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The Rise of Antisemitism and Political Violence in the U.S.

The Rise of Antisemitism and Political Violence in the U.S.

Cases of antisemitism and hate crimes towards Jewish Americans have surged in recent years, particularly since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported that in the three months following the start of the war, antisemitic incidents in the U.S. skyrocketed by 361%. And the impact continues to be felt.
According to the State of Antisemitism in America 2024 report, published in February 2025, 33% of American Jews said they have been the personal target of antisemitism, in-person or virtually, at least once over the past year. Meanwhile, 56% of American Jews said they altered their behavior out of fear of antisemitism in 2024. A notable increase from 46% in 2023 and 38% in 2022.
Mark Oppenheimer, a professor of practice at Washington University and editor of Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera, says there has been a "sharp rise" in incidents of violence towards Jewish Americans.
'Most incidents of antisemitism are not incidents of physical violence. However, we shouldn't be surprised that in a climate where all kinds of hatred and harassment are being normalized, eventually it spills over into deadly violence. It's horrifying,' he says.
One such case of deadly violence being linked to antisemitism is the killing of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, May 21. Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, a couple expected to soon be engaged, were leaving the Capital Jewish Museum, after attending an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee, when they were fatally shot.
The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) have arrested a suspect, 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago. One witness told CNN that she heard Rodriguez say 'I did it for Gaza' and 'Free Palestine.'
U.S. and global politicians have condemned the killing and denounced antisemitic violence.
President Donald Trump said: 'These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen!'
Secretary of State Marco Rubio referred to the shootings as a 'brazen act of cowardly, antisemitic violence' and said 'make no mistake: we will track down those responsible and bring them to justice.'
In September 2024, FBI data showed that anti-Jewish hate crimes had increased by 63% since 2023. Despite Jewish Americans making up just 2% of the U.S. population, reported single-bias anti-Jewish hate crimes made up 15% of all reported hate crimes in 2023 and 68% of all reported religion-based hate crimes.
Talking to TIME, experts highlighted three key areas they say have contributed to the rise in antisemitism in the U.S.
The detrimental impact of social media
The rise of reported antisemitic incidents in the U.S. has followed a wider trend. According to ADL, surveys show that 'anti-Jewish sentiments are at an all-time high globally.' A report published in January 2025 found that 46% of the world's adult population 'harbors deeply entrenched antisemitic attitudes,' equating to an estimated 2.2 billion people worldwide.
In a reversal of previous trends, younger Americans are showing higher rates of endorsing anti-Jewish tropes. In 2024, ADL surveyed that younger Americans were more likely to endorse anti-Jewish tropes, with the highest rate among millennials. Baby boomers had the lowest rate regarding this type of endorsement.
The rise of antisemitism among younger Americans coincides with the rise of antisemitic hate speech being shared on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, which tend to be more popular among younger age groups.
Oppenheimer says that there has been a decline of historical knowledge regarding humanities, Judaism, and the State of Israel, with people instead getting their information from social media.
'Some students turn to TikTok or Instagram influencers for their understanding of a really complex geopolitical situation. That doesn't make the students bad people, but it means that we have, as teachers, failed them,' he says.
Popular figures on social media, such as musician Kanye 'Ye' West—who currently has over 33 million followers on X—have repeatedly shared antisemitic views on their platforms. Elsewhere, U.S. podcast host Joe Rogan has come under fire for having Darryl Cooper—who has been referred to as "a Holocaust denier" —on his show.
'It's increasingly acceptable to talk about Jews in broadly stereotypical terms, as Joe Rogan does, as Kanye West does, as Trump has,' claims Oppenheimer.
Some Jewish senators have accused Trump of exploiting antisemitism to target U.S. universities, making reference to his threats to defund certain schools following pro-Palestinian campus protests. In April 2025, five Jewish Democratic senators, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, accused the Trump Administration of using 'a real crisis as a pretext to attack people and institutions who do not agree with you.'
A wider issue with education
According to Echoes and Reflections, an organization aimed at supporting Holocaust education in the U.S., as of 2025, only 29 states mandate Holocaust education.
Oppenheimer believes that instead of addressing education on the Holocaust, American society instead needs to focus on improving education on wider Jewish, and other religious, studies.
'I think that Holocaust education is a poor substitute for a broad humanistic education. I do wish that people knew more about world religions, and about the lives of Jews—and the State of Israel—today," he says
'Continuing to offer mediocre or even good lesson plans about the 1940s is not going to make people more thoughtful thinkers about today's politics,' he argues. 'People have to understand others. Plenty of people accept the reality of the Holocaust, and then still think all sorts of terrible things about contemporary Jews.'
Oppenheimer suggests that more funding needs to be allocated to humanity studies in education. Cambridge University found that in 2024, only $69 million out of $54 billion worth of federal government funds towards research in U.S. higher education goes to the humanities.
If more funding was allocated to these areas of education, Oppenheimer says, 'we'd actually be able to educate more students.'
Political violence is on the rise
The rise in U.S. antisemitism is not an isolated trend. A look at the recent history of political violence in America is a major cause for concern.
In October 2024, Reuters found that since the Jan. 6 Capitol riots in 2021, there have been at least 300 cases of political violence, the biggest increase in the U.S. since the 1970s. Over the past year, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro saw his home set on fire in an arson attack and Elon Musk's Tesla company has seen multiple attacks on its showrooms since he started to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Most notably, Trump survived an assassination attempt during his election campaign in July 2024, with a bullet grazing his ear.
Another alarming incident in 2022 saw the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi subjected to an attack from a man who broke into their home and bludgeoned him with a hammer.
Pamela Nadell, an author and director of the Jewish Studies program at the American University in D.C., says that antisemitism and political violence 'are both part of the same problem.'
'I've had lots of conversations about 'what is the solution?'" she says. 'The Biden Administration issued a national strategy to combat antisemitism, but not much of it got implemented.'
Nadell argues that antisemitism is on the rise, in part, due to critiques on Israel that have steered off-course. 'There are so many moments where legitimate criticism of Israel and its conduct of the war has crossed the line into antisemitism when one uses classic antisemitic tropes,' she says.
'Equating Jews to Nazis has just exacerbated this, opening the path for a man to decide he's just going to shoot two people leaving an event, who he believes are Jews.'

