Jews targeted in 69% of religion hate crimes in 2024, 71% since October 2023, per FBI data

Of the 2,942 religion-based hate crimes that were reported to the FBI in 2024, 2,041 (69%) offenses targeted Jews, according to new data that the federal law enforcement agency released in its crime data explorer tool.

The next largest anti-religious bias type last year was the 256 offences targeting Muslims, which made up about 9% of all religion-based biased incidents. That means Jews were about 660% more likely than Muslims to be victims of anti-religious bias offenses in the United States last year.

From January 2019 until December 2024, Jews were victims of 8,376 religion-based bias offenses, or about 62% of the 13,424 religion-based bias offenses. From October 2023—the month of Hamas’s terror attack in southern Israel—until December 2024, Jews were targeted in 3,051 offenses, 71% of the 4,279 religion-based hate crimes.

Since October 2023, Muslims in America have been the targets of 395 offenses, 9% of all religion-based bias incidents.

The FBI’s info in its crime data explorer tool differs from data that it published in downloadable tables about its new statistics. JNS used the explorer tool, which found 2,041 anti-Jewish offenses. The tool doesn’t say if it used offenses or incidents, but a note on the chart refers to “offense counts.”

The Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee stated in releases that there were 1,938 incidents that targeted Jews in 2024. That number, and the others that the ADL and AJC used, come from a chart that is downloadable on the FBI website. According to that chart, there were 2,137 anti-Jewish offenses in 2024, which targeted 2,237 victims and which involved 1,043 known offenders.

Neither the 1,938 nor the 2,137 number on the FBI chart appears to correspond to the 2,041 number on the FBI explorer tool. (JNS sought comment from the FBI.)

The FBI explorer tool states that it used offense counts that are “updated to be consistent with the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program offense counting rules.”

“Previously, crimes against persons offenses were counted as one for each offense type (e.g., one aggravated assault offense for an incident in which multiple victims were assaulted),” it states. “The updated chart reflects one crime against persons offense for each victim (i.e., the number of aggravated assault offenses will match the number of victims of aggravated assault).”

“Crimes against property and crimes against society are unaffected by this update,” it states.

‘A perfect storm of hate’

Ted Deutch, CEO of the AJC, stated that “leaders of every kind—teachers, law enforcement officers, government officials, business owners, university presidents—must confront antisemitism head-on.”

“Jews are being targeted not just out of hate, but because some wrongly believe that violence or intimidation is justified by global events,” Deutch said. “With the added climate of rising polarization and fading trust in democracy, American Jews are facing a perfect storm of hate.”

“Whether walking to synagogue, dropping their kids off at school, sitting in restaurants, or on college campuses, Jews are facing a climate where fear of antisemitism is part of daily life,” he said. “This is unacceptable. The targeting of Jews is not a Jewish problem. It is a society-wide issue that demands a society-wide response.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the ADL, stated that “as the Jewish community is still reeling from two deadly antisemitic attacks in the past few months, the record-high number of anti-Jewish hate crime incidents tracked by the FBI in 2024 is consistent with ADL’s reporting and, more importantly, with the Jewish community’s current lived experience.”

“Since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, Jewish Americans have not had a moment of respite and have experienced antisemitism at K-12 school, on college campuses, in the public square, at work and Jewish institutions,” Greenblatt stated.

“Our government and leaders must take these numbers seriously and enact adequate measures to protect all Americans from the scourge of hate crimes,” he added.

The ADL keeps its own counts of incidents. It documented 9,354 incidents of Jew-hatred in 2024, which it said was a 5% increase over the prior year, “and the highest number on record since ADL began tracking such data in 1979.”

It added that assaults, the most serious type of incident, were up 21% in 2024.

“As concerning as the FBI data is, it is likely that the number of religiously motivated and anti-Jewish incidents is actually greater, as hate crimes are widely underreported across the country,” the AJC said. “Since many major cities continue to not report hate crimes, the true state of antisemitism in the U.S. is likely much worse.”

© JNS