Right-Wing Responsible For 71% Of Anti-Semitic, Extremist Incidents: ADL

Scott Olson/Getty Images White nationalist Matthew Heimbach fights with demonstrators at Michigan State University as he and other alt-right advocates try to attend a speech by white nationalist Richard Spencer on March 5, 2018 in East Lansing, Michigan. Share

NEW YORK (JTA) – The Anti-Defamation League found that 1,879 anti-Semitic acts were committed in the United States in 2018.

Right-wing individuals were responsible for 1,328 of those incidents – nearly 71 percent. Left-wing individuals were responsible for none of 2018’s attacks, and Islamist individuals were responsible for four, according to the organization’s data.

“Neither side of the political spectrum is exempt from intolerance. The idea that this is a problem with only one side is wrong,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency during a conference call. However, he added that “white supremacy is a global terror threat.”

Examining the ADL’s data going back to 2002, JTA found that 2,633 – approximately 34 percent – of the 7,686 reported anti-Semitic and extremist incidents have been attributed to perpetrators with right-wing ideology, compared to 137 attributed to Islamists or those with a left-wing ideology.

As for the remainder, Oren Segal, director of the ADL Center on Extremism, told JTA that “most anti-Semitic incidents are carried out by average Joes and average Janes,” not by those affiliated with extremist groups.

However, Greenblatt noted that many of the incidents the ADL reports come in from regional ADL offices, so researchers aren’t always certain of what other affiliations perpetrators might have.

“We don’t know if there might be more [extremist perpetrators] out there,” he said.