Jewish groups concerned after LA County records second most anti-Jewish hate crimes

Los Angeles County recorded the second-highest number of hate crimes targeting Jews last year in the 44 years that it has calculated such statistics, according to a report from the county’s human relations commission.

The only time that the county recorded more anti-Jewish hate crimes (244) was in 2023, the year that Hamas led attacks in southern Israel. In 2024, the number dropped by about 17%, to 202, but that and the prior year were the most in the county’s history. And in 2024, the anti-Jewish incidents were 80% of all religious hate crimes in the county, according to the report.

“This isn’t progress, it’s a warning,” Jim Berk, CEO of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told JNS. “A drop in reports doesn’t change the fact that the baseline is still dangerously high.”

Berk said that “hate has changed shape, moved to new platforms and spilled back into public spaces” and that the hostile climate against Jews is worsening.

“We call on Los Angeles County leaders, law enforcement, educators and our civic partners: Do not take comfort in this report,” Berk told JNS. “See it as a call to action. We need to invest in prevention, tackle the digital engines of hate and make sure every victim feels safe to speak up.”

Rabbi Noah Farkas, president and CEO of Jewish Federation Los Angeles, told JNS that the report is a “sobering reminder that antisemitism remains a relentless and growing threat in our community.”

“Although the data shows a very modest decline in antisemitic incidents, 80% of all religiously motivated hate crimes target Jews, the second-highest level on record, and crimes against Israelis rose sharply,” Farkas said.

The number of anti-Israeli hate crimes in the county rose from 22 in 2023 to 28 in 2024—a 27% increase. The 28 reported instances of anti-Israeli hate crimes is the highest the commission has ever recorded, per the report.

Farkas told JNS that “the report’s findings, that for the last decade hate crimes in LA County overall have increased, is an alarm we simply can’t ignore.”

“We must meet this moment with an unwavering commitment to protecting all who are targeted by hate,” Farkas said.

David Englin, senior Los Angeles regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said that “we are witnessing a wide-scale normalization of antisemitism in our county and across our nation,” and that “this data is a call to action.”

“Jews continue to be targeted in the streets, in their neighborhoods and on campus simply for being Jewish,” he said. “It’s time for leaders across every sector to come together, speak out and act boldly to protect our communities and our values.”

The report cited an example of a boy in the county punching a 15-year-old and calling her a “dirty Jew.” There was also a reported instance of swastika graffiti and the words “Jews must die” scrawled on a grocery store.

Hate crimes with language related to the Middle East conflict rose from 64 in 2023 to 81 in 2024, a nearly 27% increase. The 81 incidents were 6% of all hate crimes in the county in 2024. Palestinians were the most targeted group in this category at 30%, according to the report, which separated Jews and Israelis.

Jews and Israelis were targeted at 27% and 20% respectively—the second and third-most—or almost 57% more than the amount that Palestinians were targeted. (JNS sought comment about why the report separated Jews and Israelis in this way.)

The report also found that 19% of all hate crimes at Los Angeles County schools targeted Jews in 2024. Jews were the third-most targeted group at county schools, after blacks (31%) and Middle Easterners (20%). Israelis were the least targeted group at county schools at 4%, per the report. It wasn’t clear if Israelis were included in the category of Middle Easterners.

Monica Lomeli, manager of the commission’s hate documentation and data analytics program, told JNS that “we do not aggregate Israelis as Middle Easterners because there is no consensus as to whether this group identifies as Middle Eastern.”

According to its website, 7.12% of students in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second largest district, were Black in the 2023-2024 school year. It wasn’t clear what percentage were Jewish, Israeli, Palestinian or Middle Eastern.

Hate crimes as a whole declined by less than 1% from 1,367 in 2023 to 1,355 in 2024, according to the report, but the number of hate crimes in 2024 was still the second highest that the commission has ever recorded. In 2014, there were 390 hate crimes in the county, and 384 in 2013.

The commission has published the report annually since 1980. It bases its findings on reports from law enforcement, schools and community-based organizations, it says.

Helen Chin, president of the commission, stated that “we are seeing a second wave of unprecedented data reflecting the impact of hate across diverse communities.”

© JNS