Anti-Defamation League says anger at Israel is now the driving force
behind antisemitism in the US
[April 22, 2025]
By DAVID CRARY
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.”
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New York University students and pro-Israeli supporters rally across
the street from where pro-Palestinian students and supporters rally
outside the NYU Stern School of Business building, April 22, 2024,
in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
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.
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