Half of Americans Now View Antisemitism as a ‘Very Serious’ Issue, New Poll Suggests

Americans are more concerned about antisemitism today than they were two decades ago, according to a new Gallup poll. The percentage of Americans who describe antisemitism as “very serious” today comes out to 49 percent — over five times the 9 percent figure recorded in 2003. Further, the percentage of Americans who view antisemitism as either a very serious or somewhat serious problem has risen to 81 percent from 57 percent two decades ago. “We often don’t see changes like that, in that size,” a senior editor at Gallup, Jeff Jones, tells Newsweek. “That’s definitely significant.”Those at the other end of the spectrum, who view antisemitism as “not much of a problem,” have shrunk to 10 percent from 30 percent 20 years ago. The last time Gallup conducted a poll on antisemitism was back in 2003 when Senator Lieberman sought the Democratic nomination for president. He would have been the first Jewish American to be nominated by a major party. When broken down by responder demographics, various trends emerge.Older Americans are more likely than their younger counterparts to describe antisemitism as very serious. In contrast, younger Americans are equally as likely as older Americans to believe that anti-Muslim prejudice is a very serious problem. Differences also appear in political party affiliation. Republicans (63 percent) are more likely than Democrats (49 percent) and independents (40 percent) to describe antisemitism as very serious. The trend flips on its head for prejudice against Muslims, with Republicans less likely than both Democrats and independents to view anti-Muslim prejudice as a very serious problem in America. A larger percentage of Democrats cite prejudice against Muslim people as a very serious problem than those who claim the same for Jews. Hightened levels of antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice were seen following Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel on October 7. In just the three months following the attack, antisemitic incidents increased by 360 percent and anti-Muslim incidents increased by 180 percent, according to data from the Anti-Defamation League and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, respectively. The striking spike prompted lawmakers to call for additional funding to protect synagogues, mosques and other religious institutions. An additional Gallup survey addressed Americans’ personal experiences with religious based discrimination. The survey found that Jewish Americans are three times more likely than the average American to say that they are frequently or occasionally treated poorly or harassed because of their faith. Broken down by frequency, 11 percent of Jewish Ameircans said they were subject to frequent faith-based harassment and 25 percent said they faced such treatment on an occasional basis. The numbers for the average American came out to 2 percent and 8 percent, respectively. And negative experiences have only become increasingly prevalent for Jewish Americans — with 46 percent noting that they have experienced more mistreatment this year than in prior years. The responses line up with the Anti-Defamation League’s report that antisemitic incidents had more than doubled from 2022 to 2023, with reports surging even more after Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. “Antisemitism is nothing short of a national emergency, a five-alarm fire that is still raging across the country and in our local communities and campuses,” the head of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, said at the time of the report. According to the Gallup poll, American Jews attribute most of the mistreatment to strangers. Smaller but still significant numbers signal prejudice from family members (39 percent), coworkers (39 percent) or friends (37 percent). In turn, Jewish Americans are more likely to be inclined to hide their religious affiliation. Just about 60 percent of Jewish Americans cite that they’ve felt reluctant to share their religious affiliation out of fear of mistreatment — over two times the national average. “Jewish Americans are not alone in experiencing faith-based prejudice in the U.S.,” Gallup notes. “However, such treatment is more frequent and more acute for Jewish Americans than for members of the other largest U.S. religious groups.”

Half of Americans Now View Antisemitism as a ‘Very Serious’ Issue, New Poll Suggests

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