Violent attacks against Jewish Americans reached a 46-year high in 2025 – and New York accounted for nearly half of the assaults, a new report revealed Wednesday.
Physical assaults targeting Jews nationwide jumped 4% last year, reaching the highest level since 1979, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s annual audit of antisemitic incidents — as victims feared the spike was a “new normal.”
Attacks with a deadly weapon spiked a frightening 39%, the report shows, with 2025 marking the first time since 2022 that there were fatalities in the country that stemmed from antisemitic violence.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman launched a targeted terror attack in Colorado, setting at least one woman on fire as he lobbed Molotov cocktails at participants at an event for Israeli hostages still in Gaza.
New York — which has the largest Jewish population of any state — accounted for 44% of all violent attacks against Jews nationally.
Assaults on Jews in the Empire State surged nearly 10% last year, from 82 to 90, the ADL found.
“I think it’s the new normal,” said Elias Rosner, who was stabbed near his heart by a hate-filled sicko in Brooklyn last December.
“I think people have allowed antisemitism to creep into every aspect of public discourse,” the 36-year-old survivor added. “It’s become so commonplace that people don’t even think twice.”
Allan Ripp, a public relations pro, called the scary figures “not surprising.” The 72-year-old was attacked by a hate-spewing CitiBike rider who called him a “f—king Jew pig” in Central Park in July 2024.
“It’s sorta an unleashing and enabling of hostility misdirected and conflated between when people think of Israel and their deep seated antipathy to Jews,” he told The Post.
“But I don’t think these feelings are new, but they’ve been unleashed.”
While violent attacks ramped up, there was a dip in overall antisemitic incidents across the US — which includes harassment, vandalism and assault — in 2025, according to the report.
Still, last year was still the third-highest year on record for Jew hate. The ADL tallied 6,274 antisemitic incidents in 2025, down 33% from 2024.
That trend was also seen in New York, which recorded a 19% decline in antisemitic incidents last year — although the total was still double the total in 2022, before the Hamas terror attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked an Israeli campaign in Gaza.
In contrast with the overall reduction in the Empire State, Brooklyn saw a 10% increase in antisemitic incidents in 2025, totaling 278, compared to 253 in 2024.
Physical assaults rose in Brooklyn from 32 to 50, accounting for one quarter of all documented antisemitic assaults nationwide, the ADL said.
Incidents targeting Orthodox Jews identified by their garb in Brooklyn increased 39% year-over-year, from 38 to 53.
Jewish-motivated incidents against Brooklyn businesses jumped from 23 in 2024 to 40 in 2025.
“There is no excuse for this antisemitism, and no one should try to rationalize such pure hatred of the Jewish people,” said Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, the executive vice president of New York Board of Rabbis.
Elias Rosner was stabbed after leaving a Crown Heights Synagogue. Gabriella Bass for NY Post“We thought years ago `Never Again’ had an exclamation after it, but we now see it has a question mark given this recurrent heinous behavior.”
Rabbi Moshe Indig, a leader of the Satmar sect in Williamsburg, flatly said, “hate is hate, hate is bad” and noted antisemitism jumps when there is violence in the Middle East.
“One incident is too much. We want to live in peace with our beautiful neighbors,” he told The Post.
“The Jewish community — particularly the orthodox and Hasidic communities — we’re against hating anyone. We pray three times a day. We pray for peace.”
ADL New York/New Jersey Regional Director Scott Richman said the decline in overall incidents marks the “first reversal of an upward trend” that dragged on since 2021.
“But the number make clear that much works remains,” he said, adding, “I know firsthand that too many New Yorkers lived in fear in 2025 of being the victim of antisemitism.”
Last year marked one of the most violent and deadly periods for American Jews since ADL began tracking data in 1979.
Three people were murdered in antisemitic attacks last year: two Israeli diplomats gunned down in the May 21, 2025, shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, and one victim who died from injuries sustained in the June 1, 2025, firebombing attack at a “Run for Their Lives” event in Boulder, Colorado.
An arsonist also torched the residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, in an attempted political assassination.
Examples of incidents targeting Brooklyn and other city Jewish residents in 2025 include:
- In February, a Jewish girl was physically assaulted in South Williamsburg, dragged to the ground by her hair, and thrown into a pile of trash.
- In April, a Brooklyn resident knocked on a Jewish neighbor’s door and said, “We didn’t kill enough of you Jews.”
- In May, a group chased two Jewish people with a knife while yelling “Heil Hitler” and “Free Palestine.”
- In June, a thug harassed a Jewish man and his children walking home from synagogue, then physically attacked a bystander who intervened.
- Also in June, a Jewish family was attacked by a hoodlum who grabbed their stroller holding their baby and said, “You guys move [out] of the neighborhood.”
- In December, a thug on a Manhattan subway punched a man wearing a hat denouncing antisemitism,
- Also in December, Elias Rosner, who is Orthodox Jewish, was stabbed leaving his synagogue in Crown Heights. The attacker said, “F–k these Jews. If the Holocaust happened, it wouldn’t be a problem.”
The ADL report comes a day after anti-Israel protesters caused havoc near Park East Synagogue on the Upper East Side.
The demonstration was against a land sale event for New Yorkers interested in moving to Israel taking a place at the synagogue, which Mayor Zohran Mamdani also spoke out against.
He dodged a question Wednesday if his criticism of Israel was fueling Jewish hate.
“I think the critique of the policies of a government is separate from bigotry toward people of a religious faith. I have been clear about my opinions: when we have a real estate expo promoting the sale of land in the occupied West Bank—settlements that are a violation of international law—that is something I firmly disagree with,” Mamdani said.
An 11-year-old girl was wearing traditional Jewish attire when she was attacked near Gerry Street and Harrison Avenue in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, on Feb. 7, 2026. NYPD“I believe many New Yorkers disagree with it because it is at the heart of an effort to displace Palestinians from their homes.”
ADL noted in its report that it is pushing for additional state and federal security grants to help protect Jews and publishes an annual report card that rates how colleges and universities handle antisemitism to help reduce incidents.
The Jewish civil rights group also helps stop potential threats.
In February 2025, as the Jewish Sabbath was approaching, an individual posted online threats to Central Synagogue in Manhattan, stating that he was driving cross-country from Utah to carry out an attack that evening.
ADL’s Center on Extremism and Community Security Initiative coordinated with the New York City Police Department, New Jersey State Police, the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
With intelligence provided by ADL and CSI, the perpetrator was nabbed at the mouth of the Lincoln Tunnel on the New Jersey side before entering the city, preventing what could have been a deadly attack on worshippers, the report said.
