Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Anti-Semitic Incidents Surge: ADL Study

(JTA) — The Anti-Defamation League reported that anti-Semitic incidents in the first nine months of 2017 have risen 67 percent since the same period last year. If the current pace holds, they will nearly double the number of anti-Semitic incidents in 2015.

There was also a 92 percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents in New York City —  171 this year compared to 89 last year.

Thursday’s report by the ADL, which fights anti-Semitism and bigotry, said that in addition to the waves of bomb threats against Jewish institutions at the beginning of the year, the main driver of anti-Semitic incidents was the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August.

Most of the 162 total bomb threats are suspected of coming from an American-Israeli Jewish man living in Ashdod, Israel. Even discounting the bomb threats, there was still a 46 percent increase in incidents.  The seven weeks following the Charlottesville rally saw 221 incidents of anti-Semitism.

“We are astonished and horrified by the rise in anti-Semitic harassment, incidents and violence targeting our communities,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL’s CEO and national director.

Anti-Semitic assaults, however, have fallen sharply since last year. There were 29 assaults in the first nine months of 2016, versus 12 over the same period this year — a decrease of some 60 percent.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.