AUSTIN, Texas — A new report found that incidents of antisemitism and hatred toward Jewish people in Texas nearly doubled between 2022 and 2023 and have remained at elevated levels for the first several months of this year.
The data is from the 2024 Study on Antisemitism in Texas, put together by the Texas Holocaust, Genocide and Antisemitism Advisory Commission.
State lawmakers created the commission in 2021 under the auspices of the Texas Historical Commission and empowered the commission to “identify and root out antisemitism.”
“During COVID, there was a new outbreak of antisemitism that was beginning to occur around 2020,” Executive Director Joy Nathan said. “The legislature had this forethought to have us be prepared and ready, as we saw and continue to see antisemitism rise.”
The commission is required to put out a study on antisemitism before each legislative session.
The first report, released in December 2022, had “eight recommendations to promote awareness, improve security, and fight back against hate.” An addendum released after the brutal October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel by Hamas identified two other recommendations to address the “surge in Jew-hatred.”
Ahead of the new legislative session in April, the commission said those trends and the steep rise in antisemitism since the Hamas attack on Israel have continued.
According to the Secure Community Network, incidents have spiked from being in the single digits in 2018 and 2019 to 97 in 2022, 187 in 2023 and 138 through the first nine months of 2024.
Much of it, Nathan said, is driven by the surge in anti-Israel sentiment tied to the war with Hamas, but she said it often veers beyond criticism of the state of Israel or the Israeli government and into hate against the Jewish people and communities
“Antisemitism is the oldest form of hate,” Nathan said. “It’s been going on for centuries, but we’re seeing this rise now because of what’s going on in the Middle East, and so it’s our opportunity to combat it as best we can.”
The study outlined incidents of antisemitism in the state over the past year, including on college campuses, where the study said Jewish students are continually targeted and “anti-Zionist rhetoric frequently escalates into harassment.”
At the University of Texas at Austin, the report noted several incidents of hatred toward Jewish students, like vulgar anti-Semitic epithets scrawled at Texas Hillel and other locations and emails by two teaching assistants in the School of Social to their classes.
“Students feel alienated, they feel discriminated against,” Nathan said.
The tensions peaked in April as a group of anti-Israel protesters, some of whom are not part of the UT Austin community, tried to take over outdoor spaces and set up an encampment, which violated campus rules. They clashed with campus police and state troopers, who arrested several students and prevented them from setting up the encampment.
“I think the college protests just show where the needs exist there,” Nathan said. “They just shine a light on where there is antisemitism, and it just happens to be that in these college campuses, the outbreak is considerably greater than in other places.”
The study also cited incidents at the University of Texas at Dallas and Rice University.
Nathan said they also noticed an uptick in antisemitism in elementary, middle and high schools, including hateful language, graffiti and intimidation that made Jewish students feel threatened. The study highlighted incidents where a student at a Dallas area high school was called a “dirty Jew,” told to “go bathe in Auschwitz where you belong,” and taunted by swastika graffiti, as well as an Austin area principal who told parents concerned about anti-Israel demonstrations spilling over from college campuses and anti-Semitic rhetoric on posters the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” was “very catchy.” After walkouts and protests, the commission said school leaders clearly laid out rules of conduct prohibiting hateful or violent rhetoric.
The report also outlined anti-Semitic flyers found in the Dallas area in April and an Austin neighborhood over the July 4 weekend, as well as incidents at city council meetings where anti-Israel activists tried to “bully and intimidate elected officials,” at times using anti-Semitic language and going “e beyond their free speech rights” to try and convince leaders to adopt ceasefire resolutions. To date, no city council in Texas has.
“What’s happening in Texas is mirrored by what’s happening around the world,” Nathan said. “We’re grateful that we have bipartisan leadership that helps that understands antisemitism and make sure that Texas does not lead the trends that that other states may have in terms of the continued rise of antisemitism.”
The seven recommendations in the study are what Nathan calls a multi-prong approach.
In the coming legislative session, the commission is acting lawmakers to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which is currently used for higher education institutions to public K-12 schools. That definition says, “Manifestations might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as anti-Semitic.”
“Our top priority is being able to understand what antisemitism looks like. In order to be able to call it antisemitism, you have to know what antisemitism means,” Nathan said. “It’s a definition used by the State Department and other states. We recommend incorporating that definition in kindergarten all the way to college because you can’t measure what you can’t define.”
Gov. Abbott was one of 25 governors that recently signed a letter calling for the U.S. Senate to codify the IHRA definition in federal statute.
The commission is also asking state lawmakers to create a new law penalizing people who wear a mask or cover their face while committing crimes. At anti-Israel rallies and events, protesters often wear masks or other coverings to hide their faces.
“What we’re finding is that the covering of the faces is used as intimidation, and we saw it on college campuses during the protests that were taking place,” Nathan said.
State lawmakers will return to Austin for the start of the 89th legislative session on Jan. 14.
In addition to recommendations for state lawmakers, Nathan said they are also asking the state to continue funding security grants for Jewish organizations, schools, and community centers. After the events of Oct. 7, Abbott established the grants, and the state is providing a total of $10.4 million in the current biennium to harden security infrastructure.
According to Governor Abbott’s office, the state has awarded 125 security grants to Jewish institutions totaling $18.5 million since 1019, including $4 million in 2022 and 2024 and $5.5 million in 2023.
The Texas Holocaust, Genocide and Antisemitism Advisory Commission said it plans to offer antisemitism training for higher education institutions, K-12 educators, and K-12 institutions across the state. They also want to expand the commemoration of Jewish Heritage Month in May to include formal programming at the Capitol and educational resources for schools and enhance lessons for students in kindergarten through fifth grade during Holocaust Remembrance Week to “include understanding Jewish identity, prejudice and bullying, and recognizing hate.”
“Our hope is that through these recommendations, in the next couple of years, we’ll see progress and change,” Nathan said. “We educate all Texans. We want to be there to advise and assist. We want to be able to train and meet people where they are. Texas is a large state, so we want to meet people where they are and give them the resources and understanding of what antisemitism looks like and how to combat it.”
According to the commission’s report, Gov. Abbott has been forceful in his condemnation, issuing an executive order to mandate Texas colleges and universities to update their free speech policies to address anti-Semitic speech and acts on university campuses.
In 2023, state lawmakers passed, and Gov. Abbott signed Senate Bill 1517, which prohibited public colleges and universities from boycotting study and research in foreign nations. The legislation targeting the boycott, divestment, and sanction movement is an extension of House Bill 89 from 2017, which prohibited state agencies from contracting with or investing public funds in companies that boycott Israel.
The full report from the Texas Holocaust, Genocide and Antisemitism Advisory Commission can be found here.