Through February, CAM Tracks Daily Average of 5.6 Antisemitic Incidents in 2023
The CAM Antisemitism Research Center tracked a total of 160 antisemitic incidents reported in the media worldwide in February 2023, marking a daily average of 5.7 incidents — a 1.8% rise from the previous month.
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.
Overall, CAM has tracked 333 antisemitic incidents in the media in the first two months of 2023, an average of 5.6 incidents per day, compared to 412 incidents during the same period in 2022 (7.0 incidents per day) — a 23.7% decrease. In all of 2022, CAM tracked an average of 5.3 antisemitic incidents reported in the media daily.
Of February 2023’s incidents, 49.4% (79) had far-right motives (compared to 53.0% of 2022’s yearly total), while 9.4% (15) had far-left motives (compared to 13.5% of 2022’s yearly total) and 18.8% (30) had Islamist motives (compared to 14.0% of 2022’s yearly total). The remainder — 22.5% (36) — had unidentifiable motives (compared to 19.5% of 2022’s yearly total).
Also in February, CAM monitored 20 physical threats against Jews, as well as 53 incidents of antisemitic vandalism.
February’s monthly Toxicity Analysis — published by CAM in partnership with the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) — revealed that toxicity scores for tweets mentioning Jews remained stable at levels similar to the previous month.
The results — based on a statistically-significant random sample of 100,000 tweets out of 1.3 million indexed using a machine learning model — showed 14% of the tweets were identity attacks on Jews, 11% were toxic toward Jews, 6% were insults to Jews, and 1% were threats against Jews.
For all tweets in February referring to Jews, the top 25 hashtags were #jews, #jewish, #israel, #judaism, #antisemitism, #jew, #palestine, #ukraine, #freepalestine, #torah, #auschwitz, #holocaust, #bible, #islam, #itwasascam, #israelicrimes, #christianity, #zionism, #palestinians, #christians, #usa, #christian, #iran, #antisemitic, and #muslims.
Meanwhile, a new CAM Antisemitism Research Center study detected a 71.4% rise in incidents involving the targeting of U.S. synagogues in January and February of 2023 compared to the same period last year.
In Barcelona, Spain, the City Council approved a resolution calling for the “urgent and immediate” restoration the “twin city” agreement with Tel Aviv, rejecting the unilateral severing of tied announced by Mayor Ada Colau, who accused the State of Israel of practicing “apartheid” against the Palestinians. The City Council’s action followed a petition signed by more than 15,000 people protesting Colau’s move.
Also in February, senior archbishops participating in a CAM-organized event honoring the late Italian “Righteous Among the Nations” Monsignor Giuseppe Placido Nicolini called on Catholics worldwide to stand with the Jewish people to fight rising antisemitism.
There was seven new adoptions of the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism in February — by the state of Arkansas; city of Leawood, Kansas; city of South Bend, Indiana; township of Livingston, New Jersey; city of Richmond, British Columbia (Canada); city of Plock, Poland; and University of Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina).
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