'An Alarm': Antisemitic incidents up 20% in Central Texas since 2023, ADL analysis finds
The ADL recorded 76 total antisemitic incidents in Central Texas: 55 involved harassment and 21 involved other offenses; 19 happened on college campuses. Nationally, the ADL recorded 9,354 incidents, marking its highest annual total.
ADL experts process and evaluate criminal and noncriminal complaints from victims, law enforcement, media and other partners as part of the audit.
Austin had 44 incidents of antisemitism in 2024, according to a Hate, Extremism, Antisemitism, Terrorism, or HEAT, map maintained by the New York-based nonprofit formed to fight antisemitism and hate. Incidents in Central Texas spread to more rural areas in 2024, including Lakeway and San Marcos, marking an expansion of antisemitism, said Jackie Nirenberg, the regional director of the ADL, in an interview with the American-Statesman.
'There's a sense of real pressure in the Jewish community here, and really Jewish communities across the country,' Nirenberg said. 'It's really unsettling.'
Antisemitism is "pressing in on all sides," Nirenberg said, and incidents are occurring at schools, universities, protests and Jewish organizations. The rise in hate-motivated actions is concerning, Nirenberg said, as Jewish people are often scapegoated for larger societal problems, such as political or economic turmoil.
"We're seeing what is a pattern in history," Nirenberg said. "Antisemitism is not just indicative of something that just the Jewish community needs to be concerned about. It is telling for the entire community writ large that we are in a period of destabilization, ... (it's) an alarm that we are in a crisis."
Antisemitism has soared in Austin since 2021, Nirenberg said, when an Austin synagogue was attacked by an arsonist in a crime motivated by a hatred of Jews, and a neo-Nazi group dropped antisemitic banners from highway overpasses.
The deadly Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attacks by Hamas (a militant Palestinian group that governs Gaza) on Israel resulted in sharp increases in both Islamophobia and antisemitism. In 2024, protests organized by a U.S. student movement for Palestinians led to thousands of arrests across the country as demonstrators formed encampments at college campuses, including briefly at the University of Texas, to demand the institutions divest from weapons manufacturers aiding Israel's bombardment of Gaza.
In Central Texas last year, Nirenberg said, 66% of antisemitic incidents were associated with anti-Israel protests that veered into antisemitism.
Anti-Zionism or anti-Israel protests by themselves would not be antisemitic, Nirenberg said, nor would calls for the violence in Gaza to end. But actions or calls that harass Jewish students, condone violence or advocate the elimination of the Jewish state are antisemitic, she said.
"We believe strongly in free speech and also the right to criticize Israeli policies; that is not antisemitic," Nirenberg said. "But when it crosses into harassment of the Jewish community, that's a problem."
Pro-Palestinian protesters in Austin have stated they are opposing Israeli policies, not Jewish people, though last year, some protests featured escalating rhetoric that some characterized as antisemitic.
Islamophobia is also at an all-time high, with 8,658 complaints recorded nationally by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, according to a report released in March. The organization said Muslims have been targeted for their viewpoint on the Israel-Hamas war, with multiple incidents of violence and harassment reported in Austin.
To address the rise in antisemitism, universities and colleges should clearly state their rules and policies regarding harassment and discrimination, encourage safe dialogue around complex issues and educate themselves on what antisemitism is and what it looks like, Nirenberg said.
"There's room for a lot of empathy for what is happening to the Palestinian people, the civilian people, no question that that is something to be concerned about and vocal about it," Nirenberg said. "It's a highly complex conflict, a highly complex region. The more students can understand what that means, the better."
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: ADL: Central Texas antisemitic incidents rise by 20% since 2023
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