Jewish Community Faces Unprecedentedly High Threat Environment

The March 2026 attack on Temple Israel in Michigan highlights the continuation of an unprecedentedly high threat environment facing Jewish communities in the U.S. and across the world. In what federal authorities describe as a "targeted act of violence against the Jewish community," Ayman Mohamad Ghazali rammed a truck into Temple Israel on March 12, 2026. The synagogue's preschool had children present at the time of the attack, but none were hurt. Ghazali was subsequently killed in a shootout with security.

Since January 2020, the ADL Center on Extremism has documented 20 terrorist plots or attacks motivated by antisemitism or anti-Zionism targeting Jews, Zionists or Jewish institutions in the U.S. With the addition of the attack on Temple Israel in Michigan, 13 of those incidents have occurred in just the past 20 months (July 2024 to March 2026), compared to only seven incidents over the previous 53 months (January 2020 to June 2024). This represents a nearly fivefold increase in the rate of attacks.

Plots and Attacks, 2021-2026

March 2026, West Bloomfield, Michigan: Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a Lebanese-born U.S. citizen, rammed a car into Temple Israel synagogue on March 12, 2026, in West Bloomfield, Michigan, which includes a preschool, injuring one security officer. Local reports say the vehicle was intentionally rammed into the synagogue, and gunfire followed. Live news helicopter footage showed smoke coming from the building. The suspect was killed in the incident.

January 10, 2026, Jackson, Mississippi: Authorities arrested and charged suspect Stephen Spencer Pittman with an arson attack at Beth Israel Congregation in the pre-dawn hours of Shabbat. No congregants were hurt in the incident, but the synagogue sustained extensive damage, and multiple sacred Torah scrolls were either damaged or destroyed. The suspect allegedly confessed to setting a fire inside the synagogue “due to the building’s Jewish ties” and referred to it as "the synagogue of Satan," according to an FBI affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in southern Mississippi.

September 2025, Punta Gorda, Florida: Local and federal authorities charged Blake Hoover with arson in connection with the September 19, 2025, hate crime attack on the Chabad of Charlotte County. Police reported heavy damage to the synagogue, including a burned classroom, shattered front door and spray-painted vandalism. A review of Hoover’s social media by COE found that he posted antisemitic and anti-Zionist conspiracy theories. In February 2026, a federal judge ruled that Hoover was not competent to stand trial and ordered him hospitalized until he could be deemed competent for legal proceedings. 

June 1, 2025, Boulder, Colorado: Mohamad Sabry Soliman allegedly conducted a targeted attack on “Run for Their Lives,” a weekly event designed to raise awareness for the remaining hostages held in Gaza by Hamas. Shouting “Free Palestine" and “We have to end Zionists,” he allegedly used a flame-thrower-type weapon and Molotov cocktails to injure 13 people, including one victim who succumbed to her injuries and died almost a month later. This assault came less than two weeks after the murder of a young couple walking out of an event for young Jewish professionals and diplomats at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.

May 21, 2025, Washington D.C.: Elias Rodriguez allegedly shot and killed Israeli Embassy staffers Yaron Lichinsky and Sarah Milgrim as they were leaving an AJC (American Jewish Committee) Young Diplomats event at the Capital Jewish Museum. As he was taken into custody, Rodriguez shouted, “Free, free Palestine.”

Rabbi Mark Rosenberg, director of the Jewish burial society Chesed Shel Emes and law enforcement chief chaplain of Florida, cleans blood off the sidewalk at the shooting location outside of the Capital Jewish Museum on May 22, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images) 

April 13, 2025, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Cody Balmer allegedly broke into Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, set multiple fires, then called 911 and referred to Shapiro as a “monster” and blamed him for Palestinian deaths in the Israel-Hamas war.

December 28, 2024, Gainesville, Florida: The FBI arrested Forrest Pemberton of Gainesville, Florida, and subsequently charged him in connection to a plot to travel to the South Florida offices of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel advocacy group, with the intent of harming people there, possibly in a suicide attack.

December 17, 2024, Fairfax, Virginia: FBI agents arrested an Egyptian citizen and George Mason University student, Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan, and charged him with plotting to perpetrate a mass casualty attack at the Israeli consulate in New York City.

