The majority of Jews in America continue to face anti-Semitic incidents either in person or online, according to a new survey conducted on behalf of the Anti-Defamation League that was released Wednesday.
The poll was conducted in January by YouGov and found that 9% of American Jews said they have been physically attacked because they are Jewish over the past five years, Religion News Service reported.
The poll shows a rise in respondents who say they have “experienced or witnessed some form of anti-Semitic incident.” This year 63% said they had — up from 54% in 2020.
The poll found 56% had “heard anti-Semitic comments, slurs or comments targeting others” and 25% had “been targeted by anti-Semitic comments, slurs or threats.”
“In the aftermath of major anti-Semitic attacks in Pittsburgh, Poway (Calif.), Jersey City and Monsey (N.Y.), American Jews are reporting that they feel less safe in the U.S. today than they were just a decade earlier,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s chief executive officer. Jewish people were fatally stabbed and shot in those cities in 2018 and 2019.
Despite increased security at synagogues following those attacks, almost half — 49% — said they fear a violent attack at their place of worship.
Thirty-six percent of respondents said they had experienced online harassment in the past year, typically on Facebook. While most said they had been called offensive names, 13% reported being physically threatened online.
Fifty-nine percent of Jewish Americans surveyed said they feel less safe than they did 10 years ago. Those numbers had been moving in the opposite direction since World War II, RNS reported.
“What this (report) does is it gives a very broad photograph of what the American Jewish experience is like today. And it is clearly one that is affected pretty profoundly by various forms of anti-Semitism or the expressions of anti-Semitism,” Jessica Reaves, editorial director at ADL’s Center on Extremism, told Voice of America News.
The survey was conducted with 503 Jewish American adults between Jan. 7 and 15. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
Approximately 4.2 million American adults identify as Jewish “by religion,” according to a 2013 Pew Research estimate. That’s about 1.8% of the adult population, with most living in major cities where hate crimes against them occur.
In-person attacks actually decreased in 2020, possibly accounted for by COVID restrictions, but appear to be made up for by the rise in attacks online.
“I think that’s incredibly important, because it reflects, we believe, in some ways this resignation about tech companies’ refusal to deal head-on with the rise of bigotry, the rise of racism and anti-Semitism online,” Reaves said.
The survey was released the same day Jewish media outlet Belaaz on Wednesday reported an attack in New York City on a Jewish couple walking their baby in Battery Park in Lower Manhattan.
According to the report, a man with a knife slashed both parents and the baby.
“The victims were treated for minor cuts by first responders on the scene,” Belaaz tweeted along with a photo showing cuts and blood on the father’s face.
The suspect was on parole for attempted murder, according to Belaaz.
Source: Newmax
