Law enforcement vehicles are seen outside Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas. Photo: Reuters/Shelby Tauber

JNS.org – The Combat Antisemitism Movement revealed in its latest monthly report that it monitored 19 physical attacks targeting Jews in January, which represents a 90 percent increase from the same time period last year.

In total, CAM tracked 158 antisemitic incidents reported in the media in January, marking a 9.2 percent decrease from January 2021’s 174 incidents.

In January of this year, 58.2 percent (92 incidents) were associated with far-right motives, 13.9 percent (22 incidents) had far-left motives, and 13.3 percent (21 incidents) had motives tied to Islam. The remaining 14.6 percent (23 incidents) had “unidentifiable motives.”

CAM noted that the month saw a 14.1 percent increase in far-right antisemitic incidents compared to 2021, while there was a decrease of 5.2 percent, 5.8 percent and 3.1 percent in the far-left, Islamist and unidentifiable cases, respectively. There were 45 antisemitic vandalisms recorded in January, an 8.2 percent decrease from the previous year.

On the positive side, it highlighted nine “adoptions and endorsements” of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s working definition of antisemitism took place in January—in Alabama, Nevada, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia, the town of Southampton in New York and Argentina’s Santa Fe Province.

The watchdog group also monitored antisemitic incidents in the three months leading up to the Jan. 15 hostage terrorist attack at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas. In the three-month period ahead of the attack, the Jewish group tracked 34 incidents around the world that targeted synagogues and Jewish centers, and 65 percent of which took place in the United States.

There was also a “spike in coordinated social-media activity” calling for the release of “Lady Al-Qaeda” convicted terrorist Aafia Siddiqui leading up to the hostage-taking situation, CAM said last week.