Antisemitic incidents reached an all-time high in the United States last year and increased in most New England states, including Rhode Island, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Rhode Island recorded 19 anti-Semitic incidents in 2022, up from 17 in 2021, with incidents reported in eight of the state’s 39 cities and towns, the ADL reported in releasing its annual audit.
Across the country last year, the ADL recorded 3,697 anti-Semitic incidents, a 36% increase and the highest total since the ADL started tracking such data in 1979. Of those, 111 incidents were categorized as assaults. One person died.
The ADL recorded 204 antisemitic incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism in its New England region. That’s a 32% increase from 2021 and the highest number of anti-Semitic incidents ever recorded in the region, the ADL said.
“The continuing increase in antisemitic incidents in the region and across the country should dispel, once and for all, the myth that antisemitism is a problem of the past,”Peggy Shukur, ADL New England interim regional director, said in announcing the audit. “Behind every one of these numbers are people who have experienced the harm, fear, intimidation and pain that reverberates from each of these incidents.”
