Antisemitism continued to rise to unprecedented levels nationally in 2024, with New York and New Jersey among the leaders in incidents ranging from physical attacks to hateful graffiti to antisemitic slurs, and with Brooklyn, Bergenfield and Teaneck being hotspots for attacks on Orthodox Jews.

In fact, nationally antisemitic and anti-Israeli attitudes rose to the highest level seen in three decades, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which has been conducting an annual audit of such markers since 1964. It also marked the fourth consecutive year in a row that Jew-hatred increased and the first time incidents related to Israel and Zionism accounted for more than 50% of the 9,354 incidents.

“Given that this is the second year in a row incidents are approaching the 10,000 mark, we are deeply concerned that we are living with a new normal,” for the foreseeable future, said Scott Richman, the ADL’s NY/NJ regional director, during a virtual program on April 25. He noted that incidents often targeted “visibly Jewish” Orthodox individuals and that the majority of such incidents occurred in New York and New Jersey.

Other concerning issues included the concentration of hate on college campuses and among young people. Even that far-right white supremacist groups have joined the far-left in focusing most hateful messaging on Zionism and Israel.

Overall, antisemitic attitudes rose from 14% in 2014 to 24% a decade later, said Richman.

Internationally, it has almost doubled since 2014 to 46% and jumped to 50% for those under the age of 35.

Richman said the findings, which also hold true for younger American adults, suggest “a demographic time bomb.”

Nowhere was the increase in incidents greater than on college campuses, which showed an 84% jump from 2022’s 219 incidents to 2024 when the number leapt to 1,694.

David White, associate ADL director responsible for outreach to Jewish institutions and college campuses, said while Jewish institutions in New Jersey saw a 50% decrease in incidents in the last year, that was still an almost 100% increase from 2022, and New York institutions saw a 26% decrease, still a 204% increase from 2022.

In New Jersey there were 78 campus incidents reported, 60% at Rutgers. Other incidents occurred at Montclair State University. There were encampments at Rutgers and Princeton universities.

In New York, White said there was a “staggering” 163% increase in antisemitic campus incidents, with 24% on the campuses of Columbia and Barnard universities, including encampments and assaults.

Yisroel Kahan, senior associate ADL director and liaison to the Orthodox community, said 2024 saw an “alarming” increase in attacks targeting the Orthodox in both states with 128 incidents reported, including a 19% increase in New York and 21% in New Jersey.

“While all hate crimes are equally reprehensible, attacks targeting the Orthodox community are particularly concerning given that they’re easily identifiable as Jews, making them an easy target, especially when walking to and from services on Shabbat and other Jewish holidays,” said Kahan.

In New York almost two-thirds of all incidents occurred in just three counties—Kings (Brooklyn), Queens and Manhattan—although Staten Island has seen a sharp increase.

Nearly a quarter of all New Jersey incidents were in Bergen County, particularly Bergenfield and Teaneck, which have significant Orthodox populations and accounted for 35% of the county’s total, said Senior Associate ADL Director Adriana Kertzer.

“If they were their own county these two towns would have the fifth highest number of incidents in any one of the 21 New Jersey counties,” said Kertzer, while adding that Middlesex County, home to the main campus of Rutgers, ranked second with 13%.

One of the most troubling aspects was the targeting of religious institutions with antisemitic incidents in those communities, including the thousands who showed to demonstrate at a program at Congregation Keter Torah selling Israeli properties, and at another Teaneck synagogue, Congregation B’nai Yeshurun, featuring a speaker from the Israeli rescue organization ZAKA.

“Unfortunately Bergen County, and specifically the Modern Orthodox community in Teaneck, continue to be the target of ongoing car rallies and protests,” said Kertzer.

Brandi Katz Rubin, deputy ADL regional director for NY/NJ, said New York and New Jersey are consistently among the leading states in numbers of incidents, with New York coming in at the top and New Jersey at No. 3, and California in the middle. About 2.3 million Jews live in the Metropolitan Area—the largest concentration in the country—with about a million in New York City alone. About one-third of city residents are Orthodox, most of whom live in Brooklyn. The two states accounted for 36% of the assaults and 24% of the total incidents recorded nationally.

The number of incidents has been so alarming in Brooklyn, particularly against the Orthodox, that the ADL set up its only national satellite office there in 2022 to handle complaints. Since that time, incidents spiked from 147 to 253, according to its head, Associate Director Tova Chatzinoff-Rosenfeld.

“To put this into perspective, if Brooklyn was a state at would be No. 3 in assaults nationwide and No. 7 in vandalism nationwide, falling into the 11th slot on overall incidents,” she said, adding there have been frightening incidents involving the targeting of children, but the most “shocking” statistic in Brooklyn is the number of assaults against Orthodox Jews.

Despite reaching what the ADL thought was an “unbelievable apex” in 2023, numbers inched higher last year, said Katz Rubin, climbing “an astounding and utterly unacceptable” 544% over a 10-year period.

Kertzer said that while overall incidents were up 425% in New Jersey since 2015, they actually dropped from a record-high 815 last year to 719 in 2024, with almost a quarter involving the display of swastikas. Despite the decrease, numbers are still “alarming” when compared to 2022, she noted. Most incidents took place in public spaces with the next-highest number taking place in K-12 schools, many of them Israel-related.

Associate Regional Director Debra Plafker said unlike most other states that saw their numbers plateau or even decrease after 2023, New York saw its numbers continue to skyrocket, mostly in New York City. While Brooklyn recorded the most, Manhattan incidents grew almost 40%, attributable to high-profile demonstrations at landmarks and university encampments.

With vandalism accounting for almost a third of the incidents, New Yorkers were forced to confront swastikas and hateful messages scrawled on ads, at subway stations and bus stops. Jewish-owned restaurants were targeted. Jews were refused service at business. Business owners were left obscenity-filled messages and residents were harassed by neighbors. Teachers and even elementary-school children were hassled by colleagues and fellow students in person and on social media. Plafker said the ADL has also had to combat curriculum bias against Israel in schools.

New York also had 42% of the national total of assaults, including a Jewish barber in Yonkers who was stabbed in an antisemitic attack.

Richman said that to counter rising hate, the ADL works on bipartisan advocacy with elected officials; fights antisemitism in corporate boardrooms via its investor network JLens, has engaged in more litigations since Oct. 7 than in the organization’s preceding 111 years, has undertaken campus initiatives, provides a free legal protection helpline for students and tracks antisemitic attitudes worldwide,, and tracks threats on the dark web through its Center on Extremism.

“The bottom line is that simply we are witnessing more and more antisemitism move into the mainstream of society in a way that was unthinkable even a decade ago,” Richman assessed. “Antisemitic extremists on both sides have simply become emboldened like never before.”

Debra Rubin has had a long career in journalism writing for secular weekly and daily newspapers and Jewish publications. She most recently served as Middlesex/Monmouth bureau chief for the New Jersey Jewish News. She also worked with the media at several nonprofits, including serving as assistant public relations director of HIAS and assistant director of media relations at Yeshiva University.