Anti-Defamation League says anger at Israel is now the driving force behind antisemitism in the US

NEW YORK (AP) — The Anti-Defamation League says the number of antisemitic incidents in the United States reached a record high last year and notes that 58% of the 9,354 incidents related to Israel, notably chants, speeches and signs at rallies protesting Israeli policies.

In a report released Tuesday, the ADL, which has produced annual tallies for 46 years, said it's the first time Israel-related incidents — 5,422 of them in 2024 — comprised more than half the total. A key reason is the widespread opposition to Israel's military response in Gaza after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The ADL’s findings add grist to an intense, divisive debate among American Jews — and others — over the extent to which vehement criticism of Israeli policies and of Zionism should be considered antisemitic.

Political backdrop

The debate has broadened as President Donald Trump's administration makes punitive moves against universities it considers too lax in combating antisemitism and seeks to deport some pro-Palestinian campus activists.

The upshot, for numerous Jewish leaders, is a balancing act: Decrying flagrant acts of antisemitism as well as what they consider to be the administration’s exploitation of the issue to target individuals and institutions it dislikes.

“The fears of antisemitism are legitimate and real — and we don’t want to see those real fears exploited to undermine democracy,” said Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. "I feel that a majority of American Jews can believe that two things are true at the same time.”

The ADL said in its new report it is "careful to not conflate general criticism of Israel or anti-Israel activism with antisemitism." But there are gray areas. For example, the ADL contends that vilification of Zionism — the movement to establish and protect a Jewish state in Israel — is a form of antisemitism, yet some Jews are among the critics of Zionism and of the ADL itself.

Incidents at anti-Israel rallies that counted as antisemitism in the new ADL tally include “justification or glorification of antisemitic violence, promotion of classic antisemitic tropes ... and signage equating Judaism or Zionism with Nazism.” Also counted were celebrations of the Hamas attack on Israel and “unapologetic support for terrorism.”

“In 2024, hatred toward Israel was a driving force behind antisemitism across the U.S.,” said Oren Segal, who leads the ADL’s efforts to combat extremism and terrorism.

Keeping Jewish students safe

The report depicted university campuses as common venues for antisemitic incidents, saying many Jewish students “face hostility, exclusion and sometimes physical danger because of their identity or their beliefs.”

The experience of those students was evoked by Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism — an umbrella group for more than 800 Reform congregations in North America — as he discussed the complexities arising from current antisemitism-related developments.

“We have an obligation to our students on campus,” Jacobs said. “Can they go to Seder? Can they feel safe wearing a yarmulke?”

“At the same time, this current administration has weaponized the fight against antisemitism by weakening core democratic institutions,” Jacobs added.

He referred to the detention and threatened deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old graduate student who served as a negotiator and spokesperson for pro-Palestinian activists at Columbia University. Khalil has been detained since March 8 despite facing no criminal charges.

“There has to be a legal case — not just you don’t like what he says,” Jacobs said. “What has kept Jewish people safe is the rule of law, due process. If it is undermined for Palestinians, it will be undermined for all of us.”

Criticism of ADL

The ADL dismayed some progressive Jewish leaders by welcoming Columbia's acquiescence in March to Trump administration demands and by initially commending the campaign targeting pro-Palestinian activists such as Khalil.

Recent critics of the ADL include Michael Roth, the first Jewish president of Wesleyan University; political commentator Peter Beinart; and Columbia professor James Schamus, who has been urging his fellow Jews on the faculty to oppose the university's compliance with administration demands.

Washington Post columnist Matt Bai wrote a scathing column about the ADL on April 1.

“You can’t call yourself a civil rights organization in the United States right now — let alone a civil rights organization for a minority that has been brutally evicted all over the world — and not loudly oppose the cruel and unlawful removal of foreigners whose views happen to be out of fashion,” Bai wrote.

Two days later, the ADL's CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, wrote an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy seeking to distance the ADL from aspects of the Trump administration's crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists.

“As an organization that has fought for a minority community for more than 100 years, ADL is incredibly sensitive to the importance of allowing all views to be expressed — even those that we or the majority of Americans disagree with,” Greenblatt wrote. “We should be holding people accountable for actual crimes, not Orwellian thoughtcrimes.”

“We can protect the civil liberties of Jewish students even as we preserve the civil liberties of those who protest, harass or attack them because they are innocent until proven guilty,” he added. “If we sacrifice our constitutional freedoms in the pursuit of security, we undermine the very foundation of the diverse, pluralistic society we seek to defend.”

Beyond the Israel-related incidents, these were among the other findings in the new ADL report:

— The total number of antisemitic incidents in 2024 was up by 344% from five years ago.

— 196 incidents, targeting more than 250 people, were categorized as assault; none of these assaults were fatal.

— 2,606 incidents were categorized as vandalism. Swastikas were present in 37% of these cases.

— There were 647 bomb threats, most of them targeting synagogues.

— Antisemitic incidents occurred in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. More than 10% of the incidents occurred in New York City.

— There were 962 “antisemitic propaganda incidents” linked to white supremacist groups. Three groups — Patriot Front, Goyim Defense League, and the White Lives Matter network — were responsible for 94% of this activity.

The ADL says its annual report tallies criminal and noncriminal acts of harassment, vandalism and assault against individuals and groups as reported to the ADL by victims, law enforcement, the media and partner organizations, and then evaluated by ADL experts.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.