Which States Had The Fewest Anti-Semitic Incidents? The Answer May Surprise You
The Anti-Defamation League’s annual audit of anti-Semitic incidents was released on Monday, and came with some saddening statistics.
Incidents spiked by one-third in 2016, with more than 1,200 reported acts of vandalism, harassment and assault. Things got even worse this year, with anti-Semitic events spiking 86 percent in 2017’s first quarter.
Such hate crimes happened in most states, but were most common in areas with large Jewish populations — California had 211 incidents in 2016 and 87 in the new year’s first three months, with New York, New Jersey, Florida and Massachusetts also with more than 100 incidents last year.
Five states came away with a perfect record in both 2016 and 2017: Idaho, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota and West Virginia.
Of course, these states have some of the smallest Jewish populations in the country: Brandeis University’s American Jewish Population Project estimates that the combined Jewish population of those five states is 26,600 — which means they could only half-fill Yankee Stadium.
Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter at @aidenpink.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30