A memorial across the street from the Chabad of Poway Synagogue, April 28. Photo: Sandy Huffaker/AFP/Getty Images
Jewish Americans experienced "near-historic levels of anti-Semitism" in 2018, the Anti-Defamation League said as it issued a report Tuesday showing assaults doubled and the single deadliest attack in the U.S. was recorded against the community.
Details: The ADL's annual Audit of Anti-Semitic incidents "identified 59 people who were victims of anti-Semitic assaults in 2018, up from 21 in 2017." The international Jewish nongovernmental organization said in a statement that 2018 was "marked by the white supremacist shooting spree at a Pittsburgh synagogue, which claimed 11 lives, and punctuated by a dramatic surge in white supremacist propaganda activity nationwide."
We unfortunately saw this trend continue into 2019 with the tragic shooting at the Chabad synagogue in Poway.— Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO and national director
By the numbers: The report recorded a total of 1,879 attacks against Jewish people and institutions in the U.S. in 2018 — the third-highest year on record since the ADL began tracking such data in the 1970s. Overall attacks that include vandalism and harassment were near record-high levels.
"While the overall number of incidents represents a 5 percent decline from 1,986 incidents reported in 2017, the number of incidents last year remained at near-historic levels — 48 percent higher than the total for 2016 and 99 percent higher than in 2015."