The 15 people injured on Sunday after a man shouted “Free Palestine” and hurled Molotov cocktails at Jewish demonstrators in Boulder — an attack federal officials are investigating as a hate crime — are the latest casualties in a year already marked by record levels of antisemitism, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

The attack may have been shocking, but not surprising, said Jeremy Shaver, a spokesperson for the ADL’s Mountain States Region.

“There’s no doubt that Sunday’s attack was a targeted attack against the Jewish community in Boulder,” Shaver said. “Unchecked antisemitic rhetoric is leading to attacks.”

Antisemitic incidents in the U.S. hit an all-time high in 2024, with the ADL documenting more than 9,300 cases — a 5% increase over the previous year. That represents a fourfold rise over five years and a ninefold surge over the past decade.

Among the findings from the ADL’s most recent audit:

• A majority of incidents — 58% — were related to Israel or Zionism, with many occurring at or near anti-Israel protests.

• Of more than 5,000 anti-Israel rallies in 2024, about half included antisemitic messages in signs, chants, or speeches.

• Acts of vandalism and assault rose sharply, increasing by 20% and 21%, respectively.

• Nearly 1,700 incidents took place on college and university campuses, accounting for roughly one in five of all cases nationwide.

That surge has prompted investigations across the country, including on Denver’s Auraria Campus, where a civil rights advisory body launched an inquiry last year into alleged antisemitism following protests over the Israel-Hamas war.

“Concerns have been raised that on some campuses, administrators are indifferent to antisemitic hate speech that would result in harsh sanctions if similar speech were directed at groups more favored by administrators,” the advisory body said.

While incidents were reported nationwide, the highest numbers came from states with large Jewish populations. New York and California topped the list.

The ADL has published its annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents since 1979.

The arrest affidavit described how Mohamed Soliman, 45, allegedly carried out the attack near 13th and Pearl streets during a weekly event — organized by Run for Their Lives — that demands Hamas release the remaining hostages.

Soliman, who lived in the Colorado Springs area, came to the U.S. in 2022 from Egypt and overstayed his initial tourist visa, according to the federal officials.

One of the victims is an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor who had been faithfully attending weekly Run for Their Lives event with her daughter since Hamas — a U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization — launched a surprise, large-scale attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023. Roughly 1,200 people died in the attack. Hamas also took roughly 250 hostages.

The attack near a music festival triggered a full-scale war in Gaza, with Israel launching airstrikes and a ground invasion aimed at dismantling Hamas. The retaliatory strikes killed thousands of Palestinians, and fueled a humanitarian crisis and global protests.

With the exception of 9/11, most attacks in the U.S. targeting Jews have been carried out by individuals aligned with far-right ideologies, according to law enforcement data and the ADL.

“We have a real national — I’d say global — obligation to stop turning a blind eye,” said Robert Williams, executive director of the USC Shoah Foundation.

The foundation’s mission is to collect, preserve and share Holocaust survivor testimonies to combat antisemitism, dehumanization and genocide.

“If we’re only looking at the right-wing form of antisemitism, we’re blind to other antisemitism,” Williams said.

Williams added: “We know that violence against Jews does not end with Jews.”

Brandon Rattiner, senior director of the Jewish Community Relations Council at JEWISH colorado, agreed, saying the only way to end the violence — both at home and abroad — is through empathy.

“The single most important thing we should be learning from this experience is to humanize all people,” Rattiner said.

But that call for understanding, he added, should not obscure the reality of attacks targeting Jews. While some draw a distinction between antisemitism and anti-Zionism, that line becomes less useful in the face of attacks like the one in Boulder, he said.

“It’s not a meaningful distinction when someone is throwing Molotov cocktails at Jews,” Rattiner said.

Reporter Kyla Pearce contributed to this article.