Antisemitic Attitudes in the United States
Problem
Measuring antisemitism in America.
Since 1964, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has regularly conducted a nationally representative survey about attitudes toward Jews. ADL and NORC, in partnership with the One8 Foundation, updated the survey to examine antisemitism more holistically. In addition to analyzing Americans’ belief in classic antisemitic tropes, this survey also evaluated sentiment toward the state of Israel.
Solution
The most in-depth study of anti-Jewish hatred in the U.S.
The study included an extensive development stage with input from major experts on hate research, over 100 in-depth interviews with Americans holding a wide range of demographics and political persuasions, and a survey of nearly 4,200 individuals using NORC’s high-quality, probability-based AmeriSpeak® panel.
Result
Antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment are more pervasive than they’ve been in the 50 years ADL has monitored them.
The survey found widespread belief in antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes—nearly double the antisemitic prejudice ADL found in 2019—as well as substantially negative anti-Israel sentiment. More than half of Americans believe at least one anti-Jewish trope. Twenty percent of Americans believe six or more. Nearly two in five Americans now agree at least somewhat that Israel treats Palestinians like Nazis treated the Jews, and 17 percent say they are at least somewhat uncomfortable spending time with a person who supports Israel.
People on the hard left hold significantly more anti-Israel views than other Americans, whereas those on the hard right are significantly more antisemitic. Black and Hispanic Americans believe in anti-Jewish tropes and possess anti-Israel sentiment at substantially higher rates than other racial and ethnic groups, even after controlling for religion, income, and education.
People under age 30 are much more likely than other age cohorts to hold anti-Israel attitudes and are the least likely group to say they are motivated to combat Jewish hate.
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Project Leads
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Martha Stapleton
Vice PresidentProject Director -
David Dutwin
Senior Vice President of Strategic InitiativesSenior Staff
“This survey is perhaps the most in-depth study ever conducted of anti-Jewish hatred in the U.S. It leverages state-of-the-art survey techniques to generate the most honest and unbiased views of the American public possible.”
