2022 Starts With Steep Rise in Physical Attacks Targeting Jews, CAM Data Shows

The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) Information Hub tracked a total of 158 antisemitic incidents reported in the media worldwide in January 2022, a 9.2% year-to-year decrease from January 2021.

CAM’s Monthly Antisemitism Report classifies incidents of Jew-hatred (including physical assault, verbal harassment, vandalism, and hate speech) by the ideologies of the perpetrators.

Of January’s incidents, 58.2% (92) had far-right motives, while 13.9% (22) had far-left motives, and 13.3% (21) had radical Islamist motives. The remainder — 14.6% (23) — had unidentifiable motives.

There was a 14.1% year-to-year increase in incidents of far-right antisemitism in January compared to calendar year 2021, while decreases of 5.2%, 5.8%, and 3.1% were seen in the far-left, Islamist, and unidentifiable categories.

Also in January, CAM monitored 19 physical attacks targeting Jews, a 90% rise, year-to-year, as well as 45 incidents of antisemitic vandalism, an 8.2% decrease, year-to-year.

The hostage-taking incident at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, during Shabbat services on January 15th drew renewed attention to the growing threats faced by Jewish institutions worldwide, and particularly in the United States.

In the three months preceding the attack, the CAM Information Hub tracked 34 media reports of incidents globally in which synagogues and Jewish centers were targeted, including 22 in the U.S. alone (65% of total).

Meanwhile, a new Amnesty International report declaring Israel an “apartheid” state perverted history, held the Jewish state to double standards not applied to any other nation in the world, ignored the crimes of Palestinian terrorist organizations against Israeli civilians, and portrayed Israel’s mere existence as the sole obstacle to Middle East peace. And an Amnesty researcher subsequently used an antisemitic trope about Israeli “influence” when trying to defend the widely-pilloried report in an interview with The Times of Israel.

There were eight adoptions of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism in January — by the U.S. states of Alabama, Nevada, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia, as well as the Town of Southampton, New York, and Argentina’s Santa Fe Province.

The full monthly report can be viewed here.

For more information on CAM’s antisemitism incidents data, which is collected on a weekly basis, visit: combatantisemitism.org/newsletters