The year 2025 was “the deadliest” in more than 30 years in terms of anti-Semitic attacks around the world, according to a report by the anti-Semitism organization Anti-Defamation League (ADL) published Wednesday July 29.
The ADL recalls the total of 20 people murdered during the attacks in Sydney (Australia), Manchester (United Kingdom), Washington and Boulder (United States), “which makes 2025 the deadliest year for anti-Semitic violence against the Jewish diaspora” since the 1994 attack in Buenos Aires (85 dead).
Over the entire year, the New York-based organization recorded more than 23,000 anti-Semitic incidents in the seven countries (United States, Canada, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Argentina, Australia) covered by its report. These countries have the largest Jewish communities outside of Israel, representing more than 90% of the diaspora.
In 2025, “the total number of anti-Semitic incidents in J7 countries increased by 136% and violent incidents by 97% compared to 2022, the year before Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7,” the ADL said. “Anti-Semitism is no longer a temporary outbreak, it is our new normal,” the organization warns, calling on governments to “stop reacting after Jews have been attacked and start acting upstream” against the scourge.
Sydney’s trauma
She calls for increased funding for security, “stricter laws and social media platforms that enforce their own rules.” The deadliest anti-Semitic attack of 2025 was carried out in Sydney on December 14, when a father and son opened fire on a crowd gathered on the iconic Bondi Beach to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, killing 15 people.
Two months earlier, two Jewish worshipers were killed in the United Kingdom in an attack on a Manchester synagogue on October 2, 2025, the day of the Yom Kippur holiday. Two anti-Semitic attacks also left three people dead in the United States in May and June 2025 in Washington and Boulder (Colorado).
“In all J7 countries, the number of anti-Semitic incidents remains well above pre-October 7 levels,” notes the ADL report. The document also points to anti-Zionism as “a determining factor in a significant proportion of incidents: 48% in the United Kingdom, 45% in the United States and 23% in Germany.”
Outside of the seven main countries studied, the ADL also highlights the situation in Ireland where over a period of only six months, the country’s small Jewish community of around 2,200 people reported 143 incidents.
