WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new analysis by the Nexus Center for Antisemitism Research (NCAR) found that 18 percent of the Anti-Defamation League’s 2025 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents consisted of hostile expressions about Israel, Zionism, Zionists that the ADL deemed antisemitic. An additional 12 percent involved Jewish people or institutions being targeted because they were seen as proxies for Israel, with no explicit antisemitic slurs or symbols present. The Audit does not distinguish between these two types of incidents in its general ‘Israel-related’ category, which accounts for 45% of the incidents in the Audit.
NCAR’s analysis was conducted by its director Aryeh Tuchman, who formerly served as director of the ADL Center on Extremism. The analysis, which includes quantitative breakdowns of how ADL treated protest phrases like ‘From the River to the Sea’ and ‘Globalize the Intifada,’ suggests that ADL’s categorization rules can sometimes obscure distinctions that may be important to policymakers, educators and Jewish community practitioners as they try to develop the most effective, targeted responses to challenges facing the American Jewish community.
“Applying more precise categories to the most contested elements in the ADL’s Audit can make it a more useful tool for everyone, including many who disagree with ADL’s definition of antisemitism,” said NCAR Director Aryeh Tuchman.
A few other key topline findings from the NCAR analysis of ADL’s data:
- The 583 campus incidents (72% Israel-related) took place at 214 identifiable colleges and universities — about 8% of the nation’s four-year institutions. 148 of those campuses (69%) experienced two or fewer incidents.
- Hostile expressions about Israel and Zionism, which collectively make up 18% of the Audit, incorporate a range of overlapping themes. According to NCAR analysis, support for terrorism against Israel, such as praise for Hamas and paraglider imagery, appears in 279 incidents, or 4.4% of the Audit. Other themes, such as general anti-Zionist statements like ‘Zionism is racism’ appear in 281 incidents (4.5%); calls for ‘resistance’ in 208 (3.3%); ‘From the River to the Sea’ chants in 197 (3.1%); calls for ‘intifada’ in 154 (2.5%); Nazi and Holocaust comparisons in 80 (1.3%); and explicit calls for Zionists to be killed in 24 (0.4%).
- Of the 883 incidents that occurred at anti-Israel rallies, 165 (19%) took place on campus and 28 (3%) at Jewish institutions. The rest took place on streets, in parks, and at transportation hubs and government buildings.
Reflecting on the NCAR report, Nexus Project President Jonathan Jacoby raised concerns about ADL’s criteria for categorizing and tracking incidents related to Israel.
“NCAR’s analysis is a reminder that ADL’s definition of antisemitism apparently does not distinguish between a political chant at an anti-Israel rally and direct harassment of Jewish people,” Jacoby said. “This is confounding to many American Jews and policymakers whose understanding of and approach to combating antisemitism is more contextual than ADL’s.”
Jacoby also noted that ADL’s policy and communication decisions, including how the Audit is used in subsequent ADL messaging and lobbying, can undermine trust in the Audit.
“Good data can yield powerful, effective advocacy to stop antisemitism — which remains a serious, dangerous threat in this country. But the way the ADL presents this data, paired with statements from organizational leadership that anti-Zionism is always antisemitism, badly undermines trust in the data. And that makes the work of uprooting and dismantling anti-Jewish hatred that much harder.”
The NCAR report includes a new set of thematic categories designed to provide a more nuanced and precise understanding of antisemitism in America. Based on its findings, in order to make the Audit more useful and trusted across ideological divides, the ADL should (1) include these categories in their 2026 Audit, (2) report on campus incidents with more precision rather than as a broad total, and (3) clearly separate harassment from public expressions of hostility to Israel and Zionism. The full report, Counting Antisemitic Incidents: What the ADL Audit Reveals — and Obscures, is available at https://ncar.us/papers/counting-antisemitic-incidents-what-the-adl-audit-reveals-and-obscures
