High Holy Days, Oct. 7 anniversary come amid heightened fears for Jewish Americans

American Jews are contending with a record number of antisemitic hate crimes as they prepare to observe the High Holy Days and mark the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel.

Why it matters: Rising hate crimes, expanding military conflict in the Middle East, and inflammatory rhetoric in the presidential election are creating more anxiety in Jewish communities as synagogues and religious schools beef up security and some households downplay celebrations.

• Rosh Hashanah, a two-day holiday that marks the Jewish New Year, starts at sundown on Wednesday.
• The 10-day Jewish High Holy Days ends with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, after nightfall on Saturday, Oct. 12.

The big picture: Anti-Jewish hate crimes reported to police across 20 major cities in 2023 rose 48% from the previous year, an analysis by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, shared with Axios found.

• For the first time, Jewish-targeted hate crimes were the most frequent bias attacks in the largest U.S. cities, according to decades of record keeping by the center.
• Antisemitic hate crimes also hit a new record total of 709 attacks in 2023 — more than any other group surveyed.

Zoom in: Across the U.S., synagogues, Jewish schools and community centers are on high alert due to threats of violence.

• Brian Levin, the recently retired director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, tells Axios that antisemitic hate crimes historically rise during Jewish High Holy Days.
• He says they also rise every time there's a conflict in the Middle East.

Catch up quick: Iran launched about 180 ballistic missiles toward Israel in a two-wave attack on Tuesday that U.S. and Israeli officials say was largely repelled.

• Israel is at war with two of Iran's allied militias, Hamas and Hezbollah. Fears of a broader war involving Iran itself have been growing for weeks.
• Meanwhile, former President Trump last month spewed inflammatory remarks about Jewish voters as part of a series of offensive comments he's made toward Jewish voters who support Democrats.

State of play: In between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur falls the first anniversary of Oct. 7, when some synagogues and Jewish community centers will hold vigils in honor of the victims and hostages taken by Hamas.

• 1,200 people were killed by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attack and more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the war that unfolded since then.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, tells the AP that the confluence of the High Holy Days and the Oct. 7 anniversary created "an impossible moment" for rabbis ministering to their congregations.

• He tells the news service that the liturgy for Rosh Hashanah includes posing the question, "Who will live and who will die (in the coming year)?"
• "That's going to resonate in a different way this year, for certain."

What they're saying: "After the anguish of the year that has passed, this Rosh Hashanah will bring us more strength, greater resolve and a deeper sense of the community of those who share our passions.," Rabbi David Wolpe, the Anti-Defamation League's Rabbinic Fellow, wrote in a Shanah Tovah message.

• "The last thing we should be doing is walking away from our identity right now and letting the extreme voices force us to cower in here," Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), tells Axios.
• Spitalnick says Jewish people need to continue to make coalitions with allies and work to protect American democracy despite the anxiety.
• "This is the moment to lean into Jewish pride and Jewish joy and Jewish identity. And it's in doing so we're building the resiliency."