The Anti-Defamation League said its latest annual audit found a sharp decline in antisemitic incidents in the United States in 2025, with the biggest shift coming on college campuses. The ADL counted 6,274 incidents of antisemitic assaults, harassment and vandalism overall last year, down from the record-high total of 9,354 for 2024. The group credited, in part, a steep drop on campuses for the overall decline, even as it emphasized that the year still included a high level of violence.
The ADL said its count of campus incidents fell from 1,694 in 2024 to 583 in 2025, a 66% drop. The decline in on-campus cases, the ADL said, came alongside steps by many colleges and universities under pressure from the Trump administration that aimed to curb pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist protests, which the ADL tied to spikes in incidents during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
While the audit showed fewer incidents in 2025 than in 2024, the ADL said violence remained severe. ADL national director and CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told The Associated Press via email that 2025 was “one of the most violent years for American Jews,” pointing to a record-high 203 incidents of physical assault counted in the audit. He said the numbers included 3 killings as part of the year’s incident tally.
Greenblatt’s remarks also tied the violence to specific attacks. He referred to the May 21 shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., in which two Jewish people were killed, and to a June 1 firebombing attack in Boulder, Colorado, that killed an 82-year-old Jewish woman after she died from injuries sustained at an event raising awareness of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
The ADL report also tracked how antisemitic incidents intersected with Israel or Zionism. In the group’s 2024 report, the ADL said antisemitic incidents related to Israel or Zionism accounted for 58% of the total, after pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist activity increased following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants attack on southern Israel. For 2025, the ADL said incidents related to Israel or Zionism made up 45% of all antisemitic incidents, and it said anti-Israel rallies featuring “extreme anti-Israel rhetoric that crossed the line into antisemitism” decreased significantly—by 67% overall and by 83% on college campuses.
The audit arrives as the way the ADL defines and tallies antisemitism continues to be contested, including among American Jews and other groups. The ADL said it tries to avoid conflating general criticism of Israel or anti-Israel activism with antisemitism, but it also said it views vilification of Zionism—described as the movement to establish and protect a Jewish state in Israel—as a form of antisemitism. The report’s framework, however, leaves room for disagreement, the ADL said, including because some Jews oppose Zionism and some of the ADL’s approach.
Aryeh Tuchman, an antisemitism expert who previously led the ADL’s Center on Extremism and now directs the Nexus Center for Antisemitism at the Nexus Project, described the debate over the ADL’s approach. He told AP that the ADL’s method “emerges from their genuine concern that anti-Zionism is a genuine threat to the safety and security of American Jews,” adding that “There are a lot of people who would disagree with that. … It’s important that there be room for multiple approaches.”
The ADL said it has sought to apply pressure on colleges through its Campus Antisemitism Report Card, which assigns grades based on the group’s assessment of how colleges address antisemitism and whether they adopt ADL-recommended policies. The ADL said it filed lawsuits and, together with two other Jewish organizations, reached a settlement involving a complaint against Pomona College.
The report’s campus focus also intersects with efforts by other groups. In response to pressure from the ADL and the Trump administration, the Council on American-Islamic Relations launched an “Unhostile Campus Campaign,” aimed at ensuring pro-Palestinian students, faculty and staff are not penalized for their views and can exercise free speech and academic freedom. CAIR’s latest report rated Columbia University, the City University of New York and the University of Michigan among the schools it described as “most hostile.”
The ADL’s report also comes amid broader concerns about antisemitism in other countries. In Britain, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said tougher action is needed against people chanting certain phrases at pro-Palestinian protests as concerns grew over the safety of British Jews after the stabbings of two Jewish men in London. In Australia, an inquiry commission investigating antisemitism after a massacre at a Hanukkah celebration heard from Jews who said escalating hatred has left them fearful and vulnerable. In addition, the ADL report referenced a Tel Aviv University study saying the total of 20 deaths in Australia, Britain and the United States made 2025 the deadliest year for antisemitic attacks since 1994.
While Greenblatt welcomed the decline on campuses, he also warned against complacency. He said campus incidents in 2025 were still nearly four times higher than they were in 2021, underscoring that the downward trend, while important, had not eliminated the threat described in the audit.