NEW YORK — Antisemitic incidents across the United States experienced their first significant decline in five years during 2025, according to new data released Wednesday by the Anti-Defamation League, with much of the reduction stemming from fewer occurrences on university campuses.
College campuses saw a dramatic 66% reduction in antisemitic incidents, dropping from 1,694 cases in 2024 to 583 in 2025. The 2024 surge had been largely fueled by pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist demonstrations that spread across universities following the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza. Many higher education institutions implemented measures to limit such protests under pressure from the Trump administration.
The campus reduction contributed significantly to an overall 33% decrease in antisemitic incidents nationwide, with the ADL documenting 6,274 total cases of assault, harassment and vandalism in 2025, compared to a record 9,354 incidents the previous year.
New York led the nation with 1,160 reported incidents, followed by California with 817 and New Jersey with 687, according to the organization’s annual assessment.
The ADL’s counting methods have sparked ongoing controversy within Jewish communities and beyond, with debates centering on whether harsh criticism of Israeli government actions and Zionist ideology should be classified as antisemitic behavior. Some observers argue the organization’s standards are overly inclusive.
Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s national director and CEO, emphasized that despite fewer total incidents, 2025 represented “one of the most violent years for American Jews,” with physical assaults reaching an unprecedented 203 cases.
“Numbers that would have shocked us five years ago are now our floor,” Greenblatt stated. “People are being murdered because of antisemitism on American soil, and thousands more are threatened.”
Greenblatt referenced the May 21 fatal shooting of two Jewish individuals outside Washington D.C.’s Capital Jewish Museum, along with the death of an 82-year-old Jewish woman from injuries suffered in a June 1 firebombing during a Boulder, Colorado event focused on Israeli hostages in Gaza.
The 2024 report marked a historic milestone, with Israel or Zionism-related antisemitic incidents comprising 58% of all cases for the first time since tracking began in 1979. This shift reflected widespread opposition to Israel’s extensive Gaza military campaign following the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led assault on southern Israel.
In 2025, incidents connected to Israel or Zionism decreased to 45% of the total. Anti-Israel demonstrations featuring “extreme anti-Israel rhetoric that crossed the line into antisemitism” declined by 67% overall and 83% on university campuses, the ADL reported.
Beginning in 2024, the organization introduced a Campus Antisemitism Report Card system, evaluating how colleges handle antisemitic incidents and whether they implement ADL-endorsed policies. The organization has filed multiple lawsuits and, working with two other Jewish groups, secured a settlement in a complaint against Pomona College to increase pressure on institutions.
“We welcome any decrease in antisemitic incidents on college campuses or in other settings. It is indisputably a good thing, and we hope this is just the beginning of a downward trend,” Greenblatt told The Associated Press via email.
“Yet, let me be very clear: this is not a moment for relief or complacency. Yes, ADL recorded a 66% decline of antisemitic incidents on college campuses in 2025. But here is the critical context: campus incidents in 2025 are still nearly four times higher than they were in 2021.”
The ADL maintains it is “careful to not conflate general criticism of Israel or anti-Israel activism with antisemitism,” though gray areas remain. The organization considers attacks on Zionism — the movement supporting a Jewish state in Israel — as antisemitic, despite some Jews being among Zionism’s critics, including critics of the ADL itself.
Antisemitism expert Aryeh Tuchman explained that the ADL’s methodology “emerges from their genuine concern that anti-Zionism is a genuine threat to the safety and security of American Jews.” He added, “There are a lot of people who would disagree with that. … It’s important that there be room for multiple approaches.”
Tuchman previously headed the ADL’s Center on Extremism, which produces the annual assessment, and currently directs the Nexus Center for Antisemitism at the Nexus Project, an organization promoting more nuanced antisemitism definitions than those used by the ADL.
In response to pressure from the ADL and Trump administration on universities, the Council on American-Islamic Relations initiated an “Unhostile Campus Campaign” designed to protect free speech and academic freedom for pro-Palestinian students, faculty and staff while preventing penalties for their political positions.
CAIR’s most recent evaluation labeled Columbia University, the City University of New York, and the University of Michigan as the “most hostile” institutions.
The ADL findings emerge as antisemitism concerns intensify globally.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for stronger action against individuals chanting specific phrases at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, following growing safety concerns for British Jews after two Jewish men were stabbed in London.
These stabbings followed other incidents, including recent arson attacks targeting synagogues and Jewish facilities in London. Britain’s top police official stated that British Jews face their greatest threat ever, attributing social media for making antisemitism more widespread.
In Australia, a comprehensive inquiry examining antisemitism following a Hanukkah celebration massacre heard testimony this week from Jewish community members describing how escalating hatred has created fear and vulnerability. Two gunmen killed 15 people during the December celebration on Bondi Beach. The Commission reports a sharp increase in nationwide antisemitic incidents since the October 7, 2023 start of the Israel-Hamas war.
A recent Tel Aviv University study found that 20 deaths across Australia, Britain and the United States made 2025 the deadliest year for antisemitic attacks since 1994, when a Jewish community center bombing in Argentina claimed 85 lives.
