Number of antisemitic incidents dropped on Central Coast last year, ADL says
Antisemitic incidents declined on the Central Coast last year, according to a report released by the Anti-Defamation League on Wednesday.
Across Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties, the ADL recorded 38 incidents of antisemitic assault, harassment and vandalism in 2025, which was a 44% decrease from 2024, when 68 incidents were reported, according to the ADL’s most recent Audit of Antisemitic Incidents.
The month with the highest number of reported incidents was June, with six incidents, the report said.
In San Luis Obispo County, the ADL recorded a total of five antisemitic incidents in 2025, which was a 72% decline from 2024, when there were 18 reported incidents.
Of those incidents, two were categorized as harassment and three as vandalism, the report said.
In Santa Barbara, two antisemitic incidents were categorized as assault, 13 were categorized as vandalism and 23 were categorized as harassment, the report said.
“The most important takeaway from ADL’s Audit data for the Tri-Counties is that incidents continue to increase significantly in towns without a major four-year university, while the cities surrounding UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo saw a decline in incidents,” ADL Tri-Counties Regional Director Joshua Burt said in a news release.
He noted that UC Santa Barbara’s ADL Campus Report Card grade went from an F to a B, while Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s grade went from an F to a C in recent years.
He said each university’s efforts to improve their report card grades combated antisemitism on campus and in the surrounding community.
While there was a decline in antisemitic incidents on the Central Coast, Jewish community members still grappled with harassment.
“Over the past year, Jewish students in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties have faced a sustained pattern of antisemitic harassment and intimidation, and a pair of physical assaults,” UC Santa Barbara Alpha Epsilon Pi president Jonah Chizinsky said in the release. “The local Jewish fraternity serving UCSB and Santa Barbara City College has experienced seven different incidents of antisemitic attacks, including anti-Jewish slurs, vandalism and a physical assault involving the theft of a Jewish religious symbol. These acts reflect a broader normalization of antisemitic hostility on California campuses and are part of a national trend that has accelerated in recent years.”
Meanwhile, across California, 817 antisemitic incidents were reported to the ADL in 2025, which was an almost 65% decrease from 2024, when 1,344 antisemitic incidents were recorded, the report said.
Of those incidents, 29 were categorized as assault, 246 as vandalism and 542 as harassment.
Nationally, the ADL recorded 6,274 antisemitic incidents in 2025, with an average of 17 incidents per day. This accounts for a 33% decrease in total antisemitic incidents since 2024.
Still, physical assaults increased nationwide by 4% in 2025.
Last May, two people were killed in a shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington D.C. In June, one person died from her injuries in the firebombing of a “Run for Their Lives” event in Boulder, Colorado.
Last year was the first year that Jewish people were murdered in antisemitic attacks since 2019, the ADL said, calling it “one of the most violent periods for American Jews.”
