Pictured Above: A man holds a sign promoting an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory across the street from the former World Trade Center site on Sept. 11, 2011, the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Credit: Luigi Novi via Wikimedia Commons.

(JNS) The number of anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30, 2017, increased by 67 percent when compared with the same period in 2016, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) annual report on anti-Semitism.

The report documents 1,299 anti-Semitic incidents across the U.S. from Jan. 1-Sept. 30 of last year, compared with 1,266 in all of 2016. 

ADL’s Israel director, Carole Nuriel, presented the statistics on Monday to the Knesset’s Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs.

Nuriel emphasized that the report is not conclusive and that many additional anti-Semitic incidents go unreported, often due to victims fearing retaliation or complications with classifying an incident as anti-Semitic. She also underscored an increase in anti-Semitic bullying and vandalism within the U.S. school system, as such incidents more than doubled from 130 in 2016 to 269 from Jan. 1-Sept. 30, 2017.

“These figures testify to demons emerging from the bottle and are now threatening to blacken the attitude toward Jews throughout the world,” said Member of Knesset Nachman Shai (Zionist Union), chairman of the Israeli legislature’s Caucus for Strengthening the Jewish People.

“We must not remain silent and allow the worsening of the treatment of Jews and Judaism,” Shai said. “This is a significant danger to the State of Israel. Anti-Semitism is the fuel that nourishes the BDS phenomenon, and the worse it gets, the worse Israel’s situation will be in the world.”

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