Anti-Semitic incidents have jumped 57 percent across the United States in the past year, according to the New York-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
The ADL said it recorded a total of 1,986 anti-Semitic incidents nationwide in 2017, up from 1,267 in 2016, in its annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents.
That’s the highest total since 1994 and the highest single-year spike since the group began recording incidents in 1979.
The increase included 952 incidents of vandalism – an 86 percent rise over 2016 – as well as 1,015 incidents of harassment, a 41 percent increase from 2016.
Anti-Semitic incidents at schools and on college campuses nearly doubled – for the second year in a row – in what ADL national director and CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said should be seen as “an alarm, a very loud alarm that should get the attention of all of us.”
There were 457 incidents of anti-Semitic incidents reported at non-Jewish schools in 2017, and a “surge” in the number of incidents involving racist and anti-Semitic flyers being posted on college campuses.
In New York, the number of anti-Semitic incidents rose by over 90 percent in 2017 compared to 2016.
There were 380 anti-Semitic incidents reported in New York State last year, including physical assaults, vandalism, harassment and attacks on Jewish institutions, compared to 199 such incidents in 2016.
“New Yorkers are seeing an undeniable surge of anti-Semitism and bigotry that we all must confront,” said Evan R. Bernstein, ADL New York Regional Director.
“The dramatic increase in harassment, school related incidents and against religious institutions cannot be accepted as a ‘new normal.’”
