Antisemitic Hate Incidents At U.S. Record: What’s Happening In VA, DC

VIRGINIA — Antisemitic incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism, including dozens in Virginia and the District of Columbia, reached an all-time high in 2021, according to an Anti-Defamation League report released Tuesday.

In Virginia, the ADL noted 46 antisemitic incidents in 2021. A year earlier, 49 such incidents were recorded in the Commonwealth. A total of 53 such incidents were tallied in the District of Columbia.

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.

On Feb. 20, about 80 antisemitic flyers were found in a Wolf Trap area neighborhood, leading to a police investigation. A resident found a flyer on his property in a sealed plastic bag weighed down with corn kernels. But 70 to 80 other flyers were found in the neighborhood.

Police found a swastika spray-painted onto an overpass in Manassas on Feb. 2, according to a report from the Prince William County Police Department. Authorities said the graffiti included the swastika and numbers, but there was no specific threat.

In late June 2021, threats of violence were left on the voicemail of the Jewish Temple of Congregation Ner Shalom, Prince William County's only synagogue.

Jillian Perry, the temple's vice president of membership, said, "As individuals many of us have heard in person and seen over social media the increase in antisemitic comments. Luckily we live in a great community with a lot of support from our interfaith brothers and sisters."

Some of the antisemitic actions reported to the ADL in the last year were:

Fairfax Station: The Loyal White Knights, a Klan group, distributed propaganda June 16 attacking the Fairfax County school board members as "Jew-Inspired, Communist, Queer-Loving Sex Fiends.”

Annandale: In June of 2021 a school playground was vandalized with three swastikas.

Falls Church: During a school board meeting in May 2021, one parent said to another that Israel "should be spoken against" because "Jews control all the banks and media."

Alexandria: A Bar Mitzvah service in February 2021 was zoombombed with antisemitic and racist chat messages.

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.