According to the new Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents, there was a dramatic rise in attempts to intimidate or outright attack Jewish people in America last year.

There were 912 anti-Semitic incidents across the U.S. during the 2014 calendar year, according to ADL — a 21 percent increase over the 751 incidents counted in 2013.

“While the overall number of anti-Semitic incidents remains lower than we have seen historically, the fact remains that 2014 was a particularly violent year for Jews both overseas and in the United States,” says ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman, according to Jspace News.

“The fatal shootings in Overland Park, Kansas at a Jewish community center building and senior residence by a white supremacist whose goal was to ‘kill Jews’ and other violent episodes were tragic reminders that lethal anti-Semitism continues to pose a threat to American Jews and larger society as well.”

Among the group’s findings:

• Assaults: 36 incidents in 2014, compared with 31 in 2013;
• Vandalism: 363 incidents in 2014, compared with 315 in 2013;
• Harassment, threats and events: 513 incidents in 2014, compared with 405 in 2013.

“The reported increase in U.S. anti-Semitic incidents coincided with a huge upsurge in anti-Semitic attacks in Europe and elsewhere around the globe,” says Barry Curtiss-Lusher, ADL National Chair.

“A number of Jewish communities, including those in France, Great Britain and Austria reported a doubling of anti-Semitic incidents over the previous year due to the conflict between Israel and Hamas. While the Jewish community here did not experience anything like the attacks overseas, the Gaza war did have an impact in terms of creating a momentary spike in incidents in the U.S.”

According to ADL, New York and California topped the list with the most incidents.

• New York State, with 231 incidents in 2014, up from 203 in 2013;
• California, with 184 incidents, up from 143;
• New Jersey, with 107 incidents, up from 78;
• Florida, with 70 incidents, up from 68;
• Pennsylvania, with 48 incidents, up from 43
• Massachusetts, with 47 incidents, up from 46.

“It’s very easy for a lot of people to lash out at us and be anti-Semitic when they really have no basis to be,” Abbe Distelburger of the New York Jewish Federation tells Time Warner Cable News.

Distelburger says residents fought a proposed expansion of the Village of Kiryas Joel.

“People that are not educated and are not informed take a look at Kiryas Joel see all the residents are Jewish and start making anti-Semitic comments,” she says.

The Boulder Jewish News reports there were 10 incidents in Colorado.

“While the Mountain States Region continues to experience a low number of anti-Semitic incidents, 10 incidents is not insignificant, especially for those who were directly impacted. Moreover, any incident is one too many,” ADL Mountain States Board Chair Neil Oberfeld tells the news site.

Some of those incidents included:

• Hate literature distribution: flyers were placed in mailboxes in the Five Points neighborhood of Denver, which read in part “…theres [sic] no room for n******or jews in this area.”
• A Colorado synagogue rabbi received a voice mail message on his personal cell phone delivered in a sing-song voice: “Killing all the Jews, killing Jews in twos. Rounding them up and gassing in the gas chambers. Killing all the Jews. Killing them in twos.”
• An Orthodox Jewish woman was with her children in the parking lot of a local supermarket when a man drove up in his car, leaned out his window, yelled “dirty Jew” and drove away.
• The Moroccan Ghosts, a politically motivated hacker group that targets the websites of Jewish institutions in the United States, defaced the website of a synagogue.
• A young man wearing a yarmulke was assaulted in a bar by a man who told him to take off his head covering and when he refused, hit him over the head with a bar glass, requiring hospitalization and stitches.

“Everyone deserves to feel safe in their homes, houses of worship and communities. ADL’s mandate remains clear and we will continue to work tirelessly on our mission to ‘stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all,’” according to Oberfeld.