CA Had Most Antisemitic Incidents In US Last Year Amid Nationwide Spike: Report

CALIFORNIA — California had the highest number of antisemitic incidents in the country in 2023, according to a new report by the Anti-Defamation League.

The incidents, which included harassment, vandalism and assault, more than doubled in the state last year amid tensions over the war between Israel and Hamas, the report said.

According to the new data released Tuesday, the ADL — a national nonprofit that tracks antisemitism and white supremacy across the country — said 8,873 antisemitic incidents were reported in the United States in 2023.

The number marks a 140 percent increase from the 3,698 incidents recorded in 2022 and is the highest number on record since the ADL began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979.

Of the incidents in 2023, 1,266 took place in California, followed by New York with 1,218, New Jersey with 830, Florida with 463 and Massachusetts with 440, according to the report. Combined, these five states accounted for 48 percent of the total incidents.

California had 518 antisemitic incidents in 2022 and 367 in 2021, according to the ADL, which reported the state's 2023 incidents fell into the following categories:

• Harassment: 920
• Vandalism: 317
• Assault: 29

None of the assaults nationwide resulted in a fataility, according to the ADL, which noted out of an abundance of caution it was not including the case of Paul Kessler, a 69-year-old Jewish man who died in connection with a Nov. 5 confrontation between demonstrators in Ventura County. Loay Alnaji is charged with involuntary manslaughter and battery, according to the ADL, but the circumstances of the encounter remain under investigation.

At colleges across the country, antisemitic activity reported on campuses more than tripled in 2023. Incidents increased by 321 percent from 2022, according to the ADL. In non-Jewish K-12 schools, 1,162 incidents were reported, an increase of 135 percent.

Oct. 10, days after the Hamas attacks in Israel, a professor for the University of California at Davis called for physical violence against "Zionist journalists," the report said.

Swastikas made of feces in May were smeared in the bathroom of a residence hall at the University of California at San Diego, according to the report.

Nationally, the ADL recorded 1,987 incidents targeting Jewish institutions such as synagogues, Jewish community centers, and Jewish schools, an increase of 237 percent from 589 in 2022. The increase was in part due to a dramatic spike in antisemitic bomb threats, the vast majority of which targeted synagogues in the fall.

Synagogues experienced 73 percent of all incidents affecting Jewish institutions in 2023.

Bomb threats toward Jewish institutions increased dramatically, with a total of 1,009 bomb threats — the highest number ever recorded and an increase of over 1,000 percent from 91 in 2022, according to the data.

The ADL data is compiled using law enforcement data and information provided by faith leaders and community members before analysts verify it.