ADL: Anti-Semitic acts in U.S. surge 360% since start of Israel-Hamas war

Jan. 10 (UPI) -- The Anti-Defamation League said Wednesday that anti-Semitic incidents in the United States have increased 360% since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the ensuing war.

The ADL, the New York-based Jewish civil-rights organization, said that according to preliminary data it has gathered, there have been 3,283 incidents of anti-Semitism from Oct. 7 through Sunday. The number dwarfs the total of 712 incidents recorded over the same period a year ago.

The organization said the period amounts to 34 anti-Semitic incidents per day, which puts 2023 on track for having the most anti-Semitic acts in the United States since the ADL started keeping statistics on such incidents in the late 1970s.

Many of the incidents have been on college campuses, where 60 physical assaults and more than 500 incidents have been connected to anti-Semitism, the ADL said.

"The American Jewish community is facing a threat level that's now unprecedented in modern history," ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. "It's shocking that we've recorded more anti-Semitic acts in three months than we usually would in an entire year."

The statistics were released on the same day that Education Secretary Miguel Cardona addressed anti-Semitic and Islamophobia on college campuses during a talk at Dartmouth College. His roundtable discussion with students was art of an effort by the Biden administration to address such issues on campus.

The Education Department is also investigating nearly 60 educational institutions throughout the country over anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents.

"In this difficult moment, anti-Semitism is spreading and mutating in alarming ways," Greenblatt said. "This onslaught of hate includes a dramatic increase in fake bomb threats that disrupt services at synagogues and put communities on edge across the country."

In the past three months, the ADL said it documented 553 incidents of vandalism, 1,353 incidents of verbal or written harassment and 1,317 rallies that included anti-Semitic rhetoric, expression of support for terrorism against Israel and/or anti-Zionism.