Report: Anti-Semitic Incidents in 2021 Hit Decade-High Around the World

Last year saw an average of ten anti-Semitic incidents a day in what was the worst year for global anti-Semitism in more than a decade, an annual report published Monday by the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency showed.

Nearly half of the incidents occurred in Europe, followed by the U.S. which saw around 30 percent of all incidents, the report said, but noted that the actual number was likely to be a lot higher.

“[T]he actual number of incidents was significantly higher, since many are not reported by the victims out of fear, and due to the lack of surveillance and prosecution of local authorities and law enforcement agencies,” the two organizations said in a joint statement.

The report noted, however, “no Jew in the world has been murdered on antisemitic grounds” in 2021.

The UK saw a 49 percent increase in the first six months of 2021, with more than 1,300 incidents.

Major cities in the U.S. saw the largest upticks in anti-Semitic incidents. New York recorded a 100 percent in 2021, while Los Angeles experienced a 59.2 percent increase.

According to the report, which was released ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Thursday, the incidents mostly included “vandalism and destruction, graffiti, and desecration of monuments, as well as propaganda.

“Incidents of physical and verbal violence accounted for less than a third of all anti-Semitic incidents,” it went on.

The incidents peaked during May, during the war between Israel and the Hamas terror group in Gaza.

The report expressed concern over the “trivialization of the Holocaust” and noted many protests against the coronavirus vaccines and restrictions “included Holocaust motifs, such as the yellow star, as well as antisemitic conspiracy theories accusing Jews as spreaders of the pandemic to control the world.”

In a rare move, the U.N. General Assembly last week adopted an Israeli-sponsored resolution combating the distortion or denial of the Holocaust.

“Despite the grim statistics, this year we have also seen a little light emanating in various forms, such as the adoption of the IHRA [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance] working definition of antisemitism by many countries, Holocaust education laws passed, laws passed to prevent the use of Holocaust symbols, and of course in the war on BDS,” the report concluded.

“It is the duty of every country to provide its citizens with security and to protect them in every event that takes place on its land, including the Jewish community,” said Raheli Baratz-Rix, head of the Department for Combating Antisemitism and Enhancing Resilience at the World Zionist Organization.

“At the same time, the State of Israel will always continue to be an anchor for every Jew who desires it.”