Majority of Jewish Americans have witnessed antisemitism following mideast conflict, ADL says

A new survey from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found that large portions of Jewish Americans are witnessing antisemitism and are concerned for their safety following renewed violence between Israel and Palestinians.

A poll conducted after the close of the 11-day conflict between Israel and Hamas found that 60 percent of American Jews witnessed antisemitism either online or in person at some point since the conflict began on May 10.

Another 41 percent of those surveyed said they are more concerned about their personal safety in the wake of the violence.

“Around the recent conflict in Israel and Gaza, there was a significant surge of antisemitic incidents in the U.S. and abroad. American Jews are understandably now more concerned about the potential for violence overseas spilling over into antisemitic threats close to home,” Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL’s CEO, said in a statement. “The antisemitic attacks we’ve witnessed in the streets and on social media in the past few weeks are weighing heavily on the American Jewish community.”

The poll, conducted between May 25 and June 1, comes as the U.S. has seen a startling rise in antisemitic attacks in the weeks following the start of the conflict.

An ADL report earlier this year found an uptick of antisemitic speech online, with roughly 17,000 tweets between May 7 and May 14 using some variation of the phrase “Hitler was right.”

More than 75 percent of those polled said that they were more concerned about antisemitism in America because of the recent violence. 

The data shows the number who have witnessed or experienced antisemitism in the three-week period covered by the poll was roughly in line with ADL’s data from last year where 63 percent of American reported such an incident at any point over the last five years.

The poll was conducted among 576 respondents and has a margin of error of 4 percentage points. 

–Updated at 10:03 a.m.