Unsettling ADL report show antisemitic assaults against surging

More New Yorkers and Americans who outwardly identify as Jewish are being violently attacked or threatened, according to an unsettling new report released Wednesday.

The number of assaults targeting Jewish victims in New York jumped nearly 10% last year from 82 to 90 and 4% nationwide, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s annual audit of antisemitic incidents released Wednesday.

New York — which has the largest Jewish population of any state — accounted for 44% of all documented antisemitic assaults nationally.

But there was an overall dip in antisemitic incidents, with a 19% decline in New York State in 2025 and a 33% drop nationally — although the totals were still double the totals in 2022, before the Hamas terror attacks on Oct. 7, 2023 that sparked an Israel campaign in Gaza.

In contrast with the overall reduction, Brooklyn saw a 10% increase in antisemitic incidents in 2025, totaling 278, compared to 253 in 2024.

Physical assaults rose in Brooklyn from 32 to 50, accounting for one quarter of all documented antisemitic assaults nationwide, the ADL said.

Incidents targeting Orthodox Jews identified by their garb in Brooklyn increased 39% year-over-year, from 38 to 53.

Jewish-motivated incidents against Brooklyn businesses jumped from 23 in 2024 to 40 in 2025.

“While it is encouraging that reported antisemitic incidents in New York fell by nearly 20% in
2025, the 1,160 cases which we tracked and responded to remains double the number before the massive spike post 10/7, and I know firsthand that too many New Yorkers lived in fear in 2025 of being the victim of antisemitism,” said ADL New York / New Jersey Regional Director Scott Richman.

“This decline does mark the first reversal of an upward trend that has persisted every year since 2021, but the numbers make clear that much work remains.”

Last year marked one of the most violent and deadly periods for American Jews since ADL began tracking data in 1979.

Three people were murdered in antisemitic attacks last year: two Israeli diplomats gunned down in the May 21, 2025, shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, and one victim who died from injuries sustained in the June 1, 2025, firebombing attack at a “Run for Their Lives” event in Boulder, Colorado.

An arsonist also torched the residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, in an attempted political assassination.

Examples of incidents targeting Brooklyn and other city Jewish residents in 2025 include:

• In February, a Jewish girl was physically assaulted in South Williamsburg, dragged to the ground by her hair, and thrown into a pile of trash.
• In April, a Brooklyn resident knocked on a Jewish neighbor’s door and said, “We didn’t kill enough of you Jews.”
• In May, a group chased two Jewish people with a knife while yelling “Heil Hitler” and “Free Palestine.”
• In June, a thug harassed a Jewish man and his children walking home from synagogue, then physically attacked a bystander who intervened.
• Also in June, a Jewish family was attacked by a hoodlum who grabbed their stroller holding their baby and said, “You guys move [out] of the neighborhood.”
• In December, a thug on a Manhattan subway punched a man wearing a hat denouncing antisemitism,
• Also in December, an Orthodox Jew was stabbed leaving his synagogue in Crown Heights. The attacker said, “F–k these Jews. If the Holocaust happened, it wouldn’t be a problem.”

ADL noted that it is pushing for additonal state and federal security grants to help protect Jews and publishes an annual report card that rates how colleges and universities handle antisemitism to help reduce incidents.

The Jewish civil rights group also helps stop potential threats.

In February 2025, as the Jewish sabbath was approaching, an individual posted online threats to Central Synagogue in Manhattan, stating that he was driving cross-country from Utah to carry out an attack that evening.

ADL’s Center on Extremism and Community Security Initiative coordinated with the New York City Police Department, New Jersey State Police, the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

With intelligence provided by ADL and CSI, the perpetrator was nabbed at the mouth of the Lincoln Tunnel on the New Jersey side before entering the city, preventing what could have been a deadly attack on worshippers, the report said.