Antisemitic incidents involving harassment, vandalism and assaults surged in Southern California and the rest of the state in 2022, according to a new report by the Anti-Defamation League.
The Jewish civil rights organization counted 237 antisemitic incidents reported in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Kern counties, a 30% increase from the previous year. Across the state, the ADL tallied 518 incidents last year, up 41% from 2021.
California ranked No. 2 in the number of incidents in the United States, behind New York’s 580 incidents.
Across the country, the ADL found 3,697 incidents of antisemitism last year, a 36% increase from 2021. The organization said it’s the highest number of incidents since it started tracking anti-Jewish hatred in 1979.
“In a year when antisemitism found mainstream acceptance like never before, antisemites were emboldened to act on their animus,” Oren Segal, vice president of the ADL’s Center on Extremism, said in the report. “From the antisemitic ‘Great Replacement’ theory to Ye’s claims about Jewish power, these conspiracies fueled real-world incidents of hate.”
Holocaust Museum LA said it received antisemitic threats on social media after Kanye West publicly rejected an invitation to a private tour of the museum in October. The institution wanted West, who now goes by Ye, “to understand just how words can incite horrific violence and genocides” after the rapper’s inflammatory remarks about the Jewish community.
West espoused antisemitic conspiracy theories in social media posts and TV interviews.
In October, a well-known hate group demonstrated in support of West on a 405 Freeway overpass in Los Angeles. Demonstrators gave Nazi salutes to passing motorists and unfurled a banner that read, “Kanye is right about the Jews,” according to images collected by anti-discrimination organizations.
At UC Davis in August, campus police searched for four white men in black clothing who displayed Holocaust denial banners over a bicycle overpass, according to Chancellor Gary May.
