A year after Oct. 7 attacks, Nebraska's Jewish leaders reflect on increase in antisemitism (2025)

It’s been more than one year since Hamas attacked Israel, killing more than 1,200 men, women and children, and taking more than 250 people hostage.

In the aftermath, Israel launched a war on Gaza, and the attacks increased the frequency of antisemitic insults and attacks hurled in this country, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Although such incidents had been rising over the past decade, they have surged since Oct. 7, 2023, according to ADL data. The group recorded 8,873 antisemitic incidents in 2023 — a 140% increase compared to 2022. Most incidents, the organization said, occurred between Oct. 7 and Dec. 31.

“We have tracked more antisemitic incidents since Oct. 7 in the Midwest than we had the two years previously combined,” said David Goldenberg, the Midwest regional director for ADL.

A map of incidents compiled by the ADL shows there have been 30 antisemitic incidents in Nebraska from Oct. 7, 2023, to Jan. 17, 2024. More incidents are expected to be added once the ADL confirms reports.

The incidents the ADL tracked in Nebraska include protesters chanting and holding signs with slogans like “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be Free” to bomb threats against synagogues in Omaha and Lincoln.

A more recent, but unconfirmed, example includes an Omaha-area “Blue Dot” sign defaced with a swastika, and words including “Lie,” “Cheat,” and “Steal” written.

To local Jewish leaders and scholars, the uptick in antisemitism is disheartening but not surprising.

“Unfortunately, social media has been used quite effectively to harm Jews and the Jewish community in America and the state of Israel,” said Sharon Brodkey, executive director of the Community Relations Council in Omaha.

What starts out online can escalate to violence in the real world. Robert Bowers, who posted antisemitic and white supremacist rhetoric online, opened fire and killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.

In 2017, during a Charlottesville, Virginia, rally, white nationalists chanted antisemitic and Nazi-era slogans, including “Jews will not replace us” and “blood and soil.” The demonstration led to a riot in which one person died and dozens of others were injured.

“Previously, people who held those sentiments … were sort of considered unfashionable to say that out loud,” Brodkey said, “all of the sudden, that became permissible to say those things out loud.”

The increase in antisemitic incidents caused Temple Israel, a synagogue in Omaha, to increase its security to protect the congregation’s approximately 650 families, Senior Rabbi Benjamin Sharff said.

Many Jews recognize the right to criticize and protest the actions of the Israeli government — which responded to the Hamas attacks with a war that has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians — and the United States government’s friendly relationship with Israel. Leaders, however, urged critics to refrain from slandering Jews, spreading conspiracies and calling for the destruction of Israel.

Ari Kohen, the director of the Harris Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, pointed to a protest held on the UNL campus last spring as a productive example of a demonstration. He credited student organizers with keeping an open dialogue and following the rules and guidelines laid out by UNL administrators to ensure a peaceful demonstration.

“I don’t have to agree with their message,” Kohen said. “But they were able to respectfully and thoughtfully share their message. I think that’s what we’re supposed to do.”

As disheartened as Jewish leaders are by the rise in antisemitic incidents, they are heartened by the vocal support that has far outweighed the negative interactions.

That support included statements that from Nebraska’s top elected officials Monday that condemned the Hamas attacks and pledged continued support for Israel. On Monday, Gov. Jim Pillen directed flags in the state to be lowered to half-staff on Monday in recognition for the lives lost and hostages taken one year earlier.

“For the most part, the larger Omaha community has been incredibly supportive,” Sharff said. “Unlike many other Jewish communities in this nation, we don’t feel like we are constantly under threat or under attack.”

As the Jewish community continues to move forward, and as a peaceful resolution to the conflict doesn’t appear to be in sight, the memories of the lives that have been lost and uprooted by the Oct. 7 attacks and subsequent war weigh heavily.

“I think it would be unimaginable to be a human being and not to feel deep pain for all of the people who are affected by what has happened over the past year,” Kohen said.

This report includes material from the Associated Press.