October 26, 2024, Chicago, Illinois: Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi shot a Jewish man walking to his synagogue and then opened fire on responding police and paramedics. Local authorities later filed felony hate crime and terrorism charges against Abdallahi, saying that evidence from his phone indicated that the suspect planned the shooting and intentionally sought to target Jews. Abdallah was found dead of apparent suicide in his jail cell in November 2024.

October 7, 2024, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: During a June 13, 2025, hearing in Oklahoma federal court, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, an Afghan national, pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy and receipt of weapons to commit terrorism. Arrested in October 2024, the charges stem from his thwarted plot to carry out a terrorist attack on Election Day 2024 in support of the terrorist group ISIS-K.  Tawhedi confirmed to the court that he intended to kill as many people as he could to influence the election and retaliate for Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in Gaza. 

September 4, 2024, New York, New York: As part of a two-country investigation, Canadian authorities arrested a Pakistani citizen, Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, while he was trying to cross the border into the United States, allegedly as part of a planned mass shooting against a Jewish target in New York to support ISIS. In June 2025, Khan was extradited to the U.S. and charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and attempting to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries. Khan pleaded guilty in April 2026 to "attempting to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries."

August 14, 2024, Orlando, Florida: Hashem Younis Hashem Hnaihen, a Jordanian citizen, was arrested in August 2024,  on suspicion that he sought to target businesses that he believed were supportive of Israel. Hnaihen pled guilty on December 20, 2024, to four counts of threatening to use explosives and one count of destruction of an energy facility.

July 16, 2024, New York, New York: Federal authorities charged Michail Chkhikvishvili, a citizen of the nation of Georgia, with soliciting hate crimes and mass violence. He pleaded guilty to the charges in November 2025. According to authorities, Chkhikvishvili attempted to recruit others to poison Jewish children and commit a mass casualty attack in New York City on New Year’s Eve in 2023. He was charged with sending instructions to make bombs and lethal poisons to harm Jews, racial minorities, and homeless individuals, and encouraging arson. Authorities confirmed Chkhikvishvili was the leader of "Maniac Murder Cult" (also known as MKY, MKU and MMC), a violent, neo-Nazi accelerationist group linked to the 764 network that has inspired violent attacks worldwide. Chkhikvishvili authored a series of instructional and ideological guides, including various editions of the “Haters Handbook,” which call for acts of mass violence and are frequently circulated in 764 spaces.

November 29, 2023, Las Vegas: Police officers arrested a 17-year-old Las Vegas resident on incendiary device and terrorism charges after the teenager allegedly announced to an online group of ISIS supporters that he was about to begin "lone wolf operations" in Las Vegas against "the enemies of Allah," promising to "make sure the zionists [sic]" would know he was a supporter of the Islamic State. A search of his home reportedly discovered explosive components, bomb-making manuals and evidence suggesting he was considering different attacks and targets.

November 18, 2022, New York, New York:  Authorities arrested white supremacist Christopher Brown and in November 2024, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in state prison for possessing a firearm as part of a plan to “shoot up” a Manhattan synagogue. His accomplice, Matthew Mahrer, was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for helping Brown procure and hide the firearm.

June 17, 2022, Struthers, Ohio: Alerted by the FBI, police in Struthers, Ohio, arrested a teenager livestreaming a video in which he allegedly announced he was going to kill his father and take his van, then shoot at Black people before conducting a mass shooting at a synagogue. Police allegedly found two handguns that had racist and antisemitic symbols and messages on them, as well as a document variously described as a journal and a manifesto. The teen admitted to police that he was a white supremacist. He has been charged with terrorist threats, domestic violence, inducing panic and threatening violence, and possessing criminal tools. 

June 10, 2022, Brookhaven, New York: Authorities arrested Matthew Belanger in Long Island, New York, on weapons charges. Prosecutors say Belanger was a white supremacist who, while a Marine, plotted to attack a synagogue in New York, as well as to engage in homicide and sexual assault--he allegedly planned to rape white women to increase the number of white children. Belanger was allegedly a member of the accelerationist white supremacist group Rapekrieg.

January 15, 2022, Colleyville, Texas: British citizen Malik Faisal Akram took four people hostage at Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, claiming to have weapons and bombs. He subsequently demanded that suspected Al Qaeda courier Aafia Siddiqui be released from the nearby federal prison where she was being held. After a day-long ordeal, the hostages were able to escape the building, and Akram was killed by law enforcement. Akram apparently chose the location because, he claimed, "America only cares about Jewish lives."

