Jews faced most religious hate crimes in 2022, FBI says
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Alarming new numbers released by the FBI show a rise in antisemitic hate crimes across the county.
There were 1,305 offenses committed against Jews in 2022, the FBI reported in its tally Monday of national crime statistics. That total outnumbered the second-largest category, anti-Muslim crimes, of which there were 205.
According to the FBI, the number of reported single-bias, anti-Jewish hate crimes rose from 817 in 2021 to 1,122 in 2022, and comprised more than half of all religion-based hate crimes in 2022, a trend that is consistent with data reported in prior years according to the Anti Defamation League (ADL).
Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive officer of the Anti Defamation League, said in a news release, “Reported hate crime incidents across the country have once again reached record highs, with anti-Jewish hate crimes at a number not seen in decades. At a time when the Jewish community is already reeling in the wake of a terrorist attack that constituted the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, the reality of this data is incredibly sobering. And yet, these numbers are not surprising. They are consistent with ADL’s own data and the trends we have been monitoring for years.”
The numbers came as the Israel-Hamas war has raised fears of anti-religious discrimination and hate worldwide. President Joe Biden issued a statement after the release of the data and noted anti-Semitic hate crimes went up 25% from 2021 to 2022 in the report.
The Democrat president said, “To those Americans worried about violence at home, as a result of the evil acts of terror perpetrated by Hamas in Israel, we see you. We hear you.”
Biden added that he has asked Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Attorney General Merrick Garland to prioritize preventing “any emerging threats” to Jewish, Muslim, Arab American, or other communities.
There were at least 11,634 hate crime incidents reported to the FBI by law enforcement agencies, with anti-Black/African-American hate crimes the most common, comprising nearly a third of the reported total. The numbers show an increase in hate crime reporting by law enforcement agencies, with reporting agencies covering 91.7% of the nation’s population, according to the FBI.