ADL: Violent anti-Semitic attacks in U.S. reached peak in 2025

May 6 (UPI) -- Physical anti-Semitic assaults were the highest on record in 2025 since tracking began, according to a report released Wednesday by the Anti-Defamation League.

There was an overall decline of vandalism and harassment from record highs in 2023 and 2024, the ADL said, but violent attacks didn't see the same pattern.

In 2025, there was an average of 17 incidents per day, compared with an average of eight between 2020 and 2022.

There were 6,274 anti-Semitic incidents in the United States, the ADL reported, a 33% decline from 9,354 in 2024, but five times more than 10 years ago.

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Physical assaults in the United States rose from 196 in 2024 to 203 in 2025. Incidents of harassment decreased by 39% to 4,003 incidents. Vandalism decreased by 21% to 2,068 incidents, the report said.

In 2025, three people were killed in anti-Semitic attacks in the United States, the first since 2022.

In May 2025, Israeli Embassy workers Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. A month later, a man attacked a group of people demonstrating in support of Israeli hostages in Boulder, Colo., injuring eight. One woman later died from her injuries.

Before that, the last death from anti-Semitism was in 2022, when a University of Arizona professor was shot and killed by a graduate student who believed he was Jewish, though he wasn't.

"The fact that anti-Semitic assaults have not decreased over two years since Oct. 7, 2023, is a sobering reminder that this fight is far from over and that the safety of Jewish communities depends on our collective willingness to meet this moment with urgency," the report said.

Anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses decreased significantly in 2025, the ADL report said, after the anti-Israel encampment movement declined. The encampments increased anti-Semitic events on campuses in the spring of 2025, but overall, incidents decreased by 83% in 2025 compared with the year before.

Vandalism (51%) and assault (72%) incidents on college campuses dropped significantly in 2025. Efforts to address this activity appear to have helped, reducing the volume of anti-Semitic messaging on campuses and making those campuses safer for Jewish students and community members.

Still, incidents on college campuses were almost three times higher in 2025 than in 2021.

Anti-Semitism is rising worldwide, too.

In Europe and Britain, a wave of attacks and vandalism has prompted counterterrorism investigations.

Global incidents spiked alongside the war in Gaza, with one analysis finding a 34% rise in anti-Semitism worldwide after fighting escalated in the region, Axios reported.

A December attack in Australia during a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach killed 15 and injured 40.