New Survey Shows More Than 8 in 10 American Jews Think Antisemitism Is on Rise in US
by Benjamin Kerstein
A new survey shows that more than 8 in 10 American Jews believe antisemitism has risen in the US over the past five years.
The State of Antisemitism in America 2020 survey — conducted by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) — also found that 85% of American Jews viewed the statement, “Israel has no right to exist,” as antisemitic, with 84% feeling the same about the statement, “The US government only supports Israel because of Jewish money.”
Another 76% considered the idea, “American Jews are more loyal to Israel than to America,” as antisemitic.
Furthermore, a combined 80% said the BDS movement was “mostly antisemitic” or had “some antisemitic supporters,” with only 15% saying it was “not antisemitic.”
Asked how much of a problem antisemitism was in the US today, 88% said it was a “very serious problem” or “somewhat of a problem.”
However, 97% said they had not suffered a physical antisemitic attack, 75% said they had not been the target of an antisemitic remark and 77% had not been targeted over their religion on social media.
Of those who were targets of such abuse, however, 76% said they had not reported the incidents.
Occurrences of antisemitism on social media were overwhelmingly clustered on Facebook, at 62%; with Twitter at 33%.
There were also mixed responses to the question of where antisemitism was coming from. Some 89% of respondents said right-wing antisemitism was a threat and 61% said the same of left-wing antisemitism. And 85% said Muslim extremism represented an antisemitic threat.