Antisemitic Incidents Reach Record High In U.S., Georgia: Report

GEORGIA — Antisemitic incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism reached an all-time high in Georgia and nationwide in 2021, according to an Anti-Defamation League report released Tuesday.

The ADL’s annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents describes 2,717 attacks on Jewish people last year, a 34 percent year-over-year increase, according to the ADL, which began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979.

That amounts to an increase of more than seven antisemitic incidents a day.

In Georgia, the ADL noted 49 antisemitic incidents in 2021. A year earlier, 21 such incidents were recorded.

In September 2021, swastiskas and antisemitic messages were found in two different Cobb County high schools on two separate days. The Cobb County School District Board of Education didn't immediately acknowledge the incidents, which prompted a petition calling on the board to condemn the actions.

In the first incident, antisemitic messages like the words "Hail Hitler" and a pair of swastikas were found written in pen on the walls of a boys' bathroom at Pope High School — a week before the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur.

A week later, swastikas and "Heil Hitler" were also found scrawled behind stall doors in two Lassiter High School bathrooms. School officials said both incidents appear to be linked to a social media trend on TikTok encouraging teenagers to vandalize their schools with hate speech.

Some of the antisemitic actions reported to the ADL were:

Cartersville: The Russian invasion of Ukraine drew white supremacist action March 29. People associated with the antisemitic Goyim Defense League, including known white supremacists, distributed propaganda in a residential neighborhood that read: "Every single aspect of the Ukraine-Russia war is Jewish."

Chamblee: In December 2021, A Jewish student was subjected to antisemitic remarks and a heil Hitler salute in a middle school class.

Lawrenceville: In November 2021, a flyer from the white supremacist National Justice Party was posted throughout a residential neighborhood.

Dunwoody: A Holocaust memorial at the Jewish Family Career Services of Dunwoody was vandalized in June 2021.

Decatur: In March 2021, an elderly couple, one of whom is a Jewish Holocaust survivor, was harassed by their neighbor who told them, "Why don't you just leave or die? Hitler, Hitler."

Antisemitic incidents “reached a high watermark across virtually every category” in the audit, the ADL said, including at:

• Jewish institutions such as synagogues and community centers, up 61 percent.
• K-12 schools, up 106 percent.
• College campuses, up 21 percent.

Physical assaults increased 167 percent, incidents of harassment increased 43 percent, and acts of antisemitic violence rose 14 percent, according to the audit.

The ADL reported a surge in violence during the May 2021 conflict between Israel and Hamas. Antisemitic incidents, including violent attacks on Jewish people, increased 148 percent from the previous May as hundreds of anti-Israel protests took place in dozens of U.S. cities on May 10, the date marking the official start of military action.

“While we have always seen a rise in antisemitic activity during periods of increased hostilities between Israel and terrorist groups, the violence we witnessed in America during the conflict last May was shocking,” ADL chief executive and national director Jonathan A. Greenblatt said in a news release.

“Jews were being attacked in the streets for no other reason than the fact that they were Jewish, and it seemed as if the working assumption was that if you were Jewish, you were blameworthy for what was happening half a world away.”

Anti-Israel protests accounted for only a portion of the violent attacks on Jews in 2021, and not the largest portion, according to the ADL. Physical assaults also spiked in November and December, when there were no contributing geopolitical events.

Nearly 18 percent of the incidents last year — at least 484 — were attributable to actions by domestic extremists, the ADL said.

“When it comes to antisemitic activity in America, you cannot point to any single ideology or belief system, and in many cases, we simply don’t know the motivation,” Greenblatt said in the release. “But we do know that Jews are experiencing more antisemitic incidents than we have in this country in at least 40 years, and that’s a deeply troubling indicator of larger societal fissures.”

2021 Findings: By The Numbers

Total antisemitic incidents: 2,717, up 34 percent

Assaults: 88, up 167 percent

• Victims: 131
• Use of deadly weapons: 11
• Fatalities: 0

Harassment: 1,776 incidents, up 43 percent

Vandalism: 853 incidents, up 14 percent

• Swastikas used in 578 incidents

States reporting incidents: 50 and the District of Columbia, with the following states accounting for 58 percent of total incidents:

• New York: 416
• New Jersey: 370
• California: 367
• Florida: 190
• Michigan: 112
• Texas: 112

Antisemitic incidents at Jewish Institutions: 525

• Harassment: 413
• Vandalism: 101
• Assaults: 11

About 25 percent, or 111 incidents, were linked to anti-Zionist or anti-Israel sentiments. Domestic extremist groups or individuals inspired by extremist ideology were responsible for 484 antisemitic incidents, 18 percent of the total, the ADL said.

• White supremacist groups and extremists were responsible for 422 antisemitic propaganda distributions, a 52 percent increase from the year before.
• A total of 345 antisemitic incidents in 2021 involved references to Israel or Zionism; of them, 68 appeared in the form of white supremacist propaganda efforts, which the ADL said attempt to strengthen anti-Israel and antisemitic beliefs.