Antisemitic Incidents in Oregon Tripled in 2023, ADL Says in New Northwest Report

Antisemitic incidents in Oregon more than tripled to a record in 2023, in line with a record-breaking surge at the national level, the Anti-Defamation League said in a new report on extremism in the Northwest.

ADL tallied 124 incidents in Oregon, compared with 40 in 2022. There were 75 more through September 2024, a preliminary count showed.

Among them: A man was assaulted with a bat as he tried to wash away graffiti promoting antisemitic websites in June 2023. A mezuzah was torn from a Jewish student’s doorframe at Reed College in May. The word “Jew” was scrawled in mud on a Jewish person’s Portland home in March.

The report, “Hate in the Cascade States: Extremism & Antisemitism in Oregon and Washington,” notes that the Northwest has been a locus of bigotry and radical movements for decades. Oregon, founded in 1859 with a Black-exclusion law that persisted until 1926, saw the takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by anti-government militants in 2016. The Proud Boys fought anti-fascists in Portland from 2017 to 2021.

“Since 2016, we have seen hate crimes and bias crimes rising in all states,” Miri Cypers, regional director of ADL’s Pacific Northwest Office, said in an interview. “When you see the rise of populism, you see a rise in antisemitism. It has given people permission to behave in more biased ways in everyday life.”

There are perpetrators on both ends of the political spectrum, Cypers said. “We are finding that the extreme right and the extreme left are becoming more emboldened, and the center is a less popular place to be,” she said.

Nationwide, ADL’s 2023 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents documented the highest number since reporting began in 1979, with more than 8,873 acts of assault, vandalism and harassment nationwide, a 140% increase from 2022.

White supremacists in Cascadia distinguished themselves in 2023 by creating the Northwest Nationalist Network, or 3N, a coalition of white supremacist groups and networks. 3N held at least 10 demonstrations in 2023, ADL said.

3N has “served as inspiration” to white supremacists across the country, with at least four new coalitions forming in its image, ADL said.

In Oregon, instances of antisemitic vandalism increased by 41% to 27 in 2023 from 16 in 2022, ADL says. Harassment jumped 332% to 95 incidents in 2023 from 22 in 2022. Assaults remained the same, with two in both years.

The ADL documented 13 white supremacist, extremist events in Oregon in 2023. Most of them were “banner drops,” where groups hang anti-immigrant or racist signs from highway overpasses and in other public places.

The news isn’t all bad in Oregon, Cypers said. The state became a leader in community safety in 2020 when the Oregon Department of Justice set up the Bias Response Hotline, where trauma-informed operators and interpreters in 240 languages field calls from 9 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday.

“Oregon is way ahead of the curve,” Cypers said. “It’s a model system that other states can use.”