ADL reports 37% drop in antisemitic incidents in 2025

Grace Zokovitch, Boston Herald on May 8, 2026

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BOSTON — The Anti-Defamation League reported an over one-third drop in incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism related to antisemitism in 2025 — but remains significantly elevated from before 2023.

“The decrease in antisemitic incidents over the last year is a clear sign of progress,” said Samantha Joseph, regional director of ADL New England. “But 400 incidents in a single year is still nearly double what this region saw before October 7, 2023, and K-12 incidents have increased. Our communities remain concerned for their safety, and our work is far from done.”

The annual ADL Audit of Antisemitic Incidents reported a total of 400 such incidents in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, down from 638 in 2024.

The audit compiles “criminal and non-criminal acts of harassment, vandalism and assault against individuals and groups as reported to ADL by victims, law enforcement, the media and partner organizations,” evaluated by the organization, the ADL said. The group stated the audit is intended to not “conflate general criticism of Israel or anti-Israel activism with antisemitism” and doesn’t include “legitimate political protest, support for Palestinian rights or expressions of opposition to Israeli policies.”

The region’s report reflects broader national trends in 2025, according to the ADL. The U.S. reported a total of 6,274 incidents of antisemitic assault, harassment and vandalism in 2025, a 33% decrease from 2024 but still the third-highest year for antisemitic incidents after 2023 and 2024 since ADL began tracking in 1979.

The New England drop represents the first regional decrease since Oct. 7, 2023, the ADL stated. Of the 2025 incidents, 41% reported were related to “Israel or Zionism,” the ADL said.

The report included 230 cases of harassment, 164 cases of vandalism and 6 cases of assault. Massachusetts saw the most reported antisemitic incidents of any New England state as well, with 279, according to the ADL. New Hampshire reported the next highest with just 34 incidents.

Schools went in different directions, with a steep 61% drop in campus incidents — from 151 New England incident in 2024 to 49 in 2025 — and a notable 50% increase in non-Jewish K-12 schools — from 50 in 2024 to 75 in 2025.

The non-Jewish K-12 schools were “the only physical location category to see an increase from 2024 to 2025,” the ADL said.

In Massachusetts, the K-12 schools saw the most reported incidents of any category of location. The state also ranked fourth nationally for incidents at universities and non-Jewish K-12 schools, the organization stated.

Public areas, like parks, transit and more, reported the highest concentration of incidents in New England in 2025, at 100, followed by Non-Jewish K-12 schools with 85 and Jewish institutions and schools at 62, according to the report.

The audit included a full list of the incidents reported, and the ADL noted incidents in each state. The organization highlighted a case of a brick with the message “Free Palestine” being thrown through the window of a kosher grocery store in Brookline, as well as various incidents of swastika graffiti and antisemitic harassment of individuals across the region.

The ADL cited the “significant drop in Israel/Zionism-related incidents and a steep decline in campus antisemitism” as primary drivers of the overall decline in regional and national incidents.

“Even as overall incidents decreased nationally, physical assaults increased by 4%, and incidents of assault involving a deadly weapon increased by 39%,” the ADL stated, calling 2025 “one of the most violent periods for American Jews.”

In 2025, antisemitic attacks resulted in U.S. deaths for the first time since 2022 and Jewish fatalities for the first time since 2019, the ADL stated.

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