Marty Levine
April 22, 2025
The ADL today released its most recent dataset on antisemitic incidents in the US – its Audit of Antisemitic Incidents 2024. They found a small overall rise from the data they collected for 2023, but they underscored that their annual totals had grown dramatically over the past several years. “In 2024, ADL tabulated 9,354 antisemitic incidents across the United States. This represents a 5% increase from the 8,873 incidents recorded in 2023, a 344% increase over the past five years and a 893% increase over the past 10 years. It is the highest number on record since ADL began tracking antisemitic incidents 46 years ago.”
From the report and in a webinar they just hosted to present their findings, the real story they want us to take away is that pro-Palestinian/antizionist activity has grown since October 7, 2023; and for ADL, the epicenter of the problem is now on college campuses. They want the data to support our government, at all levels, puitting their feet down and crushing these voices as a response to antisemitism.
it is clear to me that for ADL, their conflation of pro-Palestinian activism with antisemitism is an unshakeable truth from their perspective. Their disclaimers are disingenuous; yes, they want us to believe that they separate the two but their reporting tells us that, for them, this is not possible.
They can recognize the impact of the atrocities of October 7, 2023, on the American Jews. The surprise of that attack and its brutality was so beyond what was thought to be possible, and was frightening in the moment and left many shaken and fearful. But ADL provides no context of anything that preceded that black day, nor do they take any recognition of the horrors that have occurred as the Israeli government has relentlessly made war on the population of Gaza and on Palestinians who live under Israeli control, in Israel itself, and in the occupied West Bank.
Leaving out the context minimizes the depth of the conflict and makes words seem out of sort. Leaving out the context is a political action designed, in my opinion, to bolster support for Israel and demonize Palestinian voices.
Viewing the world through this Israel-centric lens, it is not surprising when one reads these words about pro-Palestinian “antisemitism” as the major source of the “boom” in anti-Semitic incidents. What follows is a long block from the ADL report so you can see it as it was presented. I am doing this so that you can see thir approach in its full breadth. If, when you finish reading it convinces you of their position then you and I will just not agree. That is a risk I am willing to take.
Activity at or surrounding anti-Israel protests frequently crossed the line into antisemitism through a range of concerning expressions. Protesters displayed justification or glorification of antisemitic violence, framing terror attacks against Israel and the Jewish community as justified “resistance,” while others openly displayed support for U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) by wearing Hamas headbands and waving Hezbollah and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) flags. Protesters celebrated the anniversary of Hamas’s antisemitic October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel and glorified the terrorist group leaders who masterminded the attack. Many protests featured rhetoric widely interpreted as a call to destroy Israel through slogans like “Death to Israel” or “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” alongside rhetoric explicitly marginalizing Jews with a connection to Israel, such as, “We don’t want no Zionists here.” Classic antisemitic tropes were also often included and contained imagery referencing blood libel, conspiracy theories about “Zionist media” manipulation and equating swastikas with Stars of David — a direct attack on Jewish religious symbols.
The frequent appearance of these themes at demonstrations represents a concerning trend where rhetoric with antisemitic elements has moved from fringe anti-Israel spaces into more visible public spaces. This normalization creates environments where Jewish individuals face increasing harassment, as documented in the location-specific incidents detailed in subsequent sections about campuses and Jewish institutions.
A majority (58%) of incidents in the Audit contained references to Israel or Zionism. Opposition to Israel or Zionism appeared as themes in virtually every type of incident tracked in the Audit, from anonymous bomb threats against synagogues that included the call to “Globalize the intifada,” to a right-wing extremist ranting about “[setting] our people free of Zionist occupation” at a city council meeting, to an individual shouting, “Free Palestine” at an Orthodox Jewish person in a public area before assaulting them.
In 2024, antisemitic rhetoric expressed during anti-Israel protests constituted the single largest category of Israel-related incidents, accounting for 48% of all such incidents. While many anti-Israel rallies did not contain antisemitic elements and were not represented in the Audit, about half (2,596) of the more than 5,000 such protests tracked by ADL contained antisemitic messaging in the form of signs, chants or speeches. At each rally that ADL examined, all expressions of antisemitism were tallied as a single incident regardless of how often they were expressed. The largest proportion occurred in public areas (1,270) followed by college and university campuses (930), and a significant amount targeted Jewish institutions (86) or business establishments (262). Extreme actors within the organized anti-Israel protest movement continued to escalate their tactics, directly targeting members of the Jewish community with antisemitic harassment and vandalizing Jewish and other institutions with threatening antisemitic messages. Jewish communities in northern New Jersey, for example, faced a wave of anti-Israel antisemitic activity, as protesters held multiple demonstrations directly outside synagogues in Teaneck. On March 10, 2024, protesters harassed Jewish individuals who were attending an event inside a synagogue by spraying red paint at them and shouting, “Go back to Europe” and “Baby killers.”
Of course, there are antisemitic voices in the pro-Palestinian community, just as they can be found across the spectrum of America, even in and around the White House. And these voices must be called out for what they are, haters and endangerers of the American Jewish Community. Just as we should be calling out the purveyors of all forms of hatred.
ADL does something I find inexcusable, not contextualizing what we are witnessing and what is behind the words being chanted and posted. It is only when one ignores the searing pain being felt by Palestinians from decades of violence and displacement (see the Academy Award-winning film No Other Land if you question this) that it becomes possible to hear “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as a quintessential statement of antisemitism. It is only when you are not in dialogue with those you are accusing of being antisemites or, perhaps, dupes of antisemites, that you can ignore the nuance of their words and ignore the message that they are trying to convey, that you can ignore finding out whether they actually hate Jews.
If ADL stopped at just presenting its data and its opinion, it would be problematic, but not so dangerous.
But ADL is more than a research body. They have become the leading pro-Israel voice in our country and the major force behind the weaponization of antisemitism. The impact of what they have unleashed, and what this report is designed to buttress, is the wave of legal efforts to suppress speech and political activity under the guise of fighting hatred against Jews.
As they release this data, and as they use it to push attention toward the growing level of antisemitism, and as they define it on college campuses, they are buttressing President Trump’s attack on American universities as a bastion of learning and the expression of ideas. They are buttressing our President’s attack on college students who are challenging him and his war on foreign students.
ADL’s work, unfortunately, makes fighting antisemitism harder, not easier. ADL’s work, unfortunately, makes building alliances between the Jewish community and other marginalized communities, all of which face the hatred unleashed by the current political moment, more difficult. ADL, unfortunately, is becoming dangerous to the Jewish community, that it says so loudly, it is there to protect.
Update:
Shortly after I wrote this, I saw this headline in Haaretz, “Global Antisemitism Spiked Right After October 7, Not as Gaza Offensive Continued, Israeli Report Finds”. It’s data adds some more reason to challenge the tone and focus of ASL’s work
The U.S. saw a more moderate increase. In New York City, the world’s largest Jewish population center, police received 344 reports of antisemitic incidents in 2024 (up from 325 in 2023 and 264 in 2022). Still, from October to December 2024, only 68 cases were recorded in New York City, compared to 159 during the same months in 2023.
The U.S. saw a more moderate increase. In New York City, the world’s largest Jewish population center, police received 344 reports of antisemitic incidents in 2024 (up from 325 in 2023 and 264 in 2022). Still, from October to December 2024, only 68 cases were recorded in New York City, compared to 159 during the same months in 2023.
