Preliminary data from a forthcoming Cal State San Bernardino report show an alarming spike in overall reported hate crimes in America’s top 10 largest cities, Los Angeles among them, driven by a surge in anti-Jewish bias.
Data collected from LAPD records by Cal State San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism shows a 12.9% increase in overall hate crimes in L.A. between 2022 and 2023.
Anti-Black hate crimes continue to be the most numerous in Los Angeles. These dropped slightly from the previous year. However, anti-Jewish hate crimes in L.A. have spiked, said Brian Levin, who directs the center.
“L.A. is reflecting something we're seeing in large cities across the country,” Levin said. “A record for not only overall hate crime, but for anti-Jewish hate crime, which is up 48% (in Los Angeles), with a big concentration Oct. 7 and thereafter.”
He added, “that reflects what we're seeing, in other big cities nationally, which have a larger cluster of Jewish residents.”
This echoes earlier reports of antisemitism rising in recent months around the country, following the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent bombardment of Gaza.
The final report from Cal State San Bernardino is due out late this week or early next. Even so, the preliminary numbers point to record increases in hate crimes in large cities around the country, said Levin. He said hate crime numbers overall in large cities are hitting “modern records” dating to the early 1990s, when national data collection on hate crimes began.
Levin cited the number of reported hate crime victims in Los Angeles as an example: “Seven hundred thirty-nine victims in 2022, that was a record,” Levin said. “And then we had 834 victims in 2023. And that's not even the whole year. It's just 51 weeks.”
He adds in the preliminary report that New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia are also hitting “modern records” for anti-Jewish hate crime.
The top 10 largest cities included in the preliminary data are New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, and Austin.
Most of these cities reported increases in hate crimes and some saw bigger spikes than others; the overall increase from 2022 to 2023 in all the cities combined was 12.9% (the same as Los Angeles). Anti-Jewish, anti-Black and anti-LBGTQ biases accounted for the top three hate crime motivations. Levin said anti-Muslim incidents were also up in many cities, including in Los Angeles, where anti-Muslim hate crimes rose by 40% in 2023 according to LAPD data.
New York logged the most anti-Jewish hate crimes last year — 313, more than half of all the hate crimes reported, and the most experienced by any targeted group. Los Angeles followed with 151 anti-Jewish hate crimes.
Levin said this follows an unfortunate trend he’s observed over the years.
“One of the things we’ve seen historically has been spikes in anti-Jewish hate crimes when there is violence in the Holy Land,” Levin said.
