There were 3,697 anti-Semitic incidents throughout the United States last year, a 36% increase from the 2,717 incidents recorded in 2021, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The increase in Pennsylvania was a startling 65%. These numbers are the highest on record since ADL began tracking these incidents in 1979.

This follows on the heels of a report last year by the ADL that Pennsylvania had the highest level of white supremacist propaganda incidents in the country in 2021.

Incidents occurred in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The states with the highest number of incidents were: New York (580), California (518), New Jersey (408), Florida (269) and Texas (211). Combined, these five states accounted for 54% of the total incidents. Pennsylvania recorded 114 such incidents resulting in the 65% increase compared to 2021, according to the ADL report

In 2022, incidents increased in each of the major categories tracked by ADL, including vandalism (up by 51%) and assaults (26%). Thankfully, no assaults resulted in mass casualties, although there was one fatality reported.

According to the ADL report, the steep rise in anti-Semitic incidents can’t be traced to any one cause or ideology, but there was significant increases in white supremacist propaganda activity (102%), attacks on Orthodox Jews (69%) and bomb threats aimed at Jewish institutions (1,038% - from 8 in 2021 to 91 last year).

In assessing attitudes in its report, the ADL believes this increase in activity has resulted because anti-Semites have been emboldened to act on their hatred in the current environment. This dramatic increase also occurs just as the FBI released its 2021 hate crime data (a year behind the ADL report) showing that “Jews remain the single most targeted religious minority in America.”

Andrew Goretsky, regional director of ADL, said that combating hate will occur through education and speaking up when anti-Semitism and racism occur. He warned that biased attitudes and acts can increase into violence and blind hatred if left unchecked.

Among incidents cited were the fact that some public officials, even in high positions of the government, and social media influencers have helped normalize anti-Semitism by posting and repeating bigoted untruths.

Specifically named was Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, who last year posted anti-Semitic messages and a swastika to his 32 million Twitter followers. Ye was suspended from Twitter as a result of this behavior.

Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL said to attack this growing problem everyone needs to be involved, because, he said, “anti-Semitism isn’t just a Jewish problem, just like racism isn’t just a problem of Black people, or homophobia talking about LGBTQ people. Anti-Semitism is everyone’s problem. It’s a universal concern.”

He said that people in public life, elected officials, policymakers and celebrities need to call out hate when it happens. Greenblatt specifically called out Facebook as being a “super-spreader of stereotypes, and it amplifies the anti-Semitism and other forms of hate.”

You may recall last year that I called attention to an earlier ADL report that said that Pennsylvania led the way with 473 documented instances of hate propaganda dissemination.

In late March of 2022, white supremacist and hate leaflets were found in envelopes on lawns in a residential neighborhood in Bangor, Northampton County. This prompted Esther Lee, president of the Bethlehem branch of the NAACP to say, “We can’t sit on our cans and think it is going away; we have to do something about it.” The NAACP embarked on an aggressive education program.

I certainly realize that the political climate in Pennsylvania, as in many other states across the nation, is tense and polarized right now. Too many intemperate words from people who should know better are fanning the flames of racial and ethnic tension, but I never figured our state would wind up so as one of the prime dispensers of hate in the nation when it comes to instances of racist, anti-Semitic and similar messaging, but this, regrettably, is the conclusion that the ADL has come to in its factfinding.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.