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ICE raids accelerate, protests spread
ICE raids accelerate, protests spread

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time24 minutes ago

  • The Hill

ICE raids accelerate, protests spread

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Opinion: First Lady Melania and Pope Leo are right — it's 'unum' time
Opinion: First Lady Melania and Pope Leo are right — it's 'unum' time

Yahoo

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  • Yahoo

Opinion: First Lady Melania and Pope Leo are right — it's 'unum' time

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Los Angeles families fear ICE raids at school graduation ceremonies
Los Angeles families fear ICE raids at school graduation ceremonies

USA Today

time40 minutes ago

  • USA Today

Los Angeles families fear ICE raids at school graduation ceremonies

Los Angeles families fear ICE raids at school graduation ceremonies LA Unified Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said Angeleno immigrants have said they plan to miss student graduations out of fear of ICE. Show Caption Hide Caption Anti-ICE raid demonstrators protest into fourth night Anti-immigration raid protests are continuing into the fourth night as the Pentagon deployed active-duty U.S. Marines. ICE detained a Los Angeles fourth grader from Torrance Elementary School and his father in Texas on May 29. The tensions have left the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest district in the nation, at the center of the national battle on immigration deportations and family separations. At Palms Middle School, a public campus on the Westside of Los Angeles, the Trump administration's aggressive immigration crackdown in nation's second-largest city loomed large over an otherwise joyous middle school commencement ceremony on June 10. A doleful Principal Arturo Enriquez told Angeleno families that parents and community members were stationed outside of the campus "ready to call me" if United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials showed up. "We are a melting pot of beautiful, incredible people," Enriquez said to the crowd before wiping a tear from his eye. "This incredible community, all of these students, all of these parents, guardians, friends and family, it is because of you that these young people are here ready to go on to that next step – to that high school life, to represent each of us as an incredible member of society." Some families too afraid to attend the graduation out of fear of increased presence of immigration enforcement officials across the city didn't hear the principal's message. They and many other Angeleno immigrants who live in the sanctuary city are foregoing the chance to witness their young loved ones receive diplomas or advance to the next grade at upcoming school graduation ceremonies out of fear of getting deported. "I've spoken with parents who've told me that their daughter would be the first in their family to graduate high school and they're not going to be there to witness it, because they have a fear of the place of graduation being targeted,' said Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, which covers the majority of the city and some surrounding areas of Los Angeles and serves more than a half of a million public school students, during a June 9 news conference. More than one-third of Angelenos are immigrants. ICE detained a Los Angeles fourth grader from Torrance Elementary School and his father in Texas on May 29. They are expected to be deported to Honduras. The young child's deportation has left a wound. 'When something like this happens, it shakes all of us in the community," Torrance Elementary PTA volunteer Ria Villanueva told The Los Angeles Times. Homeland security agents attemped to enter two Los Angeles schools in early April, but they were denied entry. Arrests of young people by Immigration and Customs Enforcement are happening nationwide in other targeted American communities, such as Milford, Massachusetts, where an 11th grader's arrest and detention by ICE has heightened anxiety among the area's immigrants, and in New York City, where educations officials say ICE have recently arrested and detained two students. 'President Trump is keeping his promise to deport illegal aliens and the law enforcement officers conducting operations do so efficiently and professionally," said Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, in response to a question from USA TODAY about the Trump administration's enforcement on immigration at and around schools. 