Jew-hatred in America a ‘trend, not blips on a screen,’ experts say after ADL releases audit of incidents

The number of antisemitic incidents in the United States declined last year for the first time in five years, but violent attacks rose and three people were killed, according to the latest Anti-Defamation League report.

The nonprofit’s audit of incidents of Jew-hatred reported 6,724 events last year, one-third fewer than the record 9,354 reported in 2024, as antisemitism surged following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.

Still, last year’s numbers were 70% higher than the 3,698 incidents reported in 2022, the year before the Hamas attack.

But most concerning is that violent incidents of Jew-hatred rose by 4%, from 196 in 2024 to 203 in 2025, and assaults involving a deadly weapon increased by 39%, from 23 to 32.

“All of us should be horrified by the surge in antisemitic hate,” Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) told JNS.

Three people were killed in antisemitic incidents in the United States last year, the first time that has happened since 2019.

Two Israeli embassy staffers were gunned down on a Washington, D.C., street and a demonstrator in Boulder, Colo., calling for the release of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, died after an attacker threw Molotov cocktails at the participants.

In addition, the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg was set ablaze shortly after Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro hosted a Passover seder there. No one was hurt.

“Without a doubt, Jewish Americans are feeling more physically vulnerable today than at any point in my lifetime,” Joel Rubin, executive director of the Jewish Electorate Institute, told JNS. “The data of this ADL report bears that out. It’s not blips on a screen. It’s a trend.”

Jewish activist Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, of Maryland, echoed those concerns.

“We are more scared than ever,” she told JNS. “Despite the overall reduction in the number of instances, the severity of instances is terrifying.”

Incidents of harassment declined 39% and vandalism dropped by 21% from 2024 to 2025, the audit said. Antisemitic incidents on college campuses related to anti-Israel protests dropped 83% with the decline in the number of encampments.

The five states reporting the most incidents were New York (1,160), California (817), New Jersey (687), Florida (319) and Pennsylvania (281).

The overall decline in reported incidents isn’t making Jewish activists feel any better. The rhetoric is still out there.

“Listen, when people are murdered only because they are Jewish, and there is still incredible toxicity that is out there—a lot of it fueled from left and right on the internet, whether it’s Candace Owens or Tucker Carlson or people on the left, and it’s just pervasive online, I feel like every Jew has their head on a swivel, that we’re constantly looking around,” Mizrahi told JNS.

“Where’s the threat? How do we stop the threat?” she said.

Rubin told JNS that leaders need to call this out.

“What we’re seeing now, and what troubles me, is the social acceptability of public language used, of public statements being made, that create a hostile environment for Jews, and the lack of leadership across-the-board to try to tamp that down, in particular online,” he said.

“You have the person who killed these two embassy workers in D.C. and afterwards there were people justifying it,” he told JNS. “It takes leaders to turn that around and right now, we have too many cowards, not enough leaders.”

Kim said that he is working to increase federal security grants for nonprofit organizations such as synagogues and other Jewish institutions.

“Condemning antisemitism is vital but not enough,” the senator told JNS. “We need to make sure that our Jewish neighbors have the resources needed to stay safe.”