Report shows a sharp increase in antisemitism

The 2022 Hate Crime statistics are based on data received from 14,660 of 18,888 participating law enforcement agencies nationwide.

The FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program defines hate crime as a committed criminal offense which is motivated by the offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender or gender identity.

The FBI reported 11,634 hate crime incidents in 2022, the highest number recorded since the FBI started collecting hate crime data in 1991. Single-bias anti-Jewish hate crime incidents increased by more than 37 percent.

Senators James Lankford, of Oklahoma, is on the Senate and House Bipartisan Task Forces for Combating Antisemitism. “We are deeply concerned by the FBI’s 2022 Hate Crimes Statistics report, which showed the highest number of reported anti-Jewish incidents in decades,” said Lankford.

According to FBI Director Christopher Wray, there is already an increase in reported threats to the Jewish community in response to Hamas’ war against Israel.

Jews make up around two percent of the US population, yet antisemitic hate crimes accounted for 9.6 percent of all hate crimes reported by the FBI.

Anti-Jewish incidents comprised a little over half of all religion-based hate crimes.