It was once thought that anti-Semitism was literally dying out of the country but it’s having a resurgence instead, The Washington Post reported in its article on the survey.
The survey shows “antisemitism in its classical fascist form is emerging again in American society, where Jews are too secretive and powerful, working against interests of others, not sharing values, exploiting — the classic conspiratorial tropes,” Matt Williams, vice president of the ADL’s year-old Center for Antisemitism Research, told The Washington Post.
The ADL survey asked more than 4,000 individuals to rate the truthfulness of 14 statements describing different traditional anti-Jewish tropes. They included such statements as Jews “have too much power in the business world” (26% rated that mostly or somewhat true); are “so shrewd that other people do not have a fair chance at competition (24%); and “are more willing than others to use shady practices to get what they want” (20%).
I would argue that the government of Israel is part of the problem. From the ADL’s summary:
Notably, 90 percent of Americans believe Israel has a right to defend itself against those who want to destroy it. Further, 79 percent of Americans see Israel as a strong ally of the United States. However, negative, antisemitic sentiments toward Israel are held by a broad swath of the American public – from 40 percent who believe, at least slightly, that Israel treats Palestinians like Nazis treated the Jews, to 18 percent who are uncomfortable spending time with a person who supports Israel.
ADL notes that it has previously seen how criticisms of Israel can exceed policy critiques and instead morph into hostility toward Jews generally.
More from the study:
Young adults have more anti-Israel sentiment than older generations, and only marginally less belief in anti-Jewish tropes
While young adults (between the ages of 18 and 30) show less belief in anti-Jewish tropes (18 percent believe six or more tropes) than older adults (20 percent believe six or more tropes), the difference is substantially less than measured in previous studies. Additionally, young adults hold significantly more anti-Israel sentiment than older adults, with 21 percent and 11 percent agreeing with five or more anti-Israel statements, respectively.
As a Netanyahu-hating Jew, I’d like to blame him as much as possible. But it’s not all his fault. The year after Donald Trump launched his successful 2016 presidential campaign on a platform of bigotry, Neo-Nazis marched in Charlottesville (2017), followed by attacks on Jewish targets in 2018 and 2019.
There’s also Trump and Tucker Carlson’s pal, Kanye West. The Washington Post notes that Kanye West has 18 million Instagram followers, which is about triple the number of American adults who say they are Jewish.
