US sees record high anti-Semitic incidents in 2019: report

NEW YORK - A total of 2,107 anti-Semitic incidents were reported in the United States in 2019, hitting the highest annual tally in over four decades, a New York City-based Jewish civil right group reported on Tuesday.

Out of the counted anti-Semitic attacks, 61 were physical assault cases, 1,127 were harassment instances and 919 were acts of vandalism, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said in a report quoted by the Washington Post.

The 2019 data increased by 12 percent from the 2018 record of 1,879 cases, the report said.

The severe attacks in 2019 listed by the ADL include a fatal shooting in California by a white supremacist on April 27, a fatal shooting at a supermarket in Jersey City, New Jersey on Dec. 10, and stabbings at a Hanukkah celebration in Monsey, New York, on Dec. 28.

Last year's record high of anti-Semitic incidents was due to a normalization of anti-Semitic tropes, the politics of the day and social media, ADL CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt was quoted as saying.

Calling anti-Semitism "a virus" and "like a disease," he also said the COVID-19 pandemic this year is fueling anti-Semitic theories.

The ADL started to count the anti-Semitic incidents in 1979. According to an ADL survey on Jewish encounters with anti-Semitism in the United States released on April 21, nearly two-thirds of American Jews believe that they are less safe today than they were a decade ago.