Group reports antisemitic incidents in New Mexico nearly triple in 2023
Apr. 16—A new report from the Anti-Defamation League shows New Mexico, like the nation, saw a sharp rise in antisemitism in 2023.
The group counted more antisemitic acts across the U.S. last year than it has in any other year since it began tracking such incidents in 1979. The increase to 8,873 incidents in 2023 from 3,698 recorded in 2022 marks a 140% rise.
The rate of increase in New Mexico was more than double that, with 31 reports of antisemitic incidents last year, compared with eight in 2022 and six in 2021.
Scott Levin, the Anti-Defamation League's Mountain States regional director, said the organization was on track to count a record number of acts involving hostility or violence toward Jews last year even before Oct. 7, when Hamas' brutal attack on Israelis prompted a monthslong war in Gaza that has led to tens of thousands of deaths and protests — in Santa Fe and across the nation — demanding a cease-fire.
Amid the escalating tensions, antisemitism also has increased, the league has found.
"The important thing is that beyond the numbers themselves, each one represents an attack on each one of these people that has occurred," Levin said of the incidents his group has logged. "Everybody has their own terrible story that makes them feel more vulnerable."
Early in 2023, a high school student in Santa Fe experienced antisemitic harassment at school from another student that involved "pictures of ovens," according to the Anti-Defamation League's online database, which provides dates and short descriptions of incidents.
The group logged one incident in Española, in which it said a swastika was found in August on the Northern New Mexico College campus.
One Jewish student at the University of New Mexico told the group someone called him a Jewish slur while he was counterprotesting at such a rally.
The league counted a total of four antisemitic incidents in Santa Fe last year. In November, "fake blood, a fake body bag and anti-Israel graffiti was spray-painted in front of a Jewish-owned art gallery," according to the database.
A December incident in Santa Fe involved protesters at an "anti-Israel rally" who were holding signs that said "Resistance is not terrorism."
Where exactly to draw a line between speech that is antisemitic and speech that is merely criticizing the policies and actions of Israel or supporting Palestinians has been a point of contention in protests and campuses across the country, particularly in recent months.
Levin said he and the group draw a distinction between disputing the policies of Israel and dehumanizing Jews or delegitimizing the Jewish state.
Levin said protest signs or chants that support "Palestinian liberation and freedom" or that criticize Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu would not be counted as antisemitic by the group, but those concerned with "delegitimizing or doing away with the Jewish state" can be antisemitic.
The Anti-Defamation League carefully vets each incident and reviews the evidence behind it multiple times, he added.
The group counted 24 antisemitic incidents in Albuquerque in 2023, most of which are related to chants or protest signs at events described as "anti-Israel protests." One incident, logged in the database in December, states protesters at an "anti-Israel Rally" held signs that read, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." The group logged another incident at a rally in November in which a protester held a sign stating "[expletive] Zionism."
Levin said the group considers "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" an antisemitic slogan because, he argued, "it's a chant that essentially says there should be no Jews from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea."
In a report of the data published by the Anti-Defamation League, the group wrote more than 5,000 of the antisemitic incidents took place after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and 52% of the incidents recorded after Oct. 7 included references to Israel, Zionism or Palestine.
The league has gathered longitudinal data on incidents of antisemitism that offers insights into trends of harassment and acts of hatred against other targeted groups, such as people in the LGBTQ+ community, Black people and Muslims.
A rise in antisemitic incidents is a sort of "canary in the coal mine" for hatred against other types of groups, Levin said.