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Ahead of future graduation ceremonies in the district, Carvalho said he said he has directed Los Angeles Unified school police to stand at the front lines and "intervene and interfere with any federal agency who may want to take action during these joyous times that we call graduation." What's happening around Los Angeles Unified schools? The Los Angeles families' anxieties come after a series of Trump administration-led anti-immigrant actions in the city, making it a national battleground for President Donald Trump's long-promised crackdown on illegal immigration. President Donald Trump and his administration have deployed thousands of National Guard members to the nation's second-largest city since June 8. The National Guard entered Los Angeles after citizens who were angry about immigration raids in the city, including one at a Home Depot, launched largely peaceful demonstrations against the administration's enforcement of illegal immigration. How did the LA protests begin? A look at the immigration raids that sparked outrage Chaos and violence have since erupted across Los Angeles, resulting in the detainment of some immigrants, destruction of city property and fear and hiding among immigrant families and children of immigrants who attend school across the region. 'President Trump is keeping his promise' California Gov. Gavin Newsom has vehemently objected against the immigration raids and deployment of federal guards, even filing a lawsuit against Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth alleging they deployed "members of the California National Guard, without lawful authority, and in violation of the Constitution." 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Trump has also threatened to arrest Newsom for challenging the federal government. 700 Marines Heading to LA; Newsom calls move 'deranged fantasy' of Trump Federal immigration activity near school campuses threatens a 'fundamental right' A third-grade elementary school teacher in the district, who asked to remain anonymous because she is worried that her school and her students will be targeted by immigration enforcement officials if she is identified, said she has felt deep fear and constant anxiety in her students about them or their families being detained by ICE officials. She said many kids in her classroom whose parents are undocumented immigrants, some of whom are newcomers from Guatemala, are worried about being deported or separated from their families. Their fears have intensified since immigration raids have occurred close to the school. Attendance was unusually low and many school bus stops were eerily quiet during the last two days of school in her classroom on June 9 and 10, she said. "I try to pretend everything's normal when everything's falling apart outside of the school," she said. Her six-year-old son, who attends the same school where she teaches, found about about the immigration raids through friends and told her, 'Mom, I'm glad you have papers so they can't take you.' Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Carvlaho said in a statement on June 6 that he is "dismayed" by the recent immigration enforcement activity occurring near district schools. "These actions are causing unnecessary fear, confusion, and trauma for our students and families – many of whom are simply trying to get to and from school and work, and to live with dignity," Carvalho said. The presence of federal immigration activity near school campuses threatens prevents schools from being a "safe haven" where students "can learn, grow, and thrive without fear of being separated from their loved ones," he said. California State Superintendent of Education Tony Thurmond called Trump's military deployment and mass immigration raids "unnecessary," "a betrayal of our American values" and "an assault on all Californians" in a statement on June 9. Thurmond said about half of California kids have at least one immigrant parent. "Innocent children should never be in handcuffs, and families should never be torn apart by our government. Our children deserve to be protected and cared for, not terrified at school or ripped from their families," Thurmond said. "Let's be clear: When the President targets our immigrant families, he harms California's children." California State Superintendent: 'Deeply dangerous for our children' California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Thurmond have called on Trump to end the mass immigration raids and pull back National Guard troops from Los Angeles for the safety of Los Angeles families. 'My message to President Trump is very clear: keep your hands off California's kids," Thurmond said on June 9. "The President's unchecked, unnecessary deployment of our nation's military to the city of Los Angeles is deeply dangerous for our children, for our families, and for our country." The officials' sentiments haven't calmed the widespread fear among many of the city's vast immigrant communities. Britt Vaughan, a spokesperson for Los Angeles Unified school district, said that parents and community members have been anxiously calleing into schools to report federal immigration activity in their communities. Enriquez, from Palms Middle School, told students and their families at the commencement ceremony to use the momentum of graduation as an opportunity to stand up to what he called "injustice" against their community. "Be empowered. Injustices exist in the world," he said. "Speak up. Stand up against any injustice anywhere." Contact Kayla Jimenez at kjimenez@ Follow her on X at @kaylajjimenez.

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