One Year After 07 October, the Jewish Community Across North America Has Faced Historic Levels of Threats and Violence

In the year following the 07 October 2023 Hamas terror attacks, the Secure Community Network (SCN), the official safety and security organization for the Jewish community in North America, tracked a record 6,890 threat incidents and reports of suspicious activity, violence, and harassment targeting Jewish individuals and institutions. Over the same period of time, SCN also referred a record number of 2,229 individuals to law enforcement and indexed an all-time high of 1,642 false bomb threats and swatting incidents.

Deeply troubling, many of the verbalized threats and acts of intimidation, harassment, and assault have invoked the rhetoric of Hamas and other designated terrorist organizations, to include calling for the mutilation, rape, and torture of Jewish individuals. Law enforcement partners, including the FBI, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and federal, state, and local agencies, have also noted an unprecedented rise in hate crimes and potential terroristic motivations targeting the Jewish community.

The FBI’s 2023 Hate Crimes statistics, of which the incredible surge in activity following the 07 October attacks only accounted for three months of the total data, recorded a record 67% of religiously motivated hate crimes directed at the Jewish community. In 2024, the Department of Justice reported that prosecutors brought charges, secured plea agreements, and obtained sentences for more than 30 defendants involved in criminal acts motivated by antisemitic hate.

SCN, informed by law enforcement and other public safety partners, has encouraged the community to remain open and active but also vigilant, particularly given the threats and hostilities from foreign terrorist organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah, and proxies of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines reported have been “opportunistically” inserting themselves in campus protests, posing as activists, promoting public demonstrations, and funding pro-Hamas efforts on campus.

Recent incidents across North America include:

• 15 May, Los Angeles, CA: A judge determined that a 51-year-old male pro-Palestinian protester charged with manslaughter after allegedly fatally striking a Jewish individual with a megaphone would stand trial.
• 29 May, Montreal, Canada: A local Jewish day school was struck by gunfire in a drive-by shooting suspected to be a hate crime. A similar shooting occurred at another Jewish school in November, for which a man was charged.
• 15 July, New York, NY: A 20-year-old male, self-described as “Commander Butcher,” was indicted for planning mass casualty attacks against Jews in New York City, including distributing poisoned candy at Jewish schools. He allegedly accessed ISIS materials and authored a violent manifesto.
• 17 July, Fort Wayne, IN: A 42-year-old male was convicted of transmitting threats in interstate commerce, including a threat to “kill every Jew in [Fort] Wayne,” while claiming strong contacts with Palestinian and Iranian groups.
• 11 August, Brooklyn, NY: A 22-year-old male was charged with assault as a hate crime after allegedly stabbing a visibly Orthodox man near a synagogue while shouting antisemitic statements.
• 04 September, New York, NY: A 20-year-old male Pakistani citizen in Canada was arrested for planning an ISIS-sympathizing terrorist attack targeting Jewish people in Brooklyn, timed around the anniversary of 07 October.
• 09 September, California/Idaho: A 34-year-old female and a 37-year-old male, leaders of a white supremacist forum, were indicted for soliciting hate crimes and murder plots, including targeting a Jewish politician.
• 19 September, Washington, D.C.: A 38-year-old male was indicted for attacking a man wearing a yarmulke, shouting antisemitic slurs, and making references to the Gaza conflict.

FBI Director Christopher Wray addressed SCN and leaders of the Jewish community on two occasions following the Hamas massacre, warning of the “possibility that Hamas, or other foreign terrorist organizations, could exploit the conflict to call on their supporters to conduct attacks here on our own soil.” Following this assessment, SCN and law enforcement responded to a surge of false bomb threats and swatting incidents targeting synagogues and other Jewish institutions, including 200 such incidents in a single December 2023 Shabbat.

Additionally, SCN tracked 622 campus threat incidents targeting the Jewish community from 07 October 2023 through September 2024. At institutions like Columbia University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), protests escalated into unlawful encampments, violent incidents, and targeted harassment. Despite these trends, SCN continues to encourage organizations to remain open and operational. Every community must remain vigilant and recommit to preparation, review, and enforce existing security protocols, and maintain coordination and communication with law enforcement and security personnel.

For imminent threats or emergencies, dial 9-1-1, and report all suspicious activity to local law enforcement as well as appropriate local reporting authorities, and SCN’s 24/7 Duty Desk at [email protected] or by calling 844-SCN-DESK.

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