According to results from an Anti-Defamation League poll, the percentage of Americans who believe in antisemitic tropes has risen in the last three years.
ADL leaders claim that years of antisemitic rhetoric by former President Donald Trump are to blame, as well as emboldened violent extremism (and lax social media policies).
Respondents were asked to rate the truthfulness and validity of 14 traditional negative stereotypes regarding Jews. The results showed that approximately one fifth of Americans agree with at least six of these sentiments. This is compared to the one-in-nine respondents who responded in 2019 when this survey was last conducted.
Survey of 4,000 people conducted in 2022 found that 70% agreed with the statement “Jews stick together better than other Americans” while more than half agreed with the statement “Jews don’t share my values” while 26% said “Jews have too many power in the business world.”
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of ADL, stated that the findings are what they mean and give us a sense of urgency. He spoke at a news conference. While it’s encouraging to see that the vast majority in our country does not hold such ideas, 50 million is still worrisome. This means there’s still work to be done.
Since 1964, the organization has measured people’s agreement with these anti-Jewish tropes. The peak in antisemitic beliefs was found in 1964’s initial survey, which showed that nearly a third of Americans agreed with six statements or more. These numbers are the highest recorded since 1992. In the decades between, there is a lower level of belief in antisemitic stereotypes. ADL expressed concern over the drastic jump in belief in antisemitic tropes from one in nine Americans in 2019 to one of five in 2022.
The ADL collected separate data and found that the number of reported incidents of antisemitic harassment or vandalism has been increasing steadily since 2015, contrary to the recent rise in anti-Jewish attitudes.
Matt Williams, vice-president of the ADL’s Center for Antisemitism Research said that researchers have discovered that people are more open about their biases than they were a decade ago.
One thing we might be seeing is more people agreeing to these [tropes]”. We could also be seeing people more willing to admit they agree with these [tropes]. Williams stated that both are causes for concern.
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