For the first time since 1964, when the Anti-Defamation League began to track Americans' attitudes toward Jews, a majority of Americans polled said they were concerned about anti-Semitic violence. In line with this finding, 84% said the U.S. government should do more to combat anti-Semitism, an increase from the 70% who wanted more government intervention in the matter when the question was last asked in 2014. Nearly three quarters (74%) of respondents said they were concerned about violence against Muslims. The poll indicated that 34% of Muslim Americans held anti-Semitic beliefs, higher than the population at large. The ADL noted this number was lower than for Muslims in Europe and the Middle East, where 55% and 75%, respectively, hold anti-Semitic beliefs. Half of Muslim Americans polled said they viewed Israel favorably. The ADL found 14% of those polled held anti-Semitic beliefs, a slight increase from the 10% who did so in 2015. Of those surveyed, older and less educated American were most likely to have negative opinions about Jews. According to ADL chief Jonathan Greenblatt, "The good news in this research is that today a large majority of Americans do not subscribe to common anti-Semitic stereotypes. It's also encouraging that a record number of Americans are concerned about violence against the Jewish and Muslim communities, and are troubled at how intolerance has infected our politics. But it's discouraging to know that Muslims and other minorities feel unsafe. Clearly, there is still a lot of work to do." Survey data was based on 3,600 interviews the ADL conducted in January and February of 2017 and 1,500 interviews it conducted in October of last year.
Poll: Majority of Americans concerned about violence against Jews
Anti-Defamation League: 84% think U.S. government should do more to combat anti-Semitism • 14% of Americans hold anti-Semitic beliefs, a slight increase from 2015 • ADL chief: Survey findings "encouraging," but "there is still a lot of work to do."
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