Three years after October 7, the grief is still close to the surface, and so is the fear. Jewish parents are checking school blacktops for swastikas. Jewish students are wondering which classrooms are safe for them.
Those fears deserve answers grounded in fact. Misrepresent the threat and people stop trusting the warnings. Dismiss it and people get hurt. Both mistakes are common, and both leave Jews less safe.
ADL’s annual Audit is one of the most cited counts of antisemitism in America. It also folds very different things into a small number of categories. NCAR took ADL’s own public data for 2025 and re-sorted all Israel-related incidents without adding or removing a single one.
What it found:
Most of the Audit is classic antisemitism. 55% of incidents have nothing to do with Israel: 163 assaults, 1,945 cases of harassment, and 1,319 acts of vandalism.
Much of the Israel-related share includes classic antisemitic tropes. 800 incidents paired anti-Israel messaging with overt slurs, antisemitic conspiracy theories, or came from white supremacist groups.
Jews are being targeted over Israel: In 731 incidents, Jewish people were harassed or assaulted, or their property was vandalized, apparently by people who were motivated by anger towards Israel or Zionism.
About 18% is speech about Israel that ADL counts as antisemitic. These 1,116 incidents didn’t target Jews or use classic tropes. They range from support for terrorism (279) to “From the River to the Sea” (197).
Most rallies weren’t where people assume. Of 883 rally incidents, 78% happened away from campuses and Jewish institutions, mostly on streets and in parks.
Campus incidents were spread thin. Of 214 campuses with a recorded incident, 148 had one or two.
None of this makes any incident trivial. Cheering terrorism and demonizing Zionists can make Jews less safe, and AJC found that 40% of American Jews avoid wearing or displaying anything that identifies them as Jewish. But a protest slogan and a Jew beaten on the street call for different responses. Collapsing them into one number makes both harder to address, and makes the whole count easier to dismiss.
NCAR also examined ADL’s recent reports on college faculty, one of which drew sweeping conclusions from 38 incidents across 19 campuses.
On September 29, Mayor Zohran Mamdani released his administration’s strategy to combat antisemitism, its first plan targeting any specific form of hate. It includes $1 million for security at houses of worship, expanded Holocaust education, and a public campaign on reporting discrimination. ADL has called for all of these. It rejected the plan outright.
In an open letter in The Times of Israel, Nexus President Jonathan Jacoby asks Greenblatt to apply the standard ADL used with President Trump: praise what works, push back on what doesn’t. The Simon Wiesenthal Center and JCPA did exactly that with Mamdani’s plan. Engagement wouldn’t require ADL to endorse the mayor or drop its concerns about Zionism and protest. It would give those concerns a real hearing.
Nexus’s Nate Wolfson and Ella Messler joined J Street to test themselves on antisemitism’s vocabulary: the Great Replacement conspiracy, scapegoating, “antisemitism fatigue,” and the coded language that slips past content filters, like “globalists,” the number 88, or a juice box emoji standing in for Jews. Even “zio,” which sounds like simple shorthand, was popularized by former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke.
The video pairs with a collaborative piece on six antisemitic tropes. Our new series, Antisemitic Tropes 101, unpacks them one at a time, starting with the “hidden hand.” That’s the centuries-old claim that Jews secretly control world events, running from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to today’s conspiracy theories about George Soros. The series also covers what to do when you see it: name the specific trope, don’t amplify it, and lead with education.
A creator with more than 800,000 followers, @naleybynature, recently posted a video claiming “no one craves Jewish food,” then complained about antisemitism accusations. On its own, that’s a bad take. Her record makes it something more. She has promoted the “dancing Israelis” 9/11 conspiracy theory, warned of people “in denial about who is in control of this country,” and published a Substack arguing that Jewish people and institutions should be held collectively responsible for Israel.
Criticism of Israel is fair game. Holding all Jews responsible for Israel’s actions is antisemitism, and it has been used for generations to justify violence against Jews.
Three years ago, Hamas murdered around 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages. We remember every one of them. Mourning them requires no equivocation, and grief for them takes nothing away from grief for anyone else.
