Antisemitism surged worldwide in 2023, especially in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, according to a new report.
The new report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Tel Aviv University found that there was an increase in antisemitic incidents in Western countries in 2023 when compared to the previous year, including a “steep” jump in incidents following the October attack on Israel.
The report said that the ADL recorded 7,523 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. in 2023 compared to 3,697 in 2022. It also noted significant increases in incidents in large U.S. cities, including New York City and Los Angeles.
The report said the New York Police Department recorded 325 anti-Jewish hate crimes in 2023 — up from the 261 recorded in 2022. The Los Angeles Police Department recorded 165 incidents in 2023 compared to 86 incidents in 2022, according to the report.
Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL’s CEO and national director, said the attack on Israel “was followed by a tsunami of hate against Jewish communities worldwide.”
“This year’s report is incredibly alarming, with documented unprecedented levels of antisemitism, including in the US, where 2023 saw the highest number of antisemitic incidents in the US ever recorded by ADL,” he said in a statement.
There was also a rise in antisemitic incidents in other countries, including France, the United Kingdom and Germany. France had 1,676 incidents last year, up significantly from the 436 recorded in 2022, according to the report.
The report also noted that most countries with large Jewish populations saw increases in antisemitic incidents even before Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
“Particularly alarming is that also in the nine months leading to October 2023, in which no exceptional event happened, most countries with significant Jewish populations saw a rise in the number of antisemitic incidents compared to the same period in 2022, including the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, Brazil, and Mexico,” the report states.
“This means that the war in Gaza helped spread a fire that was already out of control,” the report added.
The number of anti-Muslim complaints in the U.S. also increased in 2023, according to an annual report from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released last month. The report said it recorded 8,061 complaints of anti-Muslim incidents, surpassing the previous record in 2021 when 6,720 incidents were reported.