The Rise of Antisemitism and Hate Crimes in America

In 2024, the FBI recorded 1,938 hate crimes targeting Jews — the highest number since the bureau began collecting data in 1991. The Anti-Defamation League documented 9,354 antisemitic incidents, also the highest on record since tracking began in 1979. Jews, who represent 2% of the American population, were targeted by 69% of all religion-based hate crimes. Antisemitism is not a relic of the past. It is a growing and accelerating feature of American life in the present.

Record Numbers Across Every Metric

Every major data source on antisemitism in America tells the same story: an accelerating surge that has been building for nearly a decade and has intensified dramatically in the period since October 7, 2023. The ADL’s 2024 audit recorded 9,354 antisemitic incidents — a 5% increase from 2023 and the highest total in 45 years of tracking. FBI hate crime data confirmed 1,938 single-bias hate crimes against Jews in 2024, a 5.8% increase from 2023 and the highest figure ever recorded.

In New York City alone — home to the largest Jewish population of any city outside Israel — police reported 330 antisemitic incidents in 2025, representing 57% of all suspected hate crimes in the city. A Jewish person was targeted in a suspected antisemitic attack every 26 hours. These are not statistics from Weimar Germany. They are from the most diverse, tolerant, and pluralistic city in the Western world, in 2025.

Violence Is Increasing

What distinguishes the current surge from previous periods of elevated antisemitism is the increasing prevalence of serious violence. In 2025, three people were killed in antisemitic attacks — the first antisemitic murders in the United States since 2019. Notable incidents in 2025 included a shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., Molotov cocktail attacks at a Jewish community event in Colorado, a firebombing of a governor’s residence, and a street stabbing of a Jewish man in New York. These are not acts of vandalism or slur-shouting. They are attempts at mass murder motivated by hatred of Jews.

The social environment around these attacks has also deteriorated. The share of Americans categorized as “allies” — well-informed about antisemitism and willing to stand against it — fell from 15% in 2023 to 9% in 2025. The share categorized as “haters” grew from 6% to 10% in the same period. The middle — people who are aware of antisemitism but not particularly motivated to oppose it — has grown. The guardrails are weakening.

“Antisemitism is never just a Jewish problem. It is a diagnostic indicator of the health of a democratic society. When Jews can be openly targeted without serious social consequence, it signals that the norms protecting all minorities have weakened. History has confirmed this repeatedly.”

Why Antisemitism Is an Index Indicator

The Moral Decay Index tracks antisemitism not merely as a hate crime statistic but as a bellwether. Societies do not descend into broad moral collapse all at once — they do so incrementally, with the most vulnerable and historically targeted minorities serving as the canary in the coal mine. The normalization of open hatred toward any group — the willingness to dehumanize, to threaten, to attack — represents a degradation of the moral norms that protect everyone. What is tolerated against Jews today has historically predicted what will be tolerated against others tomorrow.