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The CAM Antisemitism Research Center (ARC) tracked a total of 468 reports of antisemitic incidents worldwide in January 2024, marking a daily average of 15.1, up 171% from the previous January, a rise that can be attributed to the surge of antisemitism triggered by the October 7th Hamas attack in Israel.
CAM’s Monthly Antisemitism Report classifies incidents of Jew-hatred (including physical assault, verbal harassment, vandalism, and hate speech) into the following categories: Holocaust Denial, Minimization, and Distortion; Classical; Israel-related; Islamist; and Unattributable.
Of January’s incidents, 65.38% (306) were Israel-related , while 16.25% (76) were classical and 8.97% (42) had Islamist motives. The remainder fell into the Holocaust Denial, Minimization, and Distortion and Unattributable categories — with 22 incidents (4.70%) apiece.
87 incidents of antisemitic vandalism, as well as 52 physical threats against Jews, including an attempted mass stabbing at a London kosher supermarket, were monitored during the month of January.
Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations, a noticeable uptick in incidents of vandalism at Holocaust memorials was monitored. In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza was vandalized twice within three days. In Milan, Italy, antisemitic graffiti was drawn on a Holocaust memorial. In Leipzig, Germany, portraits of Holocaust survivors were desecrated.
More than 70% of all January’s incidents involved hate speech (329 incidents). In New York City, pro-Hamas protesters yelled “Shame on you” at patients of a pediatric cancer ward that had received a donation from a prominent Jewish businessman. In Sweden, an International Holocaust Remembrance Day event was disrupted by 15-20 protesters chanting “Israel murderer.” Meanwhile, American white supremacist Nick Fuentes told his podcast audience that Jews must be “absolutely annihilated.”
On Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., a bipartisan group of U.S. House of Representatives staffers received an in-depth briefing on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism at forum co-organized by CAM, Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, and Returning the Sparks on Jan. 30.
The same day, the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), including its continued ties to terrorism. Following the hearing, Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) Chief of Staff Arthur Maserjian stated, “Today’s hearing only confirmed what we have known for a long time, that UNRWA will never be a partner who can be trusted to live up to its purpose of serving the welfare of the Palestinian people. It is now abundantly clear to all that funding UNWRA means funding terrorism, and this runs counter to America’s national principles and interests.”
The ARC has detected and monitored a significant increase in antisemitic incidents in Turkey since October 7th, which has coincided with a rapid deterioration in the country’s ties with Israel.
There were five new adoptions of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism in January around the world. Among these was Georgia, which became the 35th U.S. state to adopt the most widely-embraced definition of antisemitism, and the ninth to do so through legislative action.
In January, CAM, in partnership with the Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University, released its 2023 IHRA Report, which showed 97 entities adopted or endorsed the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism last year, bringing the global total to 1,216.
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/research
