Number of reported anti-Semitic incidents in Arizona spiked in 2017
Mar 13, 2018, 4:18 AM
FILE - In this Feb. 27, 2017 file photo, headstones toppled and damaged by vandals lie on the ground at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Philadelphia. The Anti-Defamation League is reporting a 57 percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. in 2017, the highest tally that the Jewish civil rights group has counted in more than two decades, according to data it released on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma, File)
(AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma, File)
PHOENIX — The number of reported anti-Semitic incidents in Arizona spiked in 2017 compared to previous years.
According to a recent report from the Anti-Defamation League, there were a total of 26 reported anti-Semitic incidents in Arizona in 2017.
A majority of those incidents — 19 — were harassment, while six were vandalism and one was assault.
The number of total anti-Semitic incidents in Arizona the year prior was just 10, including five instances of harassment, five instances of vandalism and zero assaults.
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The incidents in Arizona reflected a national trend.
According to the report, the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States rose 57 percent in 2017, the “largest single-year increase on record and the second highest number reported since ADL started tracking such data in 1979.”
The total number of anti-Semitic incidents throughout the United States in 2017 was 1,986, compared to 1,267 incidents reported in 2016. For the first time since 2010, an incident occurred in each state in the nation.
New York, California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Florida and Pennsylvania were the states that had the highest numbers of incidents in 2017. Combined, they made up 62 percent of the total number of reported anti-Semitic incidents in the United States.
The organization said this sharp rise can be attributed in part to “a significant increase in incidents in schools and on college campuses, which nearly doubled for the second year in a row.”
