in the colors of the Israeli flag following the weekend Hamas massacres in Israel, while police advised the Jewish community to stay away, in Sydney, New South Wales, on October 9, 2023. (AP/Rick Rycroft)

In the UK, there were over 1,500 antisemitic incidents reported, the highest ever total reported to the Jewish community security organization CST  across a 47-day period. Weekly rallies in London calling for a ceasefire in Gaza have come under scrutiny for antisemitic chants and posters by some participants.

Antisemitism has skyrocketed around the world since war erupted between Israel and Hamas after the Hamas-led October 7 massacre, in which some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people — 1,000 of them civilians, slaughtered amid brutal atrocities — and seizing some 240 hostages of all ages under the cover of a deluge of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities.

Israel’s military campaign, aimed at toppling the Hamas regime in Gaza and securing the release of the hostages, has come under harsh international criticism for its mounting death toll. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says some 18,000 Palestinians have been killed in the offensive, though those figures cannot be independently verified and are believed to include combatants as well as civilians killed by misfired Gazan rockets.

According to Israeli military estimates, some 7,000 Hamas members have been killed in the Gaza Strip.

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