Anti-Semitic Incidents in the U.S. Hit 40-Year High, Report Finds

The year 2019 saw the most anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. in at least four decades, according to a new report from the Anti-Defamation League. The report cites “more than 2,100 acts of assault, vandalism, and harassment” last year—more than any year since the ADL started tracking such incidents in 1979. The figure marks a 12 percent increase over 2018, and a 56 percent increase in physical assaults. Thirteen percent of those incidents were directly attributable to extremist groups or people who espoused those groups’ ideologies. That figure included a deadly white-supremacist attack on a synagogue in Poway, California. “This was a year of unprecedented anti-Semitic activity, a time when many Jewish communities across the country had direct encounters with hate,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “This contributed to a rising climate of anxiety and fear in our communities. We are committed to fighting back against this rising tide of hate and will double down on our work with elected leaders, schools, and communities to end the cycle of hatred.”