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

Yahoo

22-05-2025

A man stands by the scene where two Israeli embassy staff were fatally shot on May 21, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Credit - Alex Wroblewski—Getty Images
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.'
Read More: Trump Condemns Killing of Two Israeli Embassy Staff in D.C. as U.S. and Global Lawmakers Denounce 'Antisemitic Violence'
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 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.'
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.'
Read More: 3 Lessons About Anti-Semitism We Should Learn From the Pittsburgh Synagogue Attack
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.
Read More: A Stark Look at the Recent History of Political Violence in America
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.'
Read More: Former Israeli Prime Minister Says Country's Action in Gaza is 'Close to a War Crime'
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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