• Major violent incidents of antisemitism worldwide rose from 78 in 1989 to 456 in 2019.
• In 2020, lockdowns reduced encounters between Jews and antisemites, reducing the number of violent incidents from 456 to 371.
• But COVID and the lockdown increased online antisemitism and antisemitic attacks on property.
• Due to policing on social media, the number of antisemitic manifestations on the open networks declined, while activities on the darknet intensified.
• This included blaming the Jews and Israelis for developing and spreading the coronavirus.
• Some vaccine opponents, both in Israel and abroad, compared the pandemic to the period of the Holocaust, and themselves to the persecuted Jews.
• The number of desecrations of graveyards, Holocaust memorials, and other Jewish monuments rose from 77 in 2019 to 96 in 2020.
• And the number of vandalized synagogues increased from 53 to 63.
• In the US, 200 cases of antisemitic Zoom bombing were reported in 2020.
• In the US a gradual rise in violent incidents has been observed for several years, reaching 119 in 2020, despite the lockdown.
• Jews are the target of 58% of all religiously motivated hate crimes in the US.
• 82% of American Jews believe there has been a moderate or serious increase of antisemitism in the past 5 years.

Sources

• “FBI reports drop in 2020 antisemitic crimes, amid rise in total hate crimes” from the Times of Israel
• “Antisemitism Worldwide 2020” from the Kantor Center 
• “The State of Antisemitism in America 2020” from the American Jewish Committee

Learning More 

We suggest you read “Five Principles for Dismantling Antisemitism: A Progressive Jewish Response to the Jerusalem Declaration” from Jewish Voice for Peace.You can watch the video “Is Criticizing Israel Antisemitic? | Antisemitism, Explained” from Unpacked. To dig deeper on the Jerusalem Declaration and the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism you could watch the follow roundtable discussions:

• “The Politics of Defining: A Roundtable Discussion about the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism” from the Harvard Divinity School
• “Implications and Impacts of the IHRA Definition on Palestinians” from Foundation for Middle East Peace

​To go deeper, we will be developing an extensive list of Additional Resources at the bottom of this week’s entry as well as a YouTube playlist on the subject.