Antisemitic incidents remained at a historically high level across the United States in 2020, with a total of 2,024 incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism reported to the Anti-Defamation League. While antisemitic incidents declined by 4% after hitting an all-time high in 2019, last year was still the third-highest year for incidents against American Jews since ADL started tracking such data in 1979.
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ADL's annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, issued on Tuesday, recorded a total of 1,242 incidents of harassment, an increase of 10% from 2019. At the same time, reported acts of vandalism and assault declined by 18% and 49%, respectively, and there were no antisemitic fatalities reported in 2020.
"While any decline in the data is encouraging, we still experienced a year in which antisemitic acts remained at a disturbingly high level despite lockdowns and other significant changes in our daily lives and interactions with others," said ADL CEO and National Director Jonathan A. Greenblatt.
"We can't let our guard down. As communities begin to open up and people spend more time in person with others, we must remain vigilant."
The year was dramatically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led in some cases to Jews and other marginalized communities being blamed or scapegoated for spreading the virus.
The ADL also noted an increase in incidents of antisemitic "Zoom bombing" – the intentional disruption of live videoconferences. In 2020, ADL recorded 196 incidents of antisemitic videoconferencing attacks. Of those incidents, 114 targeted Jewish institutions such as schools and synagogues.
A breakdown of the ADL's data found that in 2020, ADL counted a total of 2,024 antisemitic incidents across the US: 1,242 harassment incidents, 751 vandalism incidents, and 31 incidents of assault, where individuals were physically targeted with violence accompanied by evidence of antisemitic animus.
Incidents were reported in 47 states as well as the District of Columbia. The states with the highest numbers of incidents were New York: 336, New Jersey: 295, California: 289, Florida: 127 and Pennsylvania: 101. Combined, these states account for nearly 57% of the total number of incidents, the report found.
Furthermore, in 2020, there were 327 reported incidents at Jewish institutions such as synagogues, Jewish community centers and Jewish schools, an increase of 40% from 234 in 2019. Of that total, 264 were incidents of harassment, 61 were incidents of vandalism and 3 were incidents of assault.
ADL's Audit recorded 331 antisemitic incidents attributed to known extremist groups or individuals inspired by extremist ideology. This represents 16% of the total number of incidents. White supremacist groups were responsible for 277 antisemitic propaganda distributions. Other extremist activity included provocations by the Goyim Defense League, a loose network of individuals connected by their virulent antisemitism.
A total of 178 antisemitic incidents in 2020 involved references to Israel or Zionism, compared to 175 in 2019. Of those, 38 appeared in the form of white supremacist propaganda efforts, which attempt to foment anti-Israel and antisemitic beliefs.
"There was a marked decline of school-based incidents after March when nearly all schools moved to fully remote learning, so the pandemic definitely played a role in shifting how and where antisemitism manifested in 2020," Greenblatt said. "This was offset to some degree by the high number of Zoombombing incidents targeting Jewish people and other marginalized communities."
In response to the historic rise in antisemitic incidents over the past four years, the Anti-Defamation League has made the following policy recommendations:
Public officials and civic leaders – from the president to governors, attorneys general, mayors, other civic leaders, and law enforcement authorities – should use their bully pulpits to speak out against antisemitism and all forms of hate and extremism.
Federal, state, and local authorities should provide funding for security hardening and enhancements for at-risk houses of worship, schools, community centers, and other non-profit institutions. At a time of increased attention to white supremacy, antisemitism, extremist and hate-motivated violence, the federal government and states should significantly increase the Non-Profit Security Grant Program funding and institutional security training and outreach.
Governments should provide law enforcement officials with the tools and guidance they need to prevent and effectively identify, investigate and respond to hate crimes while providing trauma-informed comfort and assistance to individual victims and community members. Additionally, law enforcement agencies should use data from the FBI, Department of Education, and NGOs such ADL and Stop AAPI Hate to anticipate where hate incidents are most likely to occur and to proactively contact community members and institutions to strengthen relationships and collaboration.
Congress should give the Justice Department the tools it needs to support law enforcement agencies in strengthening their practices and capacity to investigate and report on hate crimes by enacting the Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act. Congress can advance its goals by requesting an accounting from the Attorney General of law enforcement agencies' hate crime reporting practices, and by directing state and local law enforcement assistance to programs and efforts that improve hate crime investigation, record-keeping and reporting.
School districts should promote anti-bias, bullying prevention and Holocaust and genocide education programs in elementary and secondary schools. University leadership should respond firmly and forcefully to antisemitic acts on college campuses, including incidents that target Jewish students because of their actual or perceived support of the state of Israel.
The ADL audit includes both criminal and non-criminal acts of harassment and intimidation, including distribution of hate propaganda, threats and slurs, as well as vandalism and assault.
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