Officials have not yet offered a motive for the attack at the synagogue outside Detroit on Thursday. But the case is the latest in a series of assaults and threats against synagogues and Jews in recent months, with tensions accelerating in the wake of Israel and America’s new war in Iran.
Instances of antisemitism have increased substantially in recent years, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The organization recorded more than 9,300 cases across the country in 2024, the latest year such data was available. That was the highest number since records of those incidents began in 1979.
Security experts say that when conflicts erupt in the Middle East, threats against Jewish communities in the United States and elsewhere often follow.
“The operations against Iran have triggered almost an immediate surge in antisemitism and conspiratorial commentary on various social media platforms, and across the ideological spectrum,” said Oren Segal, the senior vice president of counter-extremism and intelligence at the Anti-Defamation League.
Many synagogues around the country, already accustomed to having a heavy security presence, increased precautions after the United States and Israel struck Iran in late February, Mr. Segal said. Law enforcement agencies have also increased attention to Jewish institutions.
“For anybody who hasn’t reached out to their law enforcement partners, now is the time,” Mr. Segal said, referring to synagogues and other Jewish organizations.
A recent survey by the American Jewish Committee, a nonprofit, found that 91 percent of American Jews say they feel less safe in the United States in the wake of high-profile attacks last year, including the arson attack at the home of Pennsylvania’s governor, Josh Shapiro, and the killing of two Israeli Embassy aides last spring outside a Jewish museum in Washington. More than half said that they had changed their behavior out of fear.
On March 5, Secure Community Network, an organization that provides security consulting for Jewish institutions in North America, sent out a bulletin to hundreds of law enforcement agencies around the country warning that threats would rise significantly after the start of war in the Middle East.
In the first four days after the United States and Israel began airstrikes on Iran, the organization found online more than 4,300 posts targeting Jews with violent rhetoric, a near doubling from the four days before the strikes began. Some of those posts specifically said that synagogues could be seen as fair targets.
The bulletin also warned of new attacks after the killing of three people on March 1 by a man in Austin, Texas. The authorities have not definitively established a motive for that attack, but the suspect, who was killed by the police, was wearing a sweatshirt that said “Property of Allah,” and a T-shirt with the colors of the Iranian flag, officials said.
Ruth Graham is a national reporter, based in Dallas, covering religion, faith and values for The Times.
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