Jews, 4% of Massachusetts residents, targeted in 83.3% of commonwealth's religion-bias hate crimes in 2025

Of the 114 religion-bias hate crimes reported in Massachusetts in 2025, 95 incidents - or 83.3%-targeted Jews, according to a website funded by a U.S. Justice Department grant. Muslims were targeted in 10 incidents, representing 8.8% of religion-based hate crimes.

The pattern extends to prior years. In 2024, Jews accounted for 132 of 157 religion-based hate crimes, or 84%, while Muslims were targeted in 10 incidents, or 6.4%. In 2023, 105 of 141 religion-based hate crimes - 74.5%-were anti-Jewish, and 5, or 3.5%, were anti-Muslim. The Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security directs the public to this site for official crime data.

When asked by JNS for 2025 statistics, a spokeswoman for Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said "The 2025 data is typically published in the fall after it is reviewed and finalized."

In July 2025, the commonwealth noted that for the first time in nearly 35 years, antisemitic hate crimes exceeded anti-black hate crimes in 2024, reflecting a 20.5% increase in antisemitic incidents that year. In 2025, 114 incidents targeted black people.

According to the Pew Research Center's 2023-24 U.S. Religious Landscape Study, approximately 4% of Massachusetts adults are Jewish and 2% are Muslim. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates about 10.2% of Massachusetts residents are black and 4% are two or more races.

These figures suggest that in 2025, Jews were about 370% likelier than Muslims to be targets of hate crimes, and 112% more likely than black people.

Jeremy Burton, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, told JNS the data "affirms what we already know as members of the Jewish community, that we are in the midst of an ongoing and unprecedented experience of being targeted as Jews."

He noted that "Fortunately, here in Massachusetts, our elected and civic leaders are already taking this crisis seriously," And pointed to the Massachusetts Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism. "We now have a practical roadmap to help schools, workplaces, municipalities and local activists put those recommendations into practice. The next step is implementation, and these numbers make clear why that work cannot wait."