ADL: US antisemitic incidents drop in 2025, driven by fall on campuses

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The Anti-Defamation League said it counted fewer antisemitic incidents in the United States in 2025 than in 2024, with a sharp decline on college campuses a major factor behind the overall drop. In its latest annual audit, the group said it tallied 6,274 antisemitic assaults, harassment and vandalism incidents in 2025, down 33% from the 9,354 incidents it recorded in 2024.

The ADL said the number of antisemitic incidents on U.S. college campuses fell from 1,694 in 2024 to 583 in 2025, a 66% decline. The ADL attributed the drop in part to fewer campus incidents following steps by many colleges and universities to curb pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist protests amid pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration.

Even with the overall decline, the ADL said physical assaults increased in severity in absolute terms. Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s national director and CEO, said in an email to The Associated Press that 2025 “was one of the most violent years for American Jews,” citing a record-high 203 incidents of physical assault tallied in the audit.

Greenblatt, referring to killings during 2025, tied the violence to two Jewish people killed in a May 21 shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., and an 82-year-old Jewish woman who died from injuries sustained in a June 1 firebombing attack in Boulder, Colorado. Greenblatt’s comments came as the ADL released its report Wednesday, underscoring that the reduced incident counts did not mean a reduction in threats to American Jews.

The audit also highlighted where antisemitic incidents were concentrated by state. The ADL said the states with the most incidents in 2025 were New York, with 1,160; California, with 817; and New Jersey, with 687.

The ADL’s methodology has fed an intense debate in the United States about where antisemitism ends and political criticism begins. In 2024, the ADL said antisemitic incidents related to Israel or Zionism accounted for 58% of the total—its first time since the annual audit began in 1979 that more than half the incidents fit that category. The ADL linked the increase to opposition to Israel’s military operation in Gaza that began after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

For 2025, the ADL said incidents related to Israel or Zionism made up 45% of the total. It said anti-Israel rallies featuring what it described as “extreme anti-Israel rhetoric that crossed the line into antisemitism” decreased significantly—down 67% overall and by 83% on college campuses.

The ADL said it tries “to not conflate general criticism of Israel or anti-Israel activism with antisemitism,” while also describing “gray areas” where the definitions are disputed. The ADL contends, it said, that vilification of Zionism is a form of antisemitism—though some Jews, including critics of Zionism and of the ADL, disagree with that characterization.

Aryeh Tuchman, an antisemitism expert, said the ADL’s approach “emerges from their genuine concern that anti-Zionism is a genuine threat to the safety and security of American Jews,” while noting that “there are a lot of people who would disagree with that.” Tuchman, who previously led the ADL’s Center on Extremism that produced the annual audit, now directs the Nexus Center for Antisemitism at the Nexus Project, a watchdog group that promotes a more nuanced definition of antisemitism than the ADL uses.

The report’s release also comes as advocacy and counter-advocacy efforts have intensified around campus protests. The Council on American-Islamic Relations launched an “Unhostile Campus Campaign” aimed at ensuring students, faculty and staff are not penalized for pro-Palestinian viewpoints, and it said its latest report rated Columbia University, the City University of New York and the University of Michigan among the “most hostile” schools.

The ADL’s new audit adds to concerns about antisemitism beyond the United States. In Britain, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said tougher action is needed against people chanting certain phrases at pro-Palestinian protests, amid concerns about the safety of British Jews after the stabbings of two Jewish men in London. In Australia, an inquiry commission examining antisemitism heard testimony from Jews who said escalating hatred has left them fearful and vulnerable, and the Commission said there has been a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents nationwide since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, 2023.