Anti-Semitic attacks a 'stain on the soul of our nation', Biden says

US President writes op-ed highlighting marked rise of attacks against Jewish people in the country

President Joe Biden's opinion piece on anti-Semitism was published on the eve of Passover, the Jewish holiday commemorating the escape from slavery in ancient Egypt. AP

In an op-ed published on Tuesday, on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover, US President Joe Biden vowed to do more to combat anti-Semitism, which he said has risen to record levels.

Mr Biden cited FBI and Anti-Defamation League figures that showed that more than half of religious hate crimes in America in 2021 were carried out against Jews, while in 2022, anti-Semitic incidents reached their highest levels in more than 40 years.

“We see this evil across society,” Mr Biden wrote in his piece, published by CNN.

“Terrorist attacks on synagogues. Bricks thrown through windows of Jewish businesses. Anti-Semitic flyers left on the front lawns of Jewish homes. Swastikas on cars and cemeteries.”

In the FBI's latest annual compilation of bias-motivated incidents, all hate crimes were shown to have increased by 11.6 per cent in 2021.

The following year, the ADL recorded 3,697 anti-Semitic incidents throughout the US — a 36 per cent increase from the year before and the highest number on record since the organisation began tracking incidents in 1979.

More than half the attacks involve vandalism, the ADL reported, but physical assaults are also on the rise.

Jaime Tran, 28, was charged with four counts of hate crimes and firearms offences last month for allegedly shooting two Jewish men after they left synagogues in the Pico-Robertson area of Los Angeles.

“These acts are unconscionable and despicable. They carry in them terrifying echoes of the worst chapters in human history,” Mr Biden wrote.

“And they’re not only a strike against Jews, they’re also a threat to other minority communities and a stain on the soul of our nation.”

The President also cited a rise in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, which he said are running rampant online.

He added that he had decided to run for the White House following the events that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, when a group of white nationalists marched in a “Unite the Right” rally.

Demonstrators beat and threw lit torches at counter-demonstrators, and a self proclaimed neo-Nazi rammed his vehicle into a crowd, killing a woman and injuring several others.

“To the Jewish community, I want you to know that I see your fear, your hurt and your concern that this venom is being normalised,” he said.

Last year, Mr Biden appointed Deborah Lipstadt, a Holocaust expert, as special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism.