Pro-Hamas activists gather in Washington Square Park for a rally following a protest march held in response to an NYPD sweep of an anti-Israel encampment at New York University in Manhattan, May 3, 2024. Photo: Matthew Rodier/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

A rabbi was assaulted outside his New Jersey home in a suspected antisemitic attack on Sunday, one day before the release of a new report highlighting the staggering degree to which antisemitism has become a part of daily life for Jews in the United States.

According to multiple reports, Jeffrey Zicchinella, 40, of neighboring Ridgefield Park, was arrested and charged with two counts of simple assault for allegedly attacking Rabbi Avraham Wein in the Bergenfield section of Bergen County, New Jersey.

While a hate crime report has been filed, local authorities have not yet publicly shared their conclusion regarding what motivated the incident.

“The matter is being investigated so please allow the police time to do their job,” Chief Mustafa Rabboh of the Bergenfield Police Department said in a statement. “We extend our concern and support to those affected and stand in solidarity with our local faith community. We remain committed to ensuring the safety, unity, and well-being of residents.”

The incident concurred with Monday’s release of a new survey, commissioned by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Jewish Federations of North America, showing that a majority of American Jews now consider antisemitism to be a normal and endemic aspect of life in the US.

A striking 57 percent reported believing “that antisemitism is now a normal Jewish experience,” the organizations disclosed, while 55 percent said they have personally witnessed or been subjected to antisemitic hatred, including physical assaults, threats, and harassment, in the past year.

This new reality, precipitated by Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, has effected a psychological change in American Jews, prompting firearms sales, disaster planning, and “plans to flee the country.”

“It is so profoundly sad that Jewish Americans are now discussing worst case scenarios,” ADL chief executive officer Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “When American Jews — who have built lives, careers, and families here for generations — are making contingency plans to flee, we must recognize this is a five-alarm fire for our entire country. This is not just a Jewish problem; it’s an American problem that demands immediate action from leaders at every level.”

The survey results revealed other disturbing trends: Jewish victims are internalizing their experiences, as 74 percent did not report what happened to them to “any institution or organization”; Jewish youth are bearing the brunt of antisemitism, having faced communications which aim to exclude Jews or delegitimize their concerns about rising hate; roughly a third of survey respondents show symptoms of anxiety; and the cultural climate has fostered a sense in the Jewish community that the non-Jewish community would not act as a moral guardrail against violence and threats.

“Even in the face of unprecedented levels of antisemitism, we continue to see what Jewish Federations have termed ‘the Surge’ — a remarkable increase in Jewish engagement and connection to the community,” Eric Fingerhut, president and chief executive officer of the Jewish Federations of North America, said in a statement. “The fact that nearly two-thirds of those who directly experienced antisemitism are responding by deepening their Jewish involvement demonstrates the extraordinary resilience of our people.”

He added, “Rather than retreating in fear, American Jews are choosing to stand together, strengthen their bonds and affirm their identity. This surge in Jewish engagement represents hope and determination in the face of hate.”

Antisemitism in the US continues to rage at every level of society.

In September, law enforcement agents in upstate New York filed hate crime charges against two Syracuse University students who they say forcefully gained entry into a Jewish fraternity’s off-campus house last month during Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and heaved a bag of pork at a wall, causing its contents to splatter across the floor.

“This incident is not a foolish college prank and will not be treated as such,” local District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said in a statement addressing the alleged crime, which targeted the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity, a registered organization of Syracuse University. “It will be treated for what it is, a crime directed against a group of Jewish students enjoying a celebratory dinner and seemingly secure in their residence.”

In 2024, antisemitic hate crimes in the US reached record-setting and harrowing statistical figures, according to the latest data issued by the FBI.

Even as hate crimes decreased overall, those perpetrated against Jews increased by 5.8 percent in 2024 to 1,938, the largest total recorded in over 30 years of the FBI’s counting them. Jewish American groups noted that this surge, which included 178 assaults, is being experienced by a demographic group which constitutes just 2 percent of the US population.

A striking 69 percent of all religion-based hate crimes that were reported to the FBI in 2024 targeted Jews, with 2,041 out of 2,942 total such incidents being antisemitic in nature. Muslims were targeted the next highest amount as the victims of 256 offenses, or about 9 percent of the total.

The wave of hatred has not relented in 2025.

In June, a gunman murdered two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, while they exited an event at the Capital Jewish Museum hosted a major Jewish organization. The suspect charged for the double murder, 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, yelled “Free Palestine” while being arrested by police after the shooting, according to video of the incident. The FBI affidavit supporting the criminal charges against Rodriguez stated that he told law enforcement he “did it for Gaza.”

Less than two weeks later, a man firebombed a crowd of people who were participating in a demonstration to raise awareness of the Israeli hostages who remain imprisoned by Hamas in Gaza. A victim of the attack, Karen Diamond, 82, later died, having sustained severe, fatal injuries.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.