Americans Like Jews More Than Any Other Religious Group, Including Christians— So Why Have Antisemitic Acts Surged?
And how the ADL inflates their antisemitism count
Pew Research has found Americans Feel More Positive About Jews than any other religious group. In a favorability test with any other religion in the US, including mainstream Protestants and Catholics, Jews win easily, and have been winning for years.
“This survey confirms what we have found repeatedly over the past decade, which is that on the whole, Jews are among the most positively regarded religious groups in America. Overwhelmingly, Americans express either favorable or neutral feelings toward Jews, and relatively few — about 6% in the latest survey — say they view Jews unfavorably.” — Alan Cooperman, director of religion research at Pew Research Center
That should surprise no one. Jews have thrived in the US for centuries. George Washington welcomed them:
“May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.” — George Washington, 1790
Though Jews faced the same prejudice from Protestants that other religious newcomers did — the Ku Klux Klan hated both Jews and Catholics — European Jews have always enjoyed the legal privileges of white Americans. They did not have the social privileges of Protestants in some regions of the country, but the social restrictions for Jews have constantly improved— Gallup found that in 2019, 93% of Americans would vote for a Jew, and Yougov ranks Bernie Sanders as the third most popular Democrat in America, behind only Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter.
Yet antisemitic acts are on the rise. U.S. sees “unprecedented,” “staggering” rise in antisemitic and anti-Muslim incidents since start of Israel-Hamas war has the proof:
The Anti-Defamation League said it recorded 2,031 antisemitic incidents nationwide between Oct. 7 and Dec. 7, which is up significantly from 465 incidents during the same two-month period in 2022. The latest numbers represent a 337% increase in reports compared with last year. It is also the highest number of any two-month period since the ADL began tracking antisemitic incidents in in 1979.
Most of the incidents — at least 1,411 — “could be clearly linked to the Israel-Hamas war”…
Antisemitic incidents recorded by the ADL over the last two months included 40 reports of physical assault, 337 reports of vandalism, 749 reports of verbal or written harassment, and 905 rallies that involved “antisemitic rhetoric, expressions of support for terrorism against the state of Israel and/or anti-Zionism”…
The ADL data also noted the case of a Jewish man who sustained a head injury and died following an encounter with a pro-Palestinian demonstrator at a protest in Los Angeles last month. The other man is facing a charge of involuntary manslaughter and has pleaded not guilty.
Awful as that sounds, don’t forget that nearly half of the 2,031 incidents were 905 rallies that involved what the ADL called “antisemitic rhetoric, expressions of support for terrorism against the state of Israel and/or anti-Zionism.” Since the ADL thinks anti-Zionism is antisemitism, those rallies may not meet a definition of anti-semitism that Jewish critics of Zionism like Albert Einstein and Hannah Arendt would agree to. But even if you discount some or all of those rallies, the remaining examples still show a strong rise in antisemitic acts.
Now compare the record of anti-semitism to anti-Muslim acts, and remember that there are twice as many Jews as Palestinians in the US.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations released data last week showing that it has received a “staggering” 2,171 complaints of bias incidents or requests for help between Oct. 7 and Dec. 2, amid what it called “an ongoing wave of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate.”
“From Burlington to Chicago to DC and elsewhere, innocent Americans are suffering the consequences of this wave of bigotry,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement…
In Burlington, Vermont, three Palestinian-American college students were shot and wounded on Nov. 25 in what authorities are investigating as a possible hate crime. In the Chicago area, a landlord is charged with murder and hate crimes for a stabbing that killed a 6-year-old Muslim boy and wounded his mother.
Given the relative populations, this means Palestinian-Americans are at least two times more likely to face anti-Palestinian acts than Jewish-Americans are to face antisemitic acts. Further, the acts against Palestinian-Americans are more likely to be deeds rather than words.
The link between antisemitic acts and Israel is so strong that even the ADL has to admit that Israel’s abuses of Palestinians are the main provocation:
“When conflict erupts in Israel, antisemitic incidents soon follow in the U.S. and globally.” — ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt
As I write, there have been “some 18,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza and the West Bank and 1,200 deaths in Israel.” The great majority of those deaths are civilians. Sadly, anti-semitic acts will continue until Israel restores to Palestinians the land that the UN gave to them for a state of their own.