STATE OF HATE: Collier County sees huge spike in antisemitism

Florida saw a massive spike in antisemitic incidents last year as part of a nationwide surge in hate, a new audit shows.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, which has tracked incidents of antisemitic assault, harassment, and vandalism since 1979, Florida had 463 incidents in 2023.

Ryan Kruger

That’s up from 269 the year before and the fourth most in the country.

“We’re just seeing an explosion of antisemitism across our country,” said Sarah Emmons, Florida Regional Director of the ADL.

Nationally, there were nearly 8,000 antisemitic incidents tracked in the US last year, the most ever in the ADL’s history of records.

It represents a 140% increase in hate incidents.

“These are really calls to violence. That’s where we believe it crosses the link into antisemitic rhetoric,” said Emmons.

Palm Beach County had the most incidents in the state with 84.

While Collier County saw a massive jump from only 1 incident in 2022 to 10 of them in 2023.

“About half of that were bomb threats that targeted different Jewish institutions in the Collier County area. And then also verbal and written harassment,” said Emmons.

The audit also found the number of antisemitic incidents on college campuses more than tripled in the last year.

“We just saw a proliferation of antisemitic activity across our country, following Hamas’ attack on Israel. That number was not only nationally but here in the state of Florida.