Antisemitic attacks in 2025 led to highest number of fatalities in 30 years: Study

Tel Aviv: Last year saw the highest level of deadly violence against Jews in over three decades, with 20 people killed in antisemitic attacks, according to an annual study released by Tel Aviv University on Monday.

The violence, including a deadly attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia, continued a spike that began following Hamas Oct 7, 2023, attacks and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza, the report’s authors said.

“The data raise concern that a high level of antisemitic incidents is becoming a normalised reality,” said Uriya Shavit, the chief editor of the widely cited annual report.

Deadly antisemitic attacks were recorded on three continents, according to the report. Fifteen people were killed at the holiday event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in December. There were additional fatalities in two antisemitic attacks in the US in Washington, DC, Colorado; and in Britain, where two people were killed at a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

The study found that 2025 was the deadliest year for antisemitic attacks since 1994, when the bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina killed 85 people and wounded more than 300. An Argentine court has blamed Iran and its Hezbollah proxy for the attack.

According to the report, there was a moderate increase in the overall number antisemitic incidents last year compared with 2024, but that total represents a huge jump from 2022, before the war in Gaza. The report tracks incidents that range from physical attacks and vandalism to verbal threats and harassment on social media.

“The peak in the number of incidents was recorded in the immediate aftermath of the Oct 7 attack, after which we began to see a downward trend — but unfortunately, that trend did not continue in 2025,” Shavit said. In the United Kingdom, there were 3,700 antisemitic incidents in 2025, a small increase from 3,556 in 2024.