Hate Groups Rose In 2016 — And Most Are Anti-Semitic

By Josefin Dolsten February 15, 2017

(JTA) — The number of hate groups in the United States rose in 2016, and most of them subscribe to anti-Semitic views, a civil rights group found.

Last year, 917 hate groups were active, up from 892 in 2015, according to a report released Wednesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The SPLC released a list of the hate groups categorized by types, such as anti-immigrant, anti-LGBT and anti-Muslim. There is no category for anti-Semitic groups, according to Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Alabama-based center.

“The reason we don’t have a separate category for anti-Jewish groups is that the vast majority of them are all anti-Semitic,” Potok told reporters in a conference call, responding to a question from JTA.

At least 550 of the 917 groups are anti-Semitic in nature, Potok later clarified to JTA in a phone call, emphasizing that the number represented “a minimum.”

The groups active in 2016 include 99 categorized as neo-Nazi, 100 as white nationalist, 130 as Ku Klux Klan and 21 as Christian Identity, a religious movement that says whites are the true Israelites and Jews are descended from Satan.

“2016 was an unprecedented year for hate,” Potok said in a statement in the report.

“The country saw a resurgence of white nationalism that imperils the racial progress we’ve made, along with the rise of a president whose policies reflect the values of white nationalists. In Steve Bannon, these extremists think they finally have an ally who has the president’s ear,” he added, referring to President Donald Trump’s chief strategist.

Bannon is the former chairman of Breitbart News, a site with ties to the “alt-right” — a loose movement whose followers traffic variously in white nationalism, anti-immigration sentiment, anti-Semitism and a disdain for “political correctness.”

The most dramatic growth in hate groups was in those targeting Muslims, which increased by 197 percent to 201 last year compared to 34 in 2015, the report said.

The high for active hate groups recorded by the center in one year was 1,018 in 2011.

Josefin Dolsten is a New York-based writer who has reported for the Forward, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Times of Israel and other Jewish publications. She currently works as an account director at Fenton Communications, supporting organizations that work to advance racial justice, LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive rights and more. Dolsten earned her B.A. in government from Cornell University and her M.A. in comparative religion and Jewish studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

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