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ADL Releases Antisemitism Audit.

What Is It and Why Does it Matter to
Philadelphia Jews?
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
T he Anti-Defamation League
revealed on March 22 that
there were 3,697 reported
incidents of antisemitism in the United
States last year, according to its Audit
of Antisemitic Incidents 2022.

That is a 36% increase from 2021’s
2,717 reported incidents, and the “highest
number on record since the organization
began tracking antisemitic incidents in
1979,” an ADL press release said.

These numbers are alarming to
Jewish leaders, but they don’t just exist
8 MARCH 30, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
for shock value. Results of the Audit
of Antisemitic Incidents, conducted
by ADL’s Center on Extremism, are a
product of a yearlong data collection
process; the lofty numbers of antise-
mitic incident reports help support
local and national efforts to gain
resources to combat hate.

It’s what prevents 3,697 from becom-
ing just another scary number.

“These reports provide vital infor-
mation because the knowledge of
the scope of the issue is the first
step to being able to address it,” ADL
Philadelphia Regional Director Andrew
Goretsky said.

What does the audit process
look like?
While other organizations rely on the
ADL for data, the ADL relies on reports
from law enforcement, Jewish organi-
zations and people to collect data.

“Our audit is made up of both crimi-
nal and non-criminal incidents that
get directly reported to us,” ADL
Philadelphia Associate Regional
Director Andrea Heymann said.

On the ADL website, users can submit
a report of a hate or bias incident and
provide details such as screenshots or
video recordings. Most commonly, a
reported incident will look like vandalism
or harassment but can sometimes be a
physical attack or threat.

Regional ADLs sift through the data
for duplicates, of which there are
many. According to Heymann, ADL
Philadelphia received 514 reports in
2022, but many described the same
white supremacist flyering incident in
a local neighborhood. The incident is
only counted once for the report.

ADL pulls and aggregates the data
from its regional offices to create
its annual report. They use regional
data to create Hate, Extremism,
Antisemitism, Terrorism (H.E.A.T.) maps
of bias incidents based on state.