Antisemitic incidents surge to record highs after Oct. 7 attack

Antisemitic incidents in the United States reached a 46-year high in 2024, and college campuses accounted for a record share of the surge. The Anti-Defamation League counted 9,354 incidents nationwide, the highest total since it began tracking them, while campus incidents climbed to 1,694, up 84% from 2023.

The pattern sharpened after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. The ADL said it recorded more than 10,000 antisemitic incidents in the United States between Oct. 7, 2023 and Sept. 24, 2024, a period that represented more than a 200% increase over the same span a year earlier. In 2024, campus cases made up 18% of all U.S. antisemitic incidents, the largest share on record.

The ADL also said 58% of all incidents in 2024 contained elements related to Israel or Zionism, the first time such references formed a majority of the annual total. That distinction underscores the line many Jewish students and community leaders say is increasingly blurred: criticism of Israeli policy can be part of legitimate political debate, but anti-Zionist rhetoric has also become a vehicle for harassment, exclusion and intimidation aimed at Jews as Jews.

The effects were visible in college life. In a January 2025 survey by the ADL, Hillel International and College Pulse, 83% of Jewish college students said they had experienced or witnessed antisemitism since Oct. 7, 2023. Forty-one percent said they felt the need to hide their Jewish identity, and two-thirds said they lacked confidence in their university’s ability to prevent antisemitic incidents.

Hillel International said it tracked 2,334 antisemitic incidents on campus during the 2024-2025 academic year, its highest total since it began tracking in 2019. The group also has promoted its Campus Antisemitism Legal Line, reflecting how quickly complaints have shifted from social discomfort to questions of safety, civil rights and institutional response.

The surge has not been limited to the United States. The ADL said the seven largest Jewish communities, in Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, all saw unprecedented rises in antisemitic incidents and incidents per capita after Oct. 7. For Jewish students and communities, the numbers point to a broader test for universities and public institutions: whether they can protect free expression while drawing a firm boundary between political criticism and antisemitic abuse.