More antisemitic incidents were reported in 2021 than in any other year since the Anti-Defamation League began tracking them in 1979.

The ADL released its annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents on Tuesday, which found there were 2,717 incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism reported to the organization last year. That is 34% higher than in 2020 and shatters the previous high watermark of 2,107 in 2019.

There were new highs in virtually every category the report tracks. Attacks against Jewish institutions, including synagogues and community centers, increased 61%, incidents at K-12 schools were up 106%, and incidents on college campuses were 21% higher compared to a year earlier.

Assaults increased 167%, up from 33 in 2020 to 88 last year. They included more than a dozen in which people were “beaten and brutalized in broad daylight without any provocation, attacked for the crime of wearing a kippah,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the Anti-Defamation League’s CEO and national director, said in a Zoom call. 

There were 43% more incidents of harassment, and vandalism rose 14%, according to the report. 

The report linked a surge in antisemitic incidents to the May 2021 conflict between Israel and Hamas. There were 387 incidents that month, a 148% year-over-year increase. 

“What’s notable is that we have had acts of terror in the Middle East, conflict that has often sparked some antisemitism, but never quite like this — raw, relentless violence and harassment targeting Jews,” Greenblatt said.

“When Jews are being attacked, when synagogues are being vandalized, when Jewish communal offices are being targeted because people are upset about the politics overseas, I’m sorry, that’s antisemitism,” he added. “And it is as wrong as targeting Asian American people because you’re upset about what’s happening in China or targeting people who are Latino in this country cause you’re upset about what’s happening at the border. It is despicable and disgraceful that it happens.”

But the report also said there were spikes in November and December that could not be linked to a triggering factor. 

Greenblatt said no single ideology could be blamed for antisemitic activity in the United States, but he added that at least 484 incidents were attributable to known extremist groups or individuals inspired by extremist ideology — an 18% increase from 2020. Nearly 90% of those incidents involved written propaganda in forms such as fliers, banners and stickers. 

Some extremists live-streamed their activity while soliciting donations through cryptocurrency, said Oren Segal, vice president of the ADL’s Center on Extremism.

The states with the most antisemitic incidents were New York (416), New Jersey (370), California (370), Florida (190), Michigan (112) and Texas (112). Those six states accounted for 58% of all reported events. 

To tackle the problem, Greenblatt called for a series of steps: 

• State and federal leaders providing more security at synagogues, schools and community services and additional funding for nonprofit security grants.

• Law enforcement officers receiving enhanced training for responding to and preventing hate crimes.

• People in positions of authority — elected officials, business and religious leaders, college presidents and others — speaking out
  “swiftly and sharply and without hesitation” against antisemitism.

• Schools introducing “antibias, antihate, Holocaust education content to their students so we can inoculate our kids before intolerance takes hold.”