Jews in America faced more than 25 anti-Jewish incidents per day last year — more than one per hour. All told, as the war in Gaza raged on and campus protests exploded across the country, 2024 saw the largest number of reported antisemitic incidents on record, with over 9,000 incidents of antisemitic assault, harassment and vandalism across the U.S., most of them related to Israel or Zionism, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, which was released on Tuesday.

It is the highest level recorded since the ADL first began collecting data in 1979. 

“In 2024, hatred toward Israel was a driving force behind antisemitism across the U.S., with more than half of all antisemitic incidents referencing Israel or Zionism,” Oren Segal, the ADL’s vice president of the ADL Center on Extremism, said in a statement. Israel- and Zionism-related incidents made up 58% of all occurrences, according to the tally.

The immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel and the start of the war in Gaza fueled a then-record breaking wave of antisemitic incidents, with 8,873 recorded by the ADL in 2023.

Such incidents increased by 5% in 2024, according to the antisemitism watchdog’s tally. The results mark an 893% increase over the past decade.

College campuses were the locations hardest hit by the rise in antisemitism, with 1,694 incidents recorded — an 84% increase compared to 2023. Campus antisemitism comprised 18% of all recorded incidents — a larger portion than in any of the group’s previous audits.

A spokesperson for the ADL told eJewishPhilanthropy that the group does not categorize anti-Israel rallies as antisemitic, per se. “Rather, we identify antisemitic activity that occurs at anti-Israel rallies,” the spokesperson said. “ADL only counts anti-Israel activity as an antisemitic incident when that activity meets our other criteria for antisemitic incidents and includes antisemitic expressions.”

“In fact, of the more than 5,000 anti-Israel rallies reported to us, we couldn’t find evidence for nearly half of them that they contained antisemitic elements or incidents and as a result, these were not included in our tally,” the ADL told eJP, adding that “at each protest that ADL examined, all expressions of antisemitism were tallied as a single incident regardless of how often they were expressed.”

There was a 21% increase (196 incidents) in the number of assaults from 2023. Assault was defined as cases where Jewish people (or people perceived to be Jewish) were targeted with physical violence accompanied by evidence of antisemitic animus. Orthodox Jews were targeted in 30% of assaults. The 196 incidents targeted at least 250 victims; none resulted in fatalities. General antisemitic activity, including vandalism and harassment, also increased by 19% in public areas (3,452 incidents) and by 11% at business establishments, including Jewish-owned businesses. 

The states with the highest levels of incidents were New York (1,437) and California (1,344). Their largest cities, New York City (976) and Los Angeles (297), also reported the most incidents in their respective states. 

“This horrifying level of antisemitism should never be accepted and yet, as our data shows, it has become a persistent and grim reality for American Jewish communities,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “Jewish Americans continue to be harassed, assaulted and targeted for who they are on a daily basis and everywhere they go. But let’s be clear: we will remain proud of our Jewish culture, religion and identities, and we will not be intimidated by bigots.”

A few categories saw declines in antisemitism in 2024 compared to the previous year. These include antisemitism by white supremacist groups, which decreased by 17%; and a 26% reported decrease in public K-12 schools. (The ADL noted that due to fear of being bullied, it is likely that many school children do not report antisemitic incidents.) 

The ADL’s audit has been criticized in recent years for changing its methodology of what constitutes an antisemitic incident while still comparing data year-to-year. After Oct. 7, it began including “expressions of opposition to Zionism, as well as support for resistance against Israel or Zionists” — for instance, spray painting “Free Gaza” in certain contexts could be considered antisemitic — which resulted in a significant increase in the number of incidents in the 2023 audit, although figures would still be more than double compared to 2022 regardless of the change. The 2024 methodology is the same as the 2023 methodology.

“Following the explosion of anti-Israel activism which included radical attacks on Zionism and people who support Israel, ADL has begun counting some of those expressions in the audit when they cross the line into antisemitism,” an ADL spokesperson told eJP, adding that the group makes an effort not to “conflate general criticism of Israel or anti-Israel activism with antisemitism.”

“Legitimate political protest, support for Palestinian rights or expressions of opposition to Israeli policies is not included in the audit,” the spokesperson said. “Although the context of certain language may evolve over time, this does not prevent us from comparing audit data to previous years. It is a reflection of the time and our data is still comparable year over year.”