Recent data from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) shows that antisemitic hate crimes have increased by nearly 60% thus far in 2021.
According to a July 12 report from Crosstown, a nonprofit organization analyzing Los Angeles data, 43 antisemitic hate crimes have occurred in Los Angeles in 2021, a 59.2% increase from 2020. Antisemitic hate crimes also comprised 14.6% of all hate crimes in Los Angeles in 2021, and Jews have been the most-targeted population behind Blacks and Latinos; in total, there have been 295 hate crimes in Los Angeles.
“Over the last four years, and leading into 2021, we have seen an emboldenment of extremists,” Anti-Defamation League Los Angeles Deputy Regional Manager Ariella Loewenstein told Crosstown. “A central part of conspiratorial views that fuel extremist violence is antisemitism.”
City Council candidate Sam Yebri, an attorney, also told Crosstown that there has been a spike in antisemitic activity on social media over the past couple of years, but “what’s been especially troubling is the frequency, intensity and brazenness of the antisemitic hate crimes recently.” In May, a caravan displaying Palestinian flags from their vehicles attacked Jewish patrons outside of the Sushi Fumi restaurant in the Beverly Grove area.
Yebri also praised the police for being “incredibly responsive” to antisemitic incidents but noted that “their resources are spread thin.”
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt wrote in a July 9 Newsweek op-ed that the ADL has recorded 251 antisemitic incidents since May 11, a 115% increase over the same timeframe a year ago. Greenblatt attributed the recent spate of antisemitic incidents to “anti-Israel sentiment” that “is not limited to the halls of Congress. It is spreading. And it is dangerous.”
