A Brief History of Anti-Semitic Violence in America

A Brief History of Anti-Semitic Violence in America

The synagogue attack in Pittsburgh may be the deadliest attack against Jews in American history—but it’s nowhere near the first.

ISABEL FATTAL  OCT 28, 2018 

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/10/brief-history-anti-semitic-violence-america/574228/

Saturday’s shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, where 11 people were murdered and six more were injured, is believed to be the deadliest attack against the American Jewish community in U.S. history. The massacre is an unprecedented act of violence against American Jews—but it is by no means the first time that anti-Semitism has manifested in deadly violence against Jews in the United States.

American anti-Semitism is as old as America itself. For decades, American Jews have faced social discrimination, acts of vandalism against sacred spaces, and, in recent years, social-media harassment—and the number of reported anti-Semitic incidents has risen dramatically since 2016. Fatal attacks against American Jews have been far less common than these other forms of discrimination. And yet American history is full of episodes of physical violence against Jews and Jewish institutions. What follows is a list, far from comprehensive, of some of the many violent attacks targeting Jews in recent history.