The new Tel Aviv University study shows 2025 was the deadliest year for antisemitic attacks in three decades, with a sharp rise in violence and deaths after the October 7, 2023 Hamas assault. The report links a range of incidents—from online harassment to lethal physical attacks—to a broader, worrying normalization of antisemitism across several Western countries. It highlights specific deadly events and spikes on college campuses, and it warns that lessons about the Holocaust are unevenly taught in U.S. schools. This article lays out the study’s main findings, key examples of violence, and the social factors that helped fuel the spike in 2025.
The study, compiled annually by Tel Aviv University’s Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry and the Irwin Cotler Institute, finds that 2025 recorded the highest number of antisemitic deaths in 30 years, with 20 people killed. The upward trend began after the October 7, 2023 terror attack and the war that followed, and the report shows that the surge was not limited to any single country. Incidents ranged from harassment and vandalism to deadly attacks at public gatherings and places of worship.
Among the violent episodes cited were attacks at public celebrations and places of worship, and deadly incidents in multiple nations. The report notes a particularly shocking assault at a Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach in Australia and deadly attacks in the United Kingdom that included a synagogue shooting on Yom Kippur. In the United States, the report points to deadly attacks in Washington, D.C., and Colorado, illustrating that the violence crossed continents and contexts.
The study does more than count events; it categorizes them, tracking online threats, harassment, vandalism, beatings, and stone-throwing that led to injury. Those patterns show how antisemitic sentiment translated into a variety of harmful actions, not only isolated incidents of extreme violence. The report draws a direct line from public expressions of hatred, amplified online and in demonstrations, to real-world harm against Jewish communities.
Uriya Shavit, the study’s chief editor, warns bluntly that “The data raise concern that a high level of antisemitic incidents is becoming a normalized reality.” That exact phrasing underscores the report’s main alarm: repeated incidents are reshaping what people accept as normal behavior toward Jews. The phrase is chilling because it suggests a shift in social boundaries where hate moves from fringe to tolerated behavior.
“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.”
National statistics in the report show notable increases: in the U.K., incidents rose from 3,556 in 2024 to 3,700 in 2025, while Canada saw an increase from 6,219 to 6,800 over the same period. In the U.S., campuses became focal points after October 7, with protest encampments and organized demonstrations that often targeted Jewish students and Israel supporters. The report argues that certain institutional responses and campus dynamics allowed hostility to spread unchecked in many places.
Part of the problem the study highlights is a failure of cultural and educational reinforcement against hate. Teaching about the Holocaust remains inconsistent across American public schools, and as of January 2025 only 29 states required Holocaust education. Without a common baseline of historical awareness, young people are more susceptible to distorted narratives that can breed antisemitism and other forms of bigotry.
The report also links ideological trends and institutional choices to the rise in incidents. It criticizes universities and some public figures for failing to protect Jewish students or for amplifying hostile rhetoric, and it points to social media as a venue where threats and conspiracies spread rapidly. Those combined forces—weak institutional pushback, uneven education, and viral online hostility—helped turn spikes in rhetoric into physical attacks.
The study’s data should force policymakers and communities to act, according to its authors, by strengthening legal protections, improving hate-crime tracking, and ensuring robust Holocaust education. The findings demand practical steps to restore social norms that reject antisemitism outright and protect vulnerable communities. Absent accountability and consistent education, the report warns, the normalization of antisemitic incidents could harden into an enduring and dangerous reality.
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