An annual audit by the Anti-Defamation League of antisemitic incidents, including vandalism, harassment and assaults expressing Jewish hate, found the number nearly tripled in Washington in 2023 compared to the year prior.
The ADL logged over 8,800 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. last year. That’s a 140% increase from 2022 and is the highest number on record since the ADL began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979. Washington saw the 15th-highest number of incidents in the nation, recording 190.
There was a large uptick in antisemitic incidents after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed about 1,200 people and led to the Israeli siege that’s killed and pushed Gaza to famine, the ADL said. The organization updated its methodology for tracking antisemitism after the start of the war.
Of the incidents in Washington, 158 were harassment, 31 were vandalism and one was classified as an assault. The audit includes criminal and noncriminal incidents against individuals and groups. The majority of the incidents included in the 2023 audit were reported to the ADL directly by Jewish victims.
More than half of incidents tracked after Oct. 7 contained references “to Israel, Palestine or Zionism,” according to the ADL. Excluding Israel-related incidents, antisemitic incidents still rose by 65% to 5,711 from the 3,457 non-Israel-related incidents recorded in 2022.
After Oct. 7, the methodology of the audit was updated to include some expressions of opposition to Zionism, as well as support for resistance against Israel or Zionists that “could be perceived as supporting terrorism or attacks on Jews, Israelis or Zionists,” according to the ADL. The organization added it has been careful not to conflate political criticism of Israel or Israeli governance with antisemitism in the audit.
In one incident, a Seattle Jewish-owned business received a message on social media that read, “You can’t hide … Muslims in King County outnumber Jews. Righteous anti-Zionist free people outnumber Zionists.”
Of the 1,800 pro-Palestinian demonstrations audited by the ADL after Oct. 7, about 1,300 of them included “promotion of classic antisemitic tropes, unapologetic support for terrorism and extreme anti-Zionism,” according to the ADL.
“In cases where there was perhaps a protest or other efforts related to anti-Zionism or anti-Israel activity that clearly crossed over into antisemitic nature, conspiracy theories, myths, stereotypes, actions, etc., certain incidents like that were included,” said Miri Cypers, ADL’s Pacific Northwest regional director.
The ADL has previously also included incidents of anti-Zionist political expression in its antisemitism tally, which has been controversial among Jews, experts and even within the organization’s ranks. For instance, the ADL counts the anti-Zionist slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as antisemitic rhetoric. Some see it as an antisemitic call for eradicating Israel, though many pro-Palestinian activists often reject that claim, arguing it’s a call for Palestinian dignity.
Islamophobic and anti-Arab incidents have also spiked since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations has sounded the alarm on rising anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim incidents.
Hate crime statistics have historically been difficult to analyze due to underreporting. Ryan Bruett, FBI Seattle field office acting supervisory special agent, said people should report incidents even if they aren’t sure whether it constitutes a hate crime.
“This is not a time for panic, but it is a time for vigilance,” Bruett said.
Nationwide, Jewish institutions, including synagogues and schools, were targeted with nearly 2,000 incidents last year, including a dramatic spike in bomb threats to synagogues.
In Seattle, several synagogues and UW Hillel received suspicious envelopes with a white powder, sending the community on high alert in November.
The spike in antisemitism has often reflected the sweeping generalizations some make about Jews — casting them on one “side” of a polarizing conflict, no matter how much or little they identify with Israel.
The league recorded antisemitic incidents at over 300 universities and logged 12 incidents at the University of Washington, making it the college with the 5th-most incidents on the list.
“On Mercer Island, my own synagogue was horribly vandalized around last November with anti-Israel graffiti that was in red meant to signify blood that said, ‘stop killing’ and ‘shame,’” Cypers said. “The totality of this data is really stark, as are the individual stories as well.”
“There is so much that we have to do and can do to continue to create change and to not allow antisemitism and other forms of bigotry to be normalized as it is now,” Cypers said. “First of all, speaking out and reporting is crucial.”
