The number of hate crimes reported in the US increased by 17 percent in 2017, with a particular surge in reports of anti-Jewish incidents, according to a new report from the FBI.

Most major categories of hate crimes — whether motivated by race or ancestry, religion, or sexual orientation — were reported at higher rates in 2017 than in 2016. Reported anti-Jewish crimes rose by more than 37 percent, perhaps pointing to an increase in anti-Semitism, which has gotten more and more attention after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.

Reported anti–Hispanic and Latino crimes also rose by more than 24 percent, and anti–American Indian or Alaska Native crimes rose by nearly 63 percent — although the number of incidents in these categories was still overall far lower than, for example, anti-black and anti-Jewish incidents.

At the same time, reported anti-Muslim crimes decreased by about 10 percent, although after sharp increases in recent years. Reported incidents motivated by gender identity also saw a very slight decrease of about 4 percent.

There are a few caveats here. The report only measures crimes reported to the FBI, so, as the FBI cautioned, the increase might not mean the […]