Antisemitic Incidents, Assaults Hit All-Time Highs in New York and New Jersey, ADL Says

Antisemitic incidents in the United States hit an all-time high in 2021, and New York and New Jersey accounted for nearly 30% of the reported total, the Anti-Defamation League said Tuesday.

Incidents (vandalism, harassment, assault) were up sharply last year, the ADL said in its annual summary - a function of pandemic restrictions decreasing, but also backlash to Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in May 2021.

The ADL recorded 416 incidents in New York in 2021, including a record 51 assaults, most of them in Brooklyn. The group reported another 370 total incidents in New Jersey, a record as well.

“The alarming uptick in antisemitic incidents in our state should be deeply concerning to all - Jews and those outside of the Jewish community,” Scott Richman, regional director for the ADL in New York and New Jersey, said in a statement.

“The fact that these incidents included an unprecedented number of vicious assaults - frequently targeting visibly Jewish individuals on the streets of New York, including young children, is incredibly disturbing."

The rise in antisemitic incidents mirrors a broader trend in the city -- hate crimes rose 24% in the first four months of 2021 versus the same period in 2020, and are up another 32% in the same period this year, per NYPD data.