Incidents occurred in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia. The states with the highest number of incidents were New York (416), New Jersey (370), California (367), Florida (190), Michigan (112) and Texas (112). Combined, these states account for 58% of the total incidents.
Monthly Comparisons: Incidents in 2021 were highest in May (387), December (275) and November (242) and were lowest in August (165) and January (173). The surge of incidents in May coincides with the military conflict between Israel and Hamas (see below in the “May 2021 Israel-Hamas military conflict” under Themes and Trends). The previous highest month on record was November 2018 (300 incidents), which was the month after the Tree of Life synagogue mass shooting in Pittsburgh, PA. In every month in 2021, except for January and February, ADL counted an increase in incident reporting compared to the previous year.
Of the 2717 incidents included in the 2021 Audit of Antisemitic incidents, 494 were identified through newly established partnerships between ADL and several Jewish organizations, including the Community Security Initiative (CSI), Community Security Service (CSS), Hillel International, Secure Community Network (SCN), Union of Reform Judaism and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. This represents 18% of the total number of incidents in 2021. Even without the additional reporting from partners, the numbers in the 2021 Audit would have been the highest recorded in ADL’s history, with 2223 incidents.
