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With Monday marking the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack against Israel, Anti-Defamation League CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt warned of a rise in antisemitic hate crimes across the country, specifically on college campuses.
“This week, the anti-Israel groups on campus are planning a week of rage to start tomorrow on 10/7, when we are trying to commemorate those we lost in this heinous unprovoked attack,” Greenblatt told CNN’s “State of the Union” host Dana Bash on Sunday.
“I can’t think of anything more grotesque than these pro-Hamas groups, which by the way, were mourning the death of [Hezbollah leader Hasan] Nasrallah two weeks ago, a man with American blood on his hands,” he continued.
Nasrallah was killed last month in an attack by the Israeli military in a series of efforts to kill Hezbollah leaders. In retaliation, Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel on Tuesday.
When asked if the college protests have curbed since last year as students have returned to campuses, Greenblatt said, “Not really.”
“For Jewish people in this moment, we all were in synagogue this week, found ourselves walking through metal detectors and past, armed guards simply to worship. And then we have our kids on these campuses,” he said, referring to Rosh Hashana observations.
He added: “They are waving the Hezbollah flags. They lionized what happened on 10/7, calling it an act of resistance. In my mind, rape is never resistance. But our kids are dealing with this. So we saw nearly a 500% increase in antisemitic acts on college campuses in the last academic year.”
According to an ADL report released Sunday, antisemitic incidents have risen by over 200% from the previous year, with over 10,000 antisemitic incidents occurring in the U.S. since the Oct. 7 attacks.
“These numbers are truly astonishing,” Greenblatt said. “ADL has been around for over 110 years and we’ve never seen data like this before. Think about it, we are honoring, commemorating the solemn anniversary of the murder of 1,200 people, simply because they were Jewish. They were slaughtered, they were tortured, they were killed, they were kidnapped and yet here in the United States, that triggered a tsunami of anti-Jewish hate.”
Some of this antisemitism has impacted responses to Hurricane Helene, with conspiracy theories being woven about Jewish people being able to control the weather.
“We’re seeing these stories about what happened in North Carolina and that tragedy and there has been an avalanche of antisemitic conspiracies directed at the mayor, directed at FEMA, as if somehow the Mossad is involved in distributing disaster relief,” Greenblatt said, referencing Israel’s intelligence agency.
“So I think conspiracism has had an all-time high and antisemitism is raging like we’ve never seen before,” Greenblatt said.
ADL, as well as multiple federal agencies including the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and National Counterterrorism Center, warned about an increase in threats against Jewish people on Oct. 7.
“It’s really just so awful. This is why ADL is mobilized the way we are. I’ve got to say something: if you see something, say something. We need people to report incidents. We need people to speak up. We should not be afraid in our own country,” Greenblatt said.
