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A new report from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found the number of antisemitic incidents in the U.S. hit a new record in 2024, and the Granite State contributed to that disturbing trend.

The audit, released Tuesday, reported 9,354 antisemitic incidents recorded in the U.S. last year. It’s the highest number since 1979, when the ADL first began collecting data.

Also noteworthy: It’s the first time most of the incidents (58 percent) were related to Israel or Zionism.

The ADL audit found reports of antisemitic incidents rose 51 percent in the Granite State last year, the highest rate of increase in New England.

The jump comes from two different ends of the political spectrum, according to Samantha Joseph with the ADL. 

Patriot Front, the white supremacist hate group, accounts for a large share of the increase, as do multiple leftwing groups behind campus protests this year.

“There continues to be a lot of white supremacist activity, and Patriot Front is responsible for the majority of that,” Joseph said.

But left-wing extremists also embraced antisemitism during protests against Israel’s war on Hamas, Joseph said. The Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack on Israel, in which approximately 1,200 people were murdered and hundreds taken hostage, saw some left-wing extremists openly support Hamas within hours of the attack. Since that day, more left-wing extremists have been open in their antisemitic views.

For example, a group of progressive activists vandalized the Israeli-owned Elbit Systems in Merrimack just weeks after the Hamas attack.

“Oct. 7 is the watershed moment that changed the trajectory,” Joseph said. 

Tracy Richmond, with the Jewish Federation of New Hampshire, said keeping up with reports of antisemitism since the Oct. 7 attack is almost a full-time job. The federation works closely with the ADL to keep the community informed.

“Since Oct. 7, we have heard about more and more instances of antisemitism within our state,” Richmond said. “We work hard to make sure that the citizens of New Hampshire know they can reach us with any concerns, and we will continue fighting against hate as long as these events occur. This goes for our public schools, the private high schools, and all the colleges throughout New Hampshire.”

The ADL tracks protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, but Joseph pointedly said that protesting the government of Israel or its policies is not antisemitism. The ADL only counts incidents that cross the line into blatant hate mongering by protestors or organizers.

Some of those incidents include the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack being celebrated on the University of New Hampshire campus as part of the Palestinian Solidarity Coalition’s “Week of Rage.” During that celebration, protestors chanted the slogan, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free,” widely viewed as a call for the destruction of the Jewish state.

UNH also saw protestors take up other Hamas slogans like “Smash Zionism” and “Globalize the Intifada” during protests held throughout the year.

In Manchester, a protest put together by a plethora of Marxist groups like the ANSWER Coalition, the Democratic Socialists of America, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and the Congress of Workers’ Organizations featured a speaker who said, “It is the Zionists, ironically the new Nazis of the 21st century, who by theology is rooted in Jewish supremacy. Although only specific kinds of Jews.”

But slogans and chants weren’t the only things tracked. Last year, Jewish students and professors at Dartmouth College were targeted with a threat of violence. An anonymous email sent to several Dartmouth offices justified the threat by citing violence against Palestinian women and children, as well as Islamophobia.

So far, New Hampshire has not been mired in antisemitic violence, though that is happening in other parts of the country, Joseph said. 

“We are seeing an increase in assaults, which is very worrisome,” she said.

The four women charged with vandalizing the Elbit Systems facility in Merrimack last year may not go to trial.

Calla Walsh, Sophie Ross, Bridget Shergalis, and Paige Belanger are all scheduled for criminal mediation instead of jury trial, according to records filed in Hillsborough Superior Court — South in Nashua. The suspects targeted the Elbit facility because its parent company is based in Israel and is a major military contractor for the Jewish State.

The mediation session set for Sept. 18 will let lawyers for the women and prosecutors with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Civil Rights Unit work out a possible plea deal to resolve the case. Criminal mediation involves both parties working with a neutral judge to come to an agreement that includes some form of restitution for the victim.

Mediation does not guarantee a plea bargain will be reached. After the judge hears from both sides, he or she will issue an order laying a proposed agreement. Neither side is bound to accept the terms of the mediation judge’s order and the case can still move to trial at that point, or there can be continued plea negotiations.

For example, former Strafford County Sheriff Mark Brave is scheduled for an August trial on his theft and perjury charges after failed plea negotiations and a rejected mediation order. Court records indicate Brave’s lawyer is continuing to seek a plea in that case as prosecutors contemplate bringing more charges.

Elbit has been repeatedly targeted by Palestinian Action US, an anti-Israel group first started in the United Kingdom and stepped up activities in the days after the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Hamas terrorists murdered at least 1,200 people that day, and hundreds more raped and taken hostage. 

Walsh allegedly led the PA US team that included Shergalis, Ross, and Belanger in the action on the Elbit facility on Daniel Webster Highway in Merrimack on Nov. 20. The group allegedly smashed windows, sprayed graffiti, and climbed to the roof where they set off smoke bombs and tried to break into the HVAC system, according to police reports.

The women have known ties to a Marxist commune and the commune’s wealthy founder, James “Fergie” Chambers, who has been reported as a founding member of PA US, though he denies he has a leadership role.

NHJournal reported the FBI has been looking into Chambers and PA US. It is not known if the investigation remains open at this time.

Walsh is active in the anti-Israel “Boycott/Divest/Sanction (BDS) movement, which many critics say is antisemitic due to its sole focus on the Jewish State. More problematic is Walsh’s involvement in the so-called “Boston Mapping Project,” which created an interactive map identifying places where Jews tend to congregate as well as the locations of Jewish community organizations in Massachusetts. The map included locations of Jewish daycares and schools.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, the Mapping Project identifies Jewish communal groups as “‘Boston’s Zionist NGO circuit” and accused not only of “supporting the colonization of Palestine” but also of “violence worldwide.”

Belanger is another PA US member who has described herself as the secretary for Chambers’ Berkshire Communists, a “revolutionary Marxist-Leninist collective.”

Old-school Marxists are behind many of the anti-Israel protests that began almost within hours of the Oct. 7 Hamas murders. The New Hampshire chapter of the Party of Socialism and Liberation, a group that advocates a Marxist revolution, coordinates many of the protests.

Not much is known about Ross outside her activities against Elbit. Shergalis, on the other hand, is a former child actor who featured in Disney and Nickelodeon shows like “So Random” and “See Dad Run.” Chambers paid the $50,000 cash bail for Walsh, Shergalis, and Ross when they were arrested.

Chambers is a member of the Cox family, which is worth about $34 billion, according to reports. In recent years, Chambers negotiated an early inheritance with the family trust, allowing him to walk away with a reported $250 million. He used that money to start the Marxist commune in the Berkshires, as well as a “People’s Gym” in the Upper Valley region of New Hampshire. Chambers currently lives in New Hampshire in order to take advantage of the low taxes and lax firearm regulation.