Yesterday the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) announced that the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States has been significantly growing since last year’s presidential campaign and the subsequent victory of Republican Party candidate Donald Trump. During 2016, according to the ADL, 34 % more such cases happened compared to 2015.
The group says the year-on-year growth in such incidents for the first quarter of 2017 is 86 %. Last year there were 1 266 anti-Semitic incidents in the USA, of which more than half were harassment and threats, the ADL reported.
Year-on-year the number of cases of anti-Semitic vandalism and violent assault also rose by 35 %. Approximately 30 % of all anti-Semitic incidents last year happened in November and December.
During the first quarter of 2017 the ADL has recorded 541 attacks against Jewish people. “The presidential elections in the year 2016 and the extreme political atmosphere played a role in that growth,” the ADL said.
White House spokesperson Michael Short responded to the publication of the statistics by saying that President Trump constantly opposes anti-Semitism. Reuters reports that Short said Trump most recently did so on Sunday on the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day.
