Anti-Semitic incidents were on the rise before the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting

Saturday's shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh may well be "the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States," but it is also part of a broader trend of rising incidence of anti-Semitism in the U.S., the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reports.

The ADL identified 1,986 anti-Semitic incidents in America last year, about a 50 percent increase over 2016's 1,267 incidents. That tally spans a wide range of behavior motivated by hatred for Jews, from violence like that in Pittsburgh to desecration of cemeteries or swastika graffiti on Jewish people's property.

"I doubt there's a synagogue in the U.S. that doesn't think seriously about security," Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center told The Associated Press. "It's really sad that you can't go to a house of worship without thinking you're taking your life in your hands."

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