Nearly one in four young adults agreed that Jews were a 'threat' to the country's 'moral character,' a view shared by 15 percent of Americans between ages 45 and 54.

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January 21, 2003

Poll indicates anti-Semitism on rise among young Americans

ANTI-Semitism may be increasing in the United States as more young adults express bigoted views about Jews than do middle-aged Americans, according to a national poll by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research in San Francisco.

On question after question, researchers found that the proportion of Americans ages 18 to 35 who held anti-Semitic views was consistently higher than the percentage of middle-aged Americans who shared those attitudes.

For example, nearly one in four young adults - 23 percent - agreed with the statement that Jews were a "threat" to the country's "moral character," a view shared by 15 percent of Americans between ages 45 and 54. And 20 percent of young adults agreed that Jews "care only about themselves," compared with 12 percent of middle-aged Americans.

Gary Tobin, president of the group that commissioned the survey, suggested that the disquieting results may reflect "the blurring of anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism on college campuses" and that "the social norms against anti-Semitism that took root following the Holocaust have worn off."

The survey of about 1,000 randomly selected adults was conducted in May. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Our dossier on some of the origins of anti-Semitism

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