Israelis for Peace, a left-wing group, brought that same spirit to its vigil in Union Square, mourning Israelis killed on October 7 alongside Palestinians killed in the war since. Hundreds of protesters overran it. One told organizers “we sent your people to hell on October 7.” Others waved a Hamas flag and a portrait of Yahya Sinwar, mockingly sang “Hava Nagila,” and chanted “Death to the IDF” as mourners left.
Protest is legitimate. Glorifying terror at a vigil for its victims is incitement, and here it targeted the people working hardest for peace.
Haverford religion professor Guangtian Ha once dismissed Jewish students’ antisemitism concerns as “Zionist witch hunts.” On Tuesday, he was charged with cyberstalking. Prosecutors say he used anonymous X accounts to terrorize a Jewish colleague, posting the victim’s home address, a photo of their mailbox, and their infant’s name. One message allegedly read “The Führer is coming.” Twice, the victim’s family left home to stay with relatives. Prosecutors say Ha admitted to the FBI that he created the accounts.
Ha has not been convicted. But the allegations cast his public dismissals in a harsh light. Waving off every antisemitism complaint as a witch hunt mirrors calling every critic of Israel an antisemite, and both leave real targets exposed.
Messages attributed to Josiah Cox, son of Maryland Republican gubernatorial nominee Dan Cox, called Jews pedophiles and “Satan worshipping scum,” according to Jewish Insider. They accused Jews of killing Jesus and signed off: “Christ is king, down with zionists.”
The deicide charge is the oldest accusation in Christian antisemitism, and it justified centuries of expulsions and massacres. Notice how easily “zionists” fits into a message about Jews killing Jesus. Here the word simply means Jews.
After Tuesday’s debate, Dan Cox disavowed the remarks and said his son had apologized, which was the right call. He also blamed Democrats for planting the story, which shrinks a real problem into a campaign spat.
Eugene, OR: Posters at the University of Oregon branded Oregon Hillel’s executive director an “enemy of the people” and demanded Hillel be removed from campus. Sen. Ron Wyden condemned them as an attempt to intimidate Jewish students. (KPTV)
San Anselmo, CA: A swastika and other antisemitic graffiti were found at Brookside Elementary School. The district says two of its students from another school were responsible, and police are investigating it as a hate crime. (ABC7)
Abington Township, PA: Three teens were charged after swastikas and a racial slur were painted at a Glenside playground. Two face ethnic intimidation charges. A week earlier, swastikas and a slur were carved into a Yardley golf course near a Jewish elementary school. (6abc, The Forward)
Belmont, MA: After repeated racist and antisemitic graffiti at Belmont High School, parents told the district that Jewish students are afraid to talk about their identity at school. (The Belmont Voice)
Mukwonago, WI: Swastikas and racist writing were spray-painted near St. James Church, the same spot hit in early September. Police have no suspects. (Spectrum News)
Clayton, NC: Swastika imagery turned up at East Clayton Community Park for the third time this year, including on a sign meant for children. The town is classifying the latest incident as “unauthorized posting” because nothing was damaged.
Highland Park, IL: A swastika was painted on a playground slide at Devonshire Park the day after Yom Kippur.
Imperial Beach, CA: A Jewish couple’s home was tagged with a swastika and white power shorthand around Rosh Hashanah, then targeted again before Yom Kippur, this time with the homeowner’s name. Deputies have arrested an 18-year-old suspect.
Wethersfield and Rocky Hill, CT: Swastikas, antisemitic writing, and racist images were spray-painted across both towns on cars, fences, street signs, and a skate park over Yom Kippur weekend.
Evanston, IL: A man with a prior conviction for antisemitic attacks on Chicago synagogues was sentenced to seven years for drawing swastikas across Northwestern’s campus.
This is what we do: track real antisemitism, call out when it’s weaponized, and make clear the difference. If you’d like to support this work, you can donate here. We’d love to connect.
We’ll continue offering clear responses, frameworks, and resources as these stories develop.
