A new report has revealed that the number of anti-Semitic incidents that have occurred in the U.S. since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel has surged by 200% when compared to the same period the year before. Experts say the dramatic increase is the result of spiritual forces as well as left-wing activist organizations funding public protests.
The report, released on Sunday by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), recorded more than 10,000 anti-Semitic incidents over the course of the last year, the highest number ever recorded in a single year since the organization began tracking them in 1979.
“Today, we mourn the victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel, marking one year since the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. From that day on, Jewish Americans haven’t had a single moment of respite,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt remarked. “Instead, we’ve faced a shocking number of antisemitic threats and experienced calls for more violence against Israelis and Jews everywhere.”
Broken down by category, the incidents included over “8,015 incidents of verbal or written harassment,” more than “1,840 incidents of vandalism,” and upwards of “150 incidents of physical assault.”
The report also noted that over 2,000 incidents were directed at Jewish synagogues and centers, with more than half taking the form of bomb threats, a staggering increase from the 81 bomb threats that occurred over the same time period the previous year.
ADL’s report further highlighted the ongoing phenomenon of anti-Israel protests on college campuses and in cities across the U.S. “[A]t least 1,200 of these antisemitic incidents happened on college campuses,” marking a 500% increase of university-related incidents over the previous year. In addition, over 3,000 incidents “took place during anti-Israel rallies, which featured regular explicit expressions of support for terrorist groups including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).”
As if to underscore ADL’s report, major anti-Israel protests were staged at a number of universities on Monday, the one-year anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks. Activists at Columbia University in New York City carried a banner reading, “We Will Honor All Our Martyrs,” a phrase that Hamas terrorists — who murdered, tortured, and raped hundreds of Israeli civilians on October 7 — used to characterize their members. Activists also shouted, “Resistance is glorious! We will be victorious!” Another sign featured photos of a Hamas militant and paraglider, who flew over the wall between Gaza and Israel on October 7 and massacred hundreds of young Israelis attending a music festival.
At Harvard University, anti-Israel activists smashed windows and poured red paint over the statue of John Harvard.
At Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., hundreds of activists blocked the entrance to Carnegie Hall, forcing students to climb out of windows.
Thousands more activists flooded the streets of New York City, shouting down small groups of Israel supporters and carrying signs reading “Free Palestine” and “Israel is starving Palestinian Children.”
Meanwhile, a poll administered by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago found that 61% of American Jews “said they had experienced anti-Semitism at least once in the past year in a variety of ways, including seeing anti-Semitic graffiti, hearing a slur or joke, or being physically threatened.” In addition, the same percentage “reported feeling less safe as American Jews today than they felt a year ago.”
Lela Gilbert, a senior fellow for International Religious Freedom at Family Research Council who spent over a decade living in Israel, was not surprised by ADL’s findings showing dramatic increases in anti-Semitism.
“The hatred of Jewish people is — sadly — nothing new to the world,” she told The Washington Stand. “It is not only incomprehensible and irrational but utterly evil. Like many non-Jewish observers, I am shocked both by today’s surge in anti-Semitic incidents and appalled by the unjustifiable hatred that instigates them.”
“However,” Gilbert concluded, “as a Christian, I believe that the source of this phenomenon is deeply spiritual, and that diabolically-inspired individuals and well-funded international, political, and religious organizations are emotionally manipulating women and men with lies and greed, poisoning the minds of the young, and seeking to inspire another Holocaust.”
Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.