A gunman held four people captive for more than 10 hours at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas in 2022. All four hostages were safely released, and the gunman was killed by law enforcement. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

October 31, 2021, Austin, Texas: In November 2023, Franklin Barrett Sechriest pleaded guilty in the 2021 arson attack on Congregation Beth Israel, which caused $25,000 in damage, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Authorities say Sechriest had stickers with white supremacist propaganda and symbols in his possession, as well as journals containing racist and antisemitic writings.

December 17, 2021, Thomson, Illinois: In December 2021, Brandon C. Simonson and Kristopher S. Martin were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, second-degree murder, hate crime and assault for their alleged roles in the March 2020 killing of a fellow inmate because of his Jewish identity. Prison officials identified the men as members of the Valhalla Bound Skinheads, an Oregon-based white supremacist gang. In May 2025, a federal judge found Simonson guilty and Martin pleaded guilty earlier this year. Both await sentencing. 

Other Significant Criminal Incidents with Antisemitic/Anti-Zionist Elements, 2024-2025

In addition to these plots and attacks, over the past year, antisemites and anti-Zionists have been arrested for a range of incidents and hate crimes, including assault, possession of illegal weapons and destructive devices, plots to harm other marginalized communities, solicitation of murder, and destruction of energy facilities.

October 28, 2025, Choctaw County, Alabama: The FBI, assisted by a multi-agency Special Response Team (SRT), arrested Jeremy Wayne Shoemaker in Choctaw County, Alabama. The county jail roster lists two charges: Pistol – Certain Persons Forbidden and Resisting Arrest. Shoemaker is being held on a $150,000 bond. According to a Facebook statement from the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office, the investigation began after the FBI received credible threats of violence against multiple synagogues in Alabama and neighboring states. While executing a search warrant, SRT personnel recovered firearms, ammunition, body armor, and “other items related to the plans of violence," according to the statement. Investigators further believe Shoemaker “had intentions of not being taken alive” and may have been planning attacks on public figures.

June 24, 2025, Stockton, California: Ammaad Akhtar was arrested and charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS after allegedly making threats to kill Jews and trying to send money, firearms, and other equipment to the foreign terrorist group. According to the complaint against the suspect cited in a news report, Akhtar allegedly told an undercover agent that he had surveilled a synagogue and talked about following and killing a person he believed served in the Israeli military. He also allegedly wrote about “killing the kafir in a random place” to complicate the subsequent investigation and the need for “help in how to make a boom” followed by an explosion emoji.

May 30, 2025, Austin, Minnesota: Jonathan J. Nique was charged with eight counts of illegal weapon possession after investigators serving a warrant allegedly found a large weapons cache in his home.  According to the criminal complaint, Nique’s former roommates reported him after he allegedly made threats to deploy pipe bombs at the State Capitol, Mayo Clinic and a synagogue, and had “gone into detail about what he would do to Jewish people.”

April 23, 2025, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: A federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment against three Pittsburgh residents, Mohamad Hamad, Tayla Lubit, and Micaiah Collins, on charges of conspiracy, defacing and damaging religious property (Chabad of Squirrel Hill) in July 2024, and making false statements. The indictment alleges that during this same period, Hamad and Collins manufactured and possessed destructive devices. 

March 10, 2025, Brentwood, California: Noah Kanaye Bauer was arrested in September 2024 after allegedly bringing a 3D-printed pistol to a grocery store and charged federally in March 2025 for allegedly possessing a machine gun conversion device. A judge ordered him held without bail after prosecutors cited his online history of antisemitic, racist and extremist content, including Chat-GPT inquiries about Jews, guns, and past mass attackers. He reportedly expressed antisemitic beliefs during police interviews, stating that Jews control American politics, own the porn industry, and are “kind of ruining the country.”

January 27, 2025, Crescent, Pennsylvania: According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Aiden Andrew Harding was indicted by a federal grand jury on a charge of possession of material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor. During a February detention hearing, evidence was introduced demonstrating that Harding had antisemitic and violent extremist ideologies and had posted online about his interest in “political and revenge driven” mass casualty events, like the attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.

January 4, 2025, Beverly, Massachusetts: Matthew Scouras, who allegedly had an illegal cache of guns and a Nazi flag in his home, was arrested after posting online threats to rape Jewish women and inciting others to shoot people outside of synagogues. He has been charged with multiple firearm charges and threats to destroy a place of worship.

