A man holds a sign promoting an antisemitic conspiracy theory across the street from the former World Trade Center site on Sept. 11, 2011, the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Photo: Luigi Novi via Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – The number of antisemitic incidents in the US between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30, 2017, increased by 67 percent when compared with the same period in 2016, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) annual report on antisemitism.

The report documents 1,299 antisemitic incidents across the US from Jan. 1-Sept. 30 of last year, compared with 1,266 in all of 2016.

ADL’s Israel director, Carole Nuriel, presented the statistics on Monday to the Knesset’s Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs.

Nuriel emphasized that the report is not conclusive and that many additional antisemitic incidents go unreported, often due to victims fearing retaliation or complications with classifying an incident as antisemitic. She also underscored an increase in antisemitic bullying and vandalism within the US school system, as such incidents more than doubled from 130 in 2016 to 269 from Jan. 1-Sept. 30, 2017.

“These figures testify to demons emerging from the bottle and are now threatening to blacken the attitude toward Jews throughout the world,” said MK Nachman Shai (Zionist Union), chairman of the Israeli legislature’s Caucus for Strengthening the Jewish People.

“We must not remain silent and allow the worsening of the treatment of Jews and Judaism,” Shai said. “This is a significant danger to the State of Israel. Antisemitism is the fuel that nourishes the BDS phenomenon, and the worse it gets, the worse Israel’s situation will be in the world.”