Antisemitic crimes rose in Florida and Massachusetts in 2023 compared to 2022, government reports showed.

Antisemitic crimes increased by 94% in Florida and 70% in Massachusetts, according to Florida Attorney-General Ashley Moody’s 2023 Hate Crimes in Florida Report and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security’s Hate Crimes in Massachusetts 2023 report.

“Following the terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the Jewish community was increasingly targeted on college campuses, places of worship, and other areas of our country,” said Moody.

“To protect Jewish Americans, we took action – calling for a zero-tolerance policy for hate crimes and urging Florida college and university police chiefs to protect Jewish students and other religious groups.”

Moody’s office collected 311 reported hate crimes in 2023, a 36% increase from the 229 reports in 2022. Among these 311 incidents, there were 70 anti-Jewish motivated crimes. Antisemitic crimes accounted for 22% of all hate crimes in the state.

Hate crimes motivated by antisemitism

Almost 71% of all religion-motivated crimes were motivated by antisemitism in Florida in 2023. Anti-religion-motivated crimes represented 31.5% of all hate crimes in 2023, second only to racially motivated crimes, which made up 38% of the reports. Twenty of the 2023 hate crime incidents took place at a church, synagogue, temple, or mosque.

Thirty-eight of the anti-Jewish crimes recorded by the Florida Attorney-General’s Office were acts of vandalism, and 15 were acts of intimidation. There were also four incidents of simple assault and the same number of aggravated assaults.

In 2023, 278 agencies participated in the reporting system, with 75 reporting hate crimes, compared to 58 the previous year.

Eighty-nine municipal police departments, 14 campus police agencies, and the Massachusetts Environmental Police submitted a total of 557 hate-motivated crimes in 2023. Some 314 agencies had no bias crimes to report, and 41 agencies didn’t participate in the project. There were a total of 578 separate offenses, and 634 reported bias incidents in 2023.

Hate crimes in Massachusetts increased by 26.5%, according to the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security report. This was the highest amount of hate-motivated crimes reported since 2002.

The most frequent bias for these hate-motivated crimes has consistently been anti-black crimes, said the state body, followed by anti-gay, antisemitic, and anti-white crimes. Anti-Jewish crimes represented a total of 18.8% of the 634 bias incidents reported to police in Massachusetts. The amount of antisemitic crimes reported to police rose from 70 in 2022 to 119 in 2023.

Massachusetts police received anti-Jewish bias reports for 82 vandalism incidents, 23 intimidation incidents, four simple assaults, and two aggravated assaults in 2023. Churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques were host to 35 bias incidents in 2023.

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security detailed that hate crimes are not reported as a stand-alone offense “but rather as part of a separate criminal violation, ranging from vandalism to harassment to violent crimes.” 

Massachusetts State Police say they had an interesting start to the new year when they helped out an unlikely victim in Pelham.

Troopers responded to reports of an injured owl that had been struck by a car and left with a broken wing.

The troopers were able to safely secure the owl, and arrangements were made to transport the animal to a rehabilitation center.

A picture posted to social media shows a smiling trooper cradling the owl that appears wrapped up in a blanket or shirt.

There was no immediate update on the owl’s condition.