A new report by the Anti-Defamation League shows a big uptick in antisemitic incidents across the U.S. and in the state over the last two years.
According to the ADL report, the organization “tabulated 3,697 antisemitic incidents throughout the United States” in 2022, a 36% increase from the prior year, “and the highest number on record since [the organization] began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979.”
In Arizona, reported incidents involved, “35 cases of harassment, 17 acts of vandalism and one assault” in 2022.
The ADL report also showed that “the only fatal antisemitic attack in the U.S. last year occurred in Tucson when University of Arizona professor Thomas Meixner was shot and killed on campus.”
Meixner was the head of the hydrology department at UA before being shot by a student who was banned from school in January 2022 after he made threats against Meixner and others. The student was summarily expelled at a later date.
The murder trial of the alleged killer is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 19, 2023.
A separate study by the Center for Antisemitism Research shows "widespread belief in anti-Jewish tropes, at rates unseen for decades."
