Anti-Semitic incidents hit an all-time high last year, ADL report says
The Anti-Defamation League’s H.E.A.T. map shows where incidents of reported anti-Semitism took place. In 2019-2020 so far, ADL has recorded 6,848 incidents of extremism against Jews or anti-Semitism. View the interactive map on ADL’s website here.
There were more incidents of anti-Semitism in the U.S. in 2019 than in any year since the Anti-Defamation League started tracking them in 1979, according to a report released this week by the group.
The ADL’s Center on Extremism documented 2,107 cases of assault, vandalism and harassment against Jews across the country. That’s a 12 percent increase over the previous year, with a 56 percent increase in physical attacks.
There were 91 assaults and five deaths, the report stated. More than half of the assaults happened in New York City, with 25 occurring in Brooklyn. The borough is home to nearly half of New York City’s Jewish population of 1.5 million.
“This contributed to a rising climate of anxiety and fear in our communities, said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL. “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.”
Hate crimes against Jewish Americans have been on the rise in recent years, but the end of 2019 was marked by a spate of violent attacks that alarmed many. Religious leaders in New York’s black community partnered with local Jewish leaders to discuss how to address what appeared to be a flare-up of long-simmering tensions between the groups.
On Dec. 10, a man and woman attacked a kosher market in Jersey City, N.J. after they shot and killed a detective who had approached them. Three people inside the market were killed. The shooters died after a standoff with police.
On Dec. 23, a 65-year-old Orthodox Jewish man in midtown Manhattan was looking at his phone when police said a man said “F**k you, Jew” and punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground and kicking him. Steven Jorge, 28, of Miami, Florida, was arrested and charged with assault as a hate crime. A judge ordered him to undergo a psychiatric exam, local media reported.
The next day, a Jewish man was followed by eight teenagers in Brooklyn, one of whom hit him in the head before they ran away.
On Dec. 25, a 40-year-old Jewish man “in traditional religious Jewish clothing” was punched in the face by an unknown assailant who fled, ABC News reported.
The next day, a 34-year-old Jewish mother walking with her young son was assaulted by a homeless woman who yelled, “You f------ Jew! Your end is coming!” and hit the mother in the head with a bag, according to police.
Of the incidents in 2019, 13 percent were attributed to organized groups that have an anti-Semitic ideology, according to the ADL. The rest involved individuals with some animus or expression of prejudice against Jews. News of the violence was applauded by white nationalists and neo-Nazis, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks organized hate groups online.
The organization has launched or expanded several initiatives to respond to the ongoing crisis, focusing on education, specialized training and tools for law enforcement and influence from community and cultural figures. The ADL’s No Place for Hate and Words to Action programs “teach understanding and promote inclusivity in schools and on campuses.”
It called for Congressional hearings to address rising hate crimes and the proliferation of extremist hate groups over the last four years.
Micah Danney is a Poynter-Koch fellow and a reporter and associate editor for Religion Unplugged. He is an alumnus of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY and has reported for news outlets in the NYC area, interned at The Times of Israel and covered religion in Israel for The GroundTruth Project.