December 18, 2024, Stewart County, Tennessee: The FBI arrested Gunner Joseph Fisher for plotting a mass murder at a Nashville mosque. Fisher, who reportedly admired other mass shooters with white supremacist Brenton Tarrant being his favorite, was charged with communicating a threat to commit mass violence. According to the criminal complaint, the FBI discovered a video on Fisher’s phone showing him railing and using slurs against Jews and Muslims and quotes him as saying, “And I, Gunner Joseph Fisher, am going to take care of them both.”

December 7, 2024, Laguna Beach, California: Nicholas Tasooji was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon after allegedly ramming his car into an Israeli man in front of a nightclub. Tasooji and other assailants were allegedly involved in an argument with the victim and his friends. One of the assailants reportedly yelled slurs and attempted to block the victim and his friends from entering a taxi. Tasooji then allegedly entered his car and rammed the victim with it, causing serious injury.

November 5, 2024, Washington D.C.: Austin Martin Olson, of Westland, Michigan, was arrested after he allegedly walked into the U.S. Capitol with a flare gun, torch lighter, bottles of fuel and a letter he said he intended to deliver to the U.S. Congress. Olson was apprehended while trying to go through the visitor center screening process, after Capitol Police noticed he smelled like fuel and spotted suspicious items in the X-ray machine. He has been charged with possession of a prohibited weapon, unlawful activities, and disorderly conduct. ADL analysts found that Olson had an online history that included a range of antisemitic, anti-Israel, and anti-government views.

Screenshot of an X post by Olson of a video reading his antisemitic letter to Congress. (Source: X) 

October 31, 2024, Margate, Florida: John Lapinski was arrested on federal charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and possessing an unregistered gun suppressor. Police responding to a report of shots fired found firearms and spent shell casings. With a judge’s approval, a search of the home found multiple firearms, body armor, smoke grenades, suspected silencers, and a clipboard containing a list of “targets” including a synagogue, a Jewish cemetery, and a Jewish sandwich shop.  Lapinski pleaded guilty on April 23, 2025, to weapons-related charges, including possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

September 9, 2024, Elk Grove, California: Federal authorities indicted two leaders of the online white supremacist group known as the Terrorgram Collective on numerous charges, including solicitation of murder of a federal official, solicitation of a hate crime and conspiracy to provide material support for terrorism. Arrested were Dallas Erin Humber and Matthew Robert Allison. Terrorgram publications frequently demonize Jews and other marginalized communities and glorify violence committed against these communities. The collective’s propaganda included a list of “high-value targets” for assassination, many of whom are Jewish.

A portion of the cover of The Hard Reset, the most recent publication released by the Terrorgram Collective.

August 29, 2024, Yonkers, New York: Ahmed Al Jabali was arrested for allegedly stabbing a Jewish man at his barber shop in Yonkers. According to the victim, Al Jabali shouted, "I want to kill you, you [expletive] Jew," then stabbed the barber with a pair of scissors several times. Al Jabali allegedly shouted several more antisemitic and anti-Israel comments during the attack. He was charged with attempted murder as a hate crime. On May 29, 2025, Al Jabali pled guilty to second-degree assault as a hate crime and was sentenced to six years in prison and three years of supervised release.

August 10, 2024, Brooklyn, New York: Vincent Sumpter allegedly carried out a stabbing attack in front of the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavich movement in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. Sumpter allegedly yelled, “Free Palestine” and “Do you want to die?” at the victim, a member of the Orthodox Jewish community, before stabbing him in the chest. Sumpter was charged with second-degree assault as a hate crime.

July 10, 2024, Newark, New Jersey: Federal agents arrested Andrew Takhistov at Newark Liberty International Airport, charging him with soliciting the destruction of energy facilities. He reportedly said that his "ultimate dream" was to use a rocket to attack a synagogue.

June 11, 2024, Prescott, Arizona: Mark Adams Prieto was indicted on federal firearms charges in connection with an alleged plot to conduct a mass shooting against Black people at a rap concert to incite a race war before the 2024 presidential election. Prieto also allegedly discussed other targets, such as Jews or Muslims.

May 29, 2024, Brooklyn, New York: Asghar Ali was arrested after allegedly attempting to ram several Orthodox Jewish men with his car by a yeshiva in the Canarsie neighborhood. Ali reportedly shouted antisemitic slurs during the attack. He was charged with 10 crimes, including attempted murder as a hate crime.