Update March 24 at 1:25 p.m.
Across the United States last year, there were an unprecedented 3,697 recorded incidents of antisemitic assaults, harassment and vandalism, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which has been tracking antisemitic incidents since the 1970s.
Massachusetts ranked sixth in the nation in the number of such acts. There were 152 incidents fueled by hatred against Jewish people in 71 cities and towns across the state. That long list included antisemitic graffiti on the campus of Curry College, a swastika etched on the lawn of a Stoneham family, and a car in Stowe defaced by crude anti-Jewish slurs.
At a virtual press conference Thursday to announce its latest findings, ADL officials described 2022 as the worst year on record, with a 500% increase in reported antisemitic incidents compared to a decade ago.
Peggy Shukur, interim director of ADL New England, said there is no single reason why antisemitic incidents are on the rise, but pointed to several contributing factors.
"We saw that two weeks ago, when we announced our extremist propaganda report, a large portion of that propaganda is antisemitic," Shukur said. "But there's also been growing acceptance of antisemitism in mainstream pop culture, growing normalization of antisemitism in everyday conversation in the workplace, and a pervasive view that antisemitism is still a thing of the past and isn't really a problem."
Shukur, in an interview with GBH News, said the stepped up activity by organized white supremacists had also led to a 41% increase in incidents from 2021 to 2022. In one such incident in Danvers, a neo-Nazi group hung a banner from a highway overpass with wording that blamed Jews for the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. Dozens of local residents, Jews and non-Jews, responded by holding a rally on the same spot condeming hate.
Across New England, ADL documented 204 antisemitic incidents in 2022.
In February, elected officials in New Hampshire convened a summit on hate in Manchester to address multiple incidents carried out by organized white supremacist groups, including a neo-Nazi campaign of harrassment against a Jewish business owner in Franklin. Two weeks prior to the summit, New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella charged the Nationalist Socialist Club (NSC-131) and two of its leaders with violating the state’s Civil Rights Act. The complaint stemmed from an incident last summer when NSC-131 members hung a banner over an overpass in Portsmouth reading "Keep New England white."
Similar incidents of racism and antisemitism were reported in Vermont, Maine, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
ADL officials said the incidents have also become increasingly violent. White supremacists, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, have committed the greatest number of domestic extremist-related murders over time, with especially high figures in 2022. The ADL said that 21 of 25 murders carried out by extremists last year were linked to white supremacists involved in mass murders.
At the press conference, ADL President Jonathan Greenblatt also alluded to what academics like Timothy Snyder of Yale, author of "On Tyranny," describe as a growing authoritarian movement in the country. Greenblatt said that the problem is antisemitism is not just a Jewish problem. He said it is "the canary in the coal mine of democracy."
The Anti-Defamation League attributes some recent incidents directly to music artist Kanye West, now known simply as Ye. Researchers said that since October of last year, ADL documented at least 30 antisemitic incidents "that directly reference Ye." Just this week, a suspect was arrested in Palm Beach County Florida after attempting to run over three bicyclist, including an 11-year-old Jewish child. Witnesses said he barreled toward the child and their father. Two of those targeted escaped serious injury, but the father was treated for a torn leg muscle and possible internal injuries. According to police, during his arrest the man, identified as 20 year old Marcendy Elie, screamed "Kanye was right." Elie was charged with two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and one count of leaving the scene of an accident with bodily injury.
Other incidents that the ADL attributed to the influence of Ye's "conspiratorial, bigoted rants" included vandalism, banner drops, targeted harassment, and campus propaganda distributions."
Shukur said education is an important response to the ignorance and hatred online and in popular culture. A campaign by the Brookline-based nonprofit Facing History and Ourselves succeeded last year in legislating a mandatory Holocaust and genocide education.
But ADL leaders and others said other more is needed to confront growing antisemitism, including increased security at Jewish houses of worship and other sites.
Correction: This article was updated to correct the spelling of Peggy Shukur’s name.
