PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — While much of the world looks back on the events a year ago that led to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, the Anti-Defamation League has released preliminary data showing a spike in the number of antisemitic incidents reported in the United States.
Across the country, since Oct. 7, 2023, the ADL has recorded over 10,000 antisemitic incidents, which is the highest number since 1979 ever recorded in any single year — and triple the number recorded in the preceding year-long period.
“That's over 8,000 cases of harassment nationally, almost 2,000 vandalism and over 150 assaults,” said Andrew Goretsky, ADL’s Philadelphia regional director.
The report shows that, of these incidents, over 2,000 occurred at Jewish institutions, such as synagogues and community centers — and more than half of all incidents at Jewish institutions were in the form of a bomb threat.
“And this is one of the things that, again, can be very disruptive, especially to synagogues that may be having an event. Many Jewish institutions have young Jewish day schools and nursery schools, which can be very unnerving for parents as this behavior continues.”
Goretsky says the incidents come in many forms.
“I have a black Jewish child who was questioned by classmates about what holidays he celebrates, and he was physically assaulted by multiple students,” he said.
“I had a perpetrator who hit a Jewish person in the back of the head, stole their hat and yelled ‘Free Palestine!’ at them.”
Goretsky says he made the difficult decision to hire security this past summer for his son’s bar mitzvah, which he says was both comforting and frustrating.
“It was comforting, because I had them there, and I knew I had this armed guard there in case, God forbid, something had happened. But it was frustrating because I remember as a child going into synagogue and never seeing an armed guard, never having to experience that.”
At least 1,200 antisemitic incidents happened on college campuses, and 2,000 occurred at Jewish institutions. Verbal or written criticisms of Israel are not deemed antisemitic, but chants that convey a message of harm to Israel are included among the incidents.
The ADL expects the numbers to increase as it receives more incident reports from partners, law enforcement agencies and victims. Final data for this year will be published in the spring of 2025.