NEW YORK (AP) — The number of antisemitic incidents in the United States tallied by the Anti-Defamation League declined sharply in 2025 — the first drop in five years — due in part to what the ADL said was a dramatic decrease of incidents on college campuses.

The ADL tallied 1,694 antisemitic incidents on U.S. college campuses in 2024, after pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist student protests proliferated due mostly to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. That figure fell by 66% in 2025, to 583, as many colleges and universities — under pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration — took steps to curb such protests.

With the drop in on-campus incidents a major factor, the ADL’s latest annual audit — released Wednesday — says there were 6,274 incidents of antisemitic assaults, harassment and vandalism overall in 2025. That’s down 33% from the record-high 9,354 incidents counted for 2024.

The states with the most antisemitic incidents in 2025 were New York (1,160), California (817) and New Jersey (687), the ADL says.

The ADL’s methodology in tallying such incidents has added grist to an intense and divisive debate among American Jews and others over the extent to which vehement criticism of Israeli policies and of Zionism should be considered antisemitic. Some critics say the ADL’s criteria is too broad.

2025 incidents included 3 killings, record number of assaults
Despite the decrease in total incidents, the ADL’s national director and CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, said 2025 “was one of the most violent years for American Jews,” with a record-high 203 incidents of physical assault tallied in the audit.

“Numbers that would have shocked us five years ago are now our floor,” Greenblatt said. “People are being murdered because of antisemitism on American soil, and thousands more are threatened.”

Greenblatt was referring to the two Jewish people killed in a May 21 shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., and the 82-year-old Jewish woman who died from injuries sustained in a June 1 firebombing attack at an event in Boulder, Colorado, aimed at raising awareness of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Campuses are under scrutiny from groups with varying views
In the ADL’s report for 2024, antisemitic incidents related to Israel or Zionism accounted for 58% of the total, marking the first time since the annual audit began in 1979 that more than half the incidents fit this category. The change arose from widespread opposition to Israel’s intensive military operation in Gaza that was launched after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

In 2025, 45% of all antisemitic incidents were related to Israel or Zionism. The ADL said anti-Israel rallies featuring “extreme anti-Israel rhetoric that crossed the line into antisemitism” decreased significantly — by 67% overall and by 83% on college campuses.

Starting in 2024, the ADL launched a Campus Antisemitism Report Card, assigning grades reflecting its assessment of how colleges address antisemitism and whether they adopt ADL-recommended policies. Seeking to raise pressure on colleges, the ADL filed several lawsuits and — in cooperation with two other Jewish organizations — reached a settlement in a complaint against Pomona College.

“We welcome any decrease in antisemitic incidents on college campuses or in other settings. It is indisputably a good thing, and we hope this is just the beginning of a downward trend,” Greenblatt told The Associated Press via email.

“Yet, let me be very clear: this is not a moment for relief or complacency. Yes, ADL recorded a 66% decline of antisemitic incidents on college campuses in 2025. But here is the critical context: campus incidents in 2025 are still nearly four times higher than they were in 2021.”

In its new report, the ADL says it is “careful to not conflate general criticism of Israel or anti-Israel activism with antisemitism.” But there are gray areas. For example, the ADL contends that vilification of Zionism — the movement to establish and protect a Jewish state in Israel — is a form of antisemitism, yet some Jews are among the critics of Zionism and of the ADL itself.

The ADL’s approach “emerges from their genuine concern that anti-Zionism is a genuine threat to the safety and security of American Jews,” said antisemitism expert Aryeh Tuchman. “There are a lot of people who would disagree with that. … It’s important that there be room for multiple approaches.”

Tuchman formerly led the ADL’s Center on Extremism, the group behind the annual audit, and now is director of the Nexus Center for Antisemitism at the Nexus Project, a watchdog group that promotes a more nuanced definition of antisemitism than the ADL uses.

Responding to the pressure on colleges from the ADL and Trump administration, the Council on American-Islamic Relations launched an “Unhostile Campus Campaign” aimed at ensuring that pro-Palestinian students, faculty, and staff enjoy free speech and academic freedom and are not penalized for their viewpoints.

Schools rated “most hostile” in CAIR’s latest report were Columbia University, the City University of New York, and the University of Michigan.

Worries about antisemitism deepen in Britain and Australia
The new ADL report surfaces amid growing concern about antisemitism elsewhere in the world.

In Britain, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said tougher action is needed against people chanting certain phrases at pro-Palestinian protests, as concerns grew over the safety of British Jews after the stabbings of two Jewish men in London.

The stabbings were the latest in a string of incidents, including recent arson attacks on synagogues and other Jewish sites in London. The U.K.’s senior police officer said British Jews are facing their greatest ever threat, and blamed social media for making antisemitism more mainstream.

— In Australia, a wide-ranging inquiry commission examining antisemitism after a massacre at a Hanukkah celebration heard this week from Jews who said escalating hatred has left them fearful and vulnerable. Fifteen people were killed when two gunmen opened fire at the celebration on Bondi Beach in December. The Commission says there has been a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents nationwide since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, 2023.

— According to a recent study by Tel Aviv University, the total of 20 deaths in Australia, Britain and the United States made 2025 the deadliest year for antisemitic attacks since 1994. That’s when the bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina killed 85 people.