(JWeekly) - Hate crimes targeting Jews rose sharply last year in California, despite a drop in hate crimes overall, according to the state’s annual report released Monday.
”Hate Crime in California 2023,” issued by the state Department of Justice, showed that hate crime events of all kinds decreased 7.1%, from 2,120 in 2022 to 1,970 last year.
But hate crimes motivated by religious bias jumped from 303 to 394, a 30% rise in the same time period. Crimes motivated specifically by anti-Jewish bias accounted for most of that increase, rising from 189 to 289, a 53% jump from 2022 to 2023.
Anti-Jewish crimes accounted for 73% of all hate crimes tied to religious bias last year in California.
Anti-Muslim hate crimes also rose — from 25 in 2022 to 40 last year.
Marc Levine, director of the San Francisco-based Anti-Defamation League’s Central Pacific Region, calls the increase in anti-Jewish hate crime “significant” and “alarming.”
“We talk about hateful rhetoric leading to hateful acts, and this report shows that happening,” Levine told J.
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