On Saturday, amid surging antisemitism around the world, Americans will mark
the fifth anniversary of the deadly shooting at the Chabad of Poway,
California, which killed one and injured three. In the five years since that
horrific attack, antisemitic incidents in the United States hit record highs
and American Jews across the country have reported fearing for their safety on
university campuses and other public spaces.





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U.S. Marks Fifth Anniversary Of The Poway Synagogue Shooting Amid Surge In
Antisemitism


(New York, N.Y.) – On Saturday, amid surging antisemitism
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around the world, Americans will mark the fifth anniversary of the deadly
shooting at the Chabad of Poway, California, which killed one and injured
three. In the five years since that horrific attack, antisemitic incidents in
the United States hit record highs and American Jews across the country have
reported fearing for their safety on university campuses and other public
spaces.



Armed with a semiautomatic rifle, 19-year-old John Earnest broke into the
Chabad synagogue on April 27, 2019, as congregants marked the Jewish Sabbath
and the last day of Passover. Hekilled
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60-year-old Lori Gilbert-Kaye and wounded Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, Almog
Peretz, and Peretz’s 8-year-old niece, Noya Dahan. Hours before the shooting,
Earnest had authored an antisemitic and racist open letter on the far-right
message board 8chan, citing inspiration fromBrenton Tarrant
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supremacist who carried out a massacre at two New Zealand mosques a month
earlier, andRobert Bowers
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nationalist who killed 11 and wounded six others in the 2018 Tree of Life
Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. Earnest lamented that “I can only kill so
many Jews” and “I only wish I killed more.” In September 2021, Earnestpleaded
guilty
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to 113 hate crime, civil rights, and firearms charges for Kaye’s murder, the
attempted murder of 53 others at the Chabad of Poway, and the March 24, 2019,
arson of the Dar-ul-Arqam Mosque in Escondido, California. He is currently
serving a life sentence
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plus 30 years in federal prison.



CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler noted: “As we mark five years
since this horrific attack on a Jewish house of worship, we are witnessing an
unprecedented rise in antisemitic harassment, physical attacks, intimidation,
and exclusion. We must work with our partners in law enforcement and across
communities to draw attention to the threats to the safety and wellbeing of the
Jewish community to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all Americans.”



Unfortunately, in the years following Earnest’s attack, antisemitism has only
continued to rise withthousands of cases
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reported since the start of the war of Hamas against Israel that began in
October 2023. Contributing to this surge, anti-Israel protestershave taken over
spaces
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across U.S. campuses, including at Columbia, Fashion Institute of Technology,
NYU, Vanderbilt, and Yale, to demand that their universities cut research ties
with Israeli institutions and divest from Israeli companies. Jewish students
have reported harassment and physical intimidation, such as this past weekend
when a Jewish student at Yale covering protests for the school newspaperreported

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that pro-Palestinian protesters taunted her and then jabbed her in the eye
with a Palestinian flag. The White House condemned the growing antisemitic
incidents on college campus in astatement
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prior to the start of the Passover holiday.



While violent attacks like Earnest’s are easily recognizable as antisemitism,
this hatred has taken many forms over the centuries. The CEPresource
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Antisemitism Resurgent: Manifestations of Antisemitism In The 21st Century
details how modern antisemites have repackaged historic tropes—including the
blood libel and accusations of Jewish economic and political influence—to
justify their hatred. CEP’sAntisemitism: A History resource
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examines the origins of many of these tropes and the development of the
world’s oldest hatred.



To read CEP’s resource Antisemitism Resurgent: Manifestations of Antisemitism
in the 21st Century,please click here
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.



To read CEP’s resource Antisemitism: A History, please click here
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.



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