The California Department of Justice (DOJ) released a report on July 2 revealing that anti-Semitic hate crimes increased by 21 percent in 2018 from the year prior.
The report documented 126 instances of anti-Semitic hate crimes in 2018—an increase from 104 in 2017. However, that marked a decline from the 160 instances of anti-Semitic hate crimes in 2009.
Despite the increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes, hate crimes overall in California dropped by 2.5 percent from 2017 to 2018, according to the report.
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Los Angeles tweeted that they were “troubled by a 21 percent increase in reported hate crimes against the Jewish community in California in 2018. The Jewish community remains the largest target of religion-motivated hate crime. Our leadership must speak out against anti-Semitism and hate whenever it occurs.”
The ADL’s 2018 Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents found that 2018 was the third-highest year of anti-Semitic incidents nationwide since 1979, although anti-Semitic incidents had declined by 5 percent from 2017.
Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism Executive Director Brian Levin told The Los Angeles Times, “Jews are consistently held responsible for corrupting national institutions, but also helping other groups flood in. With the rise of neo-Nazism, white nationalism, Internet hate and a growing distrust of communal institutions, Jews are seen as manipulating everything from government to immigration patterns.”
This article first appeared in the Jewish Journal.