U.S. incidents of antisemitism fell by a third last year after hitting a record high in 2024, but the nature of the attacks grew more violent as the nation continues to grapple with the fallout from the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli civilians.
The Anti-Defamation League’s annual audit released Wednesday tracked 6,274 incidents in 2025, a 33% decrease from the previous year’s peak of 9,354 antisemitism episodes, which include vandalism, harassment and physical assaults.
That was the good news. The bad news was that assaults rose by 4% from 196 in 2024 to 203 in 2025, including attacks that resulted in three fatalities. They represent the first U.S. deaths spurred by Jew hatred since 2019, according to the audit.
In addition, there were 32 antisemitic assaults last year involving weapons, up from 23 such attacks in 2024.
“Our 2025 Audit, which shows it was one of the most violent years for American Jews on record, is a reminder of how dramatically the threat landscape has shifted. Numbers that would have shocked us five years ago are now our floor,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “People are being murdered because of antisemitism on American soil, and thousands more are threatened. ADL will not stop until that baseline changes.”
Antisemitic incidents soared from 3,698 in 2022 to 8,873 in 2023 following the massacre and kidnapping of Israelis and others by Hamas terrorists, which prompted Israel to declare war and touched off a wave of anti-Israel activism by pro-Palestinian groups on U.S. campuses.
The ADL said that the 33% decrease year-to-year “remains considerably higher than the total in the years prior to the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in Israel,” as well as the third-highest year behind 2023 and 2024 since the organization began tracking incidents in 1979.
The decrease in harassment and vandalism was attributed in part to a decline in antisemitic incidents on U.S. universities and colleges, which plummeted by 66% from 2024 to 2025.
“Anti-Israel rallies featuring extreme anti-Israel rhetoric that crossed the line into antisemitism also decreased significantly – 67 percent overall and 83 percent on college campuses,” said the ADL.
Combating campus antisemitism has been a priority for the ADL, the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, and the Trump administration, which has wielded the loss of federal funding against U.S. universities failing to protect Jewish students and staff from discrimination.
The number of incidents related to Israel or Zionism fell year-to-year from 58% to 45%, while the distribution of white supremacist propaganda fell by nearly 50%.
2025 marked the one of the most violent periods for American Jews in recent history.
Three people were murdered: Two in D.C. and one in Boulder, CO.
2025 also marks the first year since 2019 during which Jewish people were murdered in the antisemitic attacks on American soil. pic.twitter.com/xl2SEHolQo
— ADL (@ADL) May 6, 2026
The suspects in last year’s three fatalities were allegedly motivated by anti-Israel sentiment.
Two Israeli Embassy staffers, Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, were gunned down in May 2025 as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in the District. The suspect, Elias Rodriguez, allegedly shouted “Free Palestine!” during his arrest.
Karen Diamond, 82, died of injuries sustained in the June 2025 flamethrower attack on participants in the Run for Their Lives walk in Boulder, Colorado, an event held in support of the Hamas-held hostages.
The perpetrator, Egyptian national Mohamed Soliman, pleaded guilty Monday to all state charges filed against him, including murder and attempted murder. He previously told police that he wanted to kill Zionists.
Other notable attacks include the April 2025 arson at the Pennsylvania Governor’s Mansion targeting Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish. Pleading guilty was Cody Balmer, who said he targeted the governor’s home over the Gaza war.
In December, Elias Rosner, an Orthodox Jewish man, was wounded after being stabbed in the chest as he left the Crown Heights synagogue in New York City. He later said the suspect, Armani Charles, told him he was “going to kill a Jew today.”
“Behind every one of these incidents is a real person: a family threatened at their synagogue, a rabbi attacked on the street, a student harassed on campus,” said Oren Segal, ADL senior vice president for counter-extremism and intelligence. “2025 brought some of the most violent antisemitic attacks in recent memory. Even as overall incidents declined, the surge in physical assaults is a stark reminder that a historically high level of antisemitism puts Jewish lives at risk.”
