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Anti-Semitic incidents in the United States have declined for the second year straight, according to the Anti-Defamation League's annual audit released Wednesday. In 1996, 1,722 incidents were reported to the ADL, signifying a 7 percent drop from the previous year.

Even more dramatic was the 35 percent decrease reported in Northern California. This region accounted for 41 anti-Semitic incidents last year, including 30 acts of harassment and 11 cases of vandalism.

"I'm encouraged by this trend," said Barbara Bergen, the ADL's regional director. "It's heartening to see…these numbers down."

There were no physical attacks resulting in serious injury reported in Northern California.

The national drop was due to 15 percent decline in harassment, which includes threats and assaults, to 941 incidents. That decline compensated for a 7 percent increase in the number of vandalism incidents to 781.

Sixty-six of the incidents ended in arrests. None of those occurred in Northern California.

Overall, ADL officials were encouraged by the numbers, which show anti-Semitic activity to be at its lowest level since 1990.

"It tells us that the combination of law enforcement action and educational outreach is an effective one-two counterpunch that is reaping results in the traditional arenas where anti-Semites are active," said Abraham Foxman, ADL national director.

The newest national figures show a 17 percent decrease since 1994's all-time high of 2,066 incidents. The latest numbers also mark the first multiyear drop in a decade.

Once again, Northern California showed a more significant shift with a 47 percent decrease since 1994.

The 1996 incidents in Northern California included the following:

*A San Francisco bagel shop received a bomb threat. The ADL office in San Francisco also received one bomb threat.

*A man threatened a woman in a Richmond park and called her a "Jew b—-."

*"F— Jewish" was painted on the steps of a San Francisco synagogue.

*A group of four or five men pushed to the ground a couple leaving a San Francisco restaurant and called them "dark-skinned Hebrews."

*Fliers were distributed in Sunnyvale stating, "Want oil? Nuke Israel."

*A Fairfield bus driver and passenger commented that the Holocaust was justified and would probably happen again.

Of all 41 incidents in Northern California, Bergen said she couldn't single out a worst one.

"Is a bomb threat worse than a swastika drawn? It's hard to give them a qualitative rating," she said.

Nationally, 407 of the 781 vandalism acts involved defacing public property. Another 117 were attacks against Jewish institutions. The remaining 257 were directed against private Jewish property.

Attacks against Jewish property included the following acts:

*More than 60 grave markers were toppled at a Jewish cemetery in East Haven, Conn., one day before Rosh Hashanah.

*Two Arizona synagogues were attacked on the night after the anniversary of Kristallnacht. A window was broken at one site, and, at the other, a Molotov cocktail hurled at a window was extinguished before causing major damage.

*A small bomb was detonated at the door of a Jewish center in New York City. No one was hurt, and the incident caused only minor damage.

The ADL also cites a broad spectrum of anti-Semitic incidents involving harassment, threats and assault.

They range from intimidating or hostile anti-Semitic comments made in passing to violent attacks in which anti-Semitic bias was the motive. These included:

*In Milwaukee, two men entered a synagogue and began shooting a BB gun at congregants during a morning minyan.

*In Washington, D.C., a voice-mail message was left at the home of an employee of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, saying: "Just looking for a kike designer. I understand they are gutting crematoriums."

*In Highland Park, outside Chicago, multiple bomb threats were phoned in against a Jewish community center-sponsored basketball league that met in school gyms.

The audit is based on reports made to the ADL and law enforcement agencies by 41 states and the District of Columbia.

States with large Jewish populations continued to experience the highest levels of anti-Semitic activity. Last year, 328 incidents were reported in New York, 238 in New Jersey, 186 in California, 123 in Florida and 106 in Massachusetts.

Other findings contained in the report include the fact that Anti-Semitic incidents reported on college campuses declined by 25 percent in 1996 from the previous year, reaching the lowest level since 1990.

In particular, ADL noted the lack of Holocaust revisionist advertisements submitted to campus newspapers.

The development, however, may simply reflect a shift in tactics, according to the report. With Holocaust revisionists now posting materials on the Internet, the debate over ads has been replaced by debate over the First Amendment rights of Holocaust-denial sites on the World Wide Web.

"Electronic hate is the dark side of technology, and anti-Semites have particularly taken to the medium," Foxman said.

Much of the Internet's anti-Semitism, however, does not count for the annual audit. The ADL does not include anti-Semitic sites on the World Wide Web, for example. They are considered comparable to newspapers, which aren't counted for the report.

A hate message on e-mail would be included in the report, however, because it is equivalent to receiving a letter, which is included for the report.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said the past year has seen an "absolute explosion of hate sites on the Internet."

His organization, which is separate from the ADL and its report, now counts more than 400 of these Web sites.

"We're looking at the emergence of a subculture of hate on the Internet, and that unfortunately means that the potential pool of young people into these particular groups is much broader."