The Abridged version:
- Anti-Jewish hate crimes increased in the Sacramento region’s four counties — Sacramento, Yolo, El Dorado and Placer — in 2023 and 2024.
- In 2025, the Sacramento Police Department took reports of 13 anti-Jewish incidents through August, up from four such incidents reported during all of last year.
- Anti-Jewish hate crime reports began to increase early in 2023 but spiked after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks against Israel. Jewish people have been targeted by those angry about the war — even though the region’s Jewish residents have disparate feelings about it.
An unprecedented number of painted swastikas, threats and other crimes meant to harass and scare Jews were reported across the Sacramento region during the last two years, new state data shows.
Police logged 40 anti-Jewish hate crimes during 2023 and 2024 in the four-county region, up from 12 crimes in the previous two years, according to the California Department of Justice. Hate crimes overall decreased during that period in the Sacramento region, with no other types of hate crime increasing so much.
The 24 anti-Jewish hate crimes reported in 2024 alone represented the highest number since at least 2001. From 2001 through 2022, there were an average of about five anti-Jewish hate crimes reported each year.
Anti-Jewish incidents up in Sacramento so far in 2025
While regionwide data is not yet available for 2025, the Sacramento Police Department took reports of 13 anti-Jewish incidents through August, up from four such incidents reported during all of last year. (Those incident reports are different from the hate crime data reported to the state because police may determine that some incidents don’t meet the threshold for a crime.)
Sacramento and its suburbs are home to around 34,000 Jews, according to a database maintained by The Jewish Federations of North America.
“There are lines between what is anti-Israel and what is antisemitic,” said Jason Weiner, chair of the Sacramento Jewish Community Relations Council. “They’re blurry, but there are lines, and they’re more and more and more being crossed.”
Crimes rose before Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks
Anti-Jewish hate crime reports in the Sacramento region began to increase early in 2023, but the biggest jump came after Hamas, the governing authority in Gaza, attacked Israel on Oct. 7 of that year, killing more than 1,200 people. Israel quickly responded, sparking a war that had killed more than 60,000 Palestinians by the end of July, according to Palestinian health officials.
The Gaza War led to prolonged, intense protests in Sacramento and across the nation.
Before the Gaza War there was a “normalization of hate speech and the use of othering in politics that has been growing,” Weiner said.
More recently, Jewish people have been targeted by those angry about the war — even though the region’s Jewish residents have disparate feelings about it.
“A lot of people will blame Jewish people for whatever the Israeli government is doing, and I very much disagree with the Israeli government, very much disagree with the way Gaza is being managed,” said Harriet Gadisman, a retired elementary school teacher in Davis.
Vandalism, graffiti account for most crimes
Most of the crimes reported in 2023 and 2024 related to hate-filled graffiti and vandalism.
The Davis Police Department reported six anti-Jewish hate crimes in 2024, tied for the highest number of any agency in the region, even though only about 3% of the region’s residents live in the Yolo County college town.
In April 2024, a man walked up to someone’s house at night and used a large knife to cut down an Israeli flag, according to Davis police. Two more flags were cut down later that month, according to the Davis Enterprise, which cited police. Then police heard about two swastikas painted at Davis High School. They also took a report of an antisemitic message spray-painted on a building in downtown Davis. A few months later, Davis police took another report of a flag torn from a Davis home at night.
“Every Jew in our little community knows about these things,” said Leah Hibel, a professor of human development and family studies at UC Davis.
She said the crimes reported by police are above and beyond the everyday harassment that many Jews experience: “The pieces that you see are a fraction of what Jews are experiencing in the real world.
“When we first moved here, I felt like we just hit the jackpot,” she continued. “Davis is just a magical place to live. The kids bike to school. We bike to work. It’s just the, you know, white picket fences. It feels like such an amazing community. And I don’t feel that way anymore about it.“
Davis coalition forms Hate-Free Together
After the wave of reported hate crimes, Davis Mayor Josh Chapman released a statement saying, “The city of Davis does not tolerate acts of antisemitism or racism of any kind.”
Jenny Tan, director of community engagement for the city, told Abridged that Davis has partnered on an initiative, Hate-Free Together, with UC Davis, Davis Joint Unified School District and the Yolo County Office of Education. Local leaders have met with area religious officials to discuss their concerns and create education opportunities. A committee of Hate-Free Together members is working on a strategic plan for stopping hate and discrimination.
Davis police Lt. Dan Beckwith said that, through July, one anti-Jewish hate crime had been reported in 2025. In June, someone tore down an Israeli flag outside a private residence, according to KCRA.
Other anti-Jewish hate crimes were reported across the region. In summer 2024, someone scrawled “Hunt the Jews” in marker on a wall in Midtown Sacramento, according to the Sacramento Bee. In January of this year, officials reported large swastikas spray-painted on two schools in Natomas, according to CBS 13. A month later, someone carved a swastika into a sidewalk in Midtown, according to KCRA.
“It’s there to target and say, ‘You don’t belong here,’” said Weiner, referring to the daubing of swastikas. “It’s there to say, ‘We’re going to bring back what happened then.’”
Crimes spark depression and anxiety among adults
Hate crimes and antisemitism have taken a toll on Jewish residents. Hibel coauthored a recent study that found a significant rise in depression and anxiety among Northern California Jewish adults — most of them parents.
“After Oct. 7, there’s a threefold increase in parents telling their kids to hide their Jewish identity,” she said. “The stories that parents tell us mostly revolve around feeling like they’re sending their kids into school and they can’t protect them.”
A number of initiatives are underway to decrease local antisemitism. Weiner said that the Central Valley Holocaust Educators’ Network regularly takes teachers on training trips to places like the Museum of Tolerance, along with hosting panels and workshops.
Another program is called Student to Student, where Jewish volunteers go to different classrooms and talk about what it is like to be Jewish in their community. Gadisman recently accompanied students in the program on a trip to a world religions class at Christian Brothers High School. The volunteers told other students about celebrating Sabbath and holidays, about bar mitzvahs and about their experiences with antisemitism.
“That one-hour presentation makes a world of difference for the students that are in the classroom,” she said.
Phillip Reese is a regular contributor, writing Numbers Matter for Abridged.