According to the FBI, hate crimes have been at an all-time high in 2020, with 10,528 people reporting that they have been victims of a hate crime.
15 percent of the reported incidents were due to the victim’s religion, with hate crimes against Jews making up almost 60 percent of reported hate crimes committed due to religious affiliation. Additionally, 53 percent of the hate crimes towards Jews were around destruction, damage, and vandalism of property.
This trend of antisemitic hate can also be seen on a global scale. A December 2018 EU survey shows that 80 percent of European Jews believe that antisemitism has been on the rise in their country over the past 5 years, with 40 percent reporting to live in daily fear of being physically attacked. Unfortunately, due to the prevalence of antisemitic harassment, people have adapted to normalize the incidents, further fueling the normalization of antisemitism throughout society and preventing governing authorities from seeing how widespread antisemitism really is.
After the Gaza Conflict in May, antisemitic attacks raged through the US, with the Anti-Defamation League, an organization working to stop the defamation of Jews, receiving 193 reports of possible antisemitic violence both in person and through social media. Many non-profits, including Amnesty International, called upon President Biden to speak out against the attacks.
Paul O’Brien, Amnesty International’s executive director stated, “Intimidating worshipers at synagogues, defacing the Star of David, and using images and words that invoke antisemitic tropes is appalling and abusive, and when done in the name of protesting the actions of the Israeli government, belie the perpetrator’s motives and do nothing to advance human rights.”
Although it may be too early to tell what triggered the uptick in antisemitic hate crime, research from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernadino shows that the months with the most antisemitic hate crimes over the past three decades have usually come as a response to the conflict between Israeli and Palestinians in the Middle East.
Jews make up a mere 2.4 percent of the US population according to Pew Research Center.