As authorities investigate the deadly shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is urging Americans to confront hatred.
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement that he felt the shooting was “inevitable” in a “climate of relentless antisemitism” in the U.S. This aligns with the ADL’s findings in its annual audit, which showed that antisemitic incidents in the U.S. rose for the fourth consecutive year in 2024.
“I can’t help but think this persistent level of demonization and harassment of Israelis and Jews, along with this rhetoric that celebrates terrorism and violence against Israelis and, you know, made for an environment that enabled this to happen,” ADL Senior Vice President of Counter-Extremism and Intelligence, Oren Segal told Fox News Digital.
A man looks on next to police officers working at the site where, according to the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary, two Israeli embassy staff members were shot dead near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., on May 21, 2025. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)
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The ADL recorded 151 antisemitic incidents in Washington, D.C., in 2024, a drop from the 171 incidents reported in 2023. However, both 2023 and 2024 represent large spikes compared to 2022, when just 37 incidents were recorded.
Segal told Fox News Digital that the ADL has observed anti-Israel language becoming “more militant” and moving away from criticisms of the Israeli government and its policies, which he said are not antisemitic. He also added that after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre “people were more willing to tolerate the types of activities targeting the Jewish community that, you know, would seem anathema to anybody else.”
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“This was not just against the Jewish community of D.C., but an assault on all Jewish Americans and indeed all Americans,” Greenblatt said in a statement about the shooting. “We know that words have consequences. When antisemitic rhetoric is normalized, tolerated, or even amplified in our public discourse, it creates an environment where violence against Jews becomes more likely.”
Elias Rodriguez, 30, who is suspected of fatally shooting two Israeli Embassy workers — Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim — reportedly yelled “Free, Free Palestine” as he was being taken into custody. Several Jewish commentators online have said that the shooting is emblematic of what “globalize the intifada” — a slogan used in anti-Israel protests — means.
“The concern that many in the Jewish community have when they hear phrases like ‘globalize the intifada’ is that it reminds them of the intifadas that occurred, right, which were violent,” Segal told Fox News Digital. “They featured suicide bombings, a lot of death and destruction. So, when you call for the globalization of an intifada, many people hear that as calling for the globalization for violence against Jews.”
He added that the fatal shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in D.C., was a “pretty clear” case of antisemitism.
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Segal also said that since Oct. 7, the ADL has seen an increase in the marginalization of the Jewish community, including “these efforts to normalize that any Jewish person or anybody who supports Israel is a legitimate target.” He recalled that just as after Oct. 7, there were those who justified the massacre, there are those who are trying to excuse the murders of Lischinsky and Milgrim.
A police car is parked behind a yellow tape where, according to the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary, two Israeli embassy staffers were shot dead near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., May 22, 2025. (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)
“I think what we need to remember is that when we have been calling out the most extreme rhetoric at protests and events around the country, we haven’t focused on criticism of Israel. We have focused on the type of language and activity that we believe, that we have seen leads to violence,” Segal told Fox News Digital. “And so, I hope that when people try to contextualize what happened in D.C., they look back at what we have been trying to say, what we have been warning about because I think if you understand how words lead to action, more people hopefully will be part of that solution in pushing back against these narratives.”
