commentary

Jews Increasingly See Discrimination 
and Danger in U.S. Culture

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T

here is an old expression to 
describe the Jewish love for debate 
that goes something like this: 
Where you have two Jews, you have three 
opinions. 
Yet when my organization, American 
Jewish Committee (AJC), undertook the 
largest and most comprehensive survey 
of American Jews ever on 
the topic of anti-Semitism 
in the United States, we dis-
covered amazing agreement 
across Jews of different 
ages, political affiliations 
and religious orientations. 
What we found should 
alarm not only Jews, but all 
people of conscience.
Eighty-eight percent of American Jews 
believe anti-Semitism is a problem in 
America today and 84 percent say it has 
gotten worse over the past five years. A 
plurality — 43 percent — think it has 
increased a lot.
More than one in three American Jews 
(35 percent) say they have personally 
been the targets of anti-Semitism over 
the past five years. A similar number, 31 
percent, avoid publicly wearing, carrying 
or displaying things that might identi-
fy them as Jews and 25 percent at least 
sometimes avoid certain places or events 
out of concern for their safety as Jews.
American Jews do not believe that 

anti-Semitism comes from a single 
source. Eighty-nine percent of American 
Jews believe the extreme political right-
wing represents a threat to Jews in the 
U.S., 85 percent say the same of extrem-
ism in the name of Islam and 64 percent 
say so about the extreme political left-
wing. 
Finally, American Jews see a connec-
tion between undue criticism of Israel 
and anti-Semitism. Eighty-four percent 
of respondents said the statement “Israel 
has no right to exist” is anti-Semitic. The 
belief that rejecting Israel’
s existence is 
anti-Semitic cuts across differences of 
party affiliation, age and religious iden-
tity. 
Eighty percent of respondents said the 
statement “The U.S. government only 
supports Israel because of Jewish money” 
is anti-Semitic and 73 percent said so 
about the statement “American Jews are 
more loyal to Israel than America.”
Of course, the opinions of American 
Jews are not the only barometer of 
anti-Semitism, but they are an import-
ant one. Government officials, opinion 
shapers and civil society leaders who 
wish to be allies in the fight against 
anti-Semitism should listen closely to 
these views. 
Aside from the State of Israel, there is 
no nation that has proven to be a better 
home for Jews than America. By any pos-

sible objective metric, few communities 
in any country can match the success of 
the American Jewish community. 
Nevertheless, the fact that such a sig-
nificant percentage of American Jews 
believe that hatred against them is on the 
rise must not pass without notice. 
What must be done? There are many 
answers, including adopting a concrete 
definition of anti-Semitism, increasing 
education on the issue, protecting Jewish 
institutions and publicly condemning 
anti-Semitism, even when politically 
inconvenient.
Yet, the first step may be as simple as 
listening. When a swastika is spray paint-
ed on a building, don’
t dismiss it as mere 
vandalism. When Jews object to the lan-
guage of a politician or leader you admire 
or support, do not dismiss these charges 
of anti-Semitism out of hand. When 
Israel is demonized or singled out for 
criticism, ask yourself if the same thing 
could be said about any other country. 
The overwhelming majority of 
American Jews believe that anti-Semitism 
is a real problem in the U.S. and that it’
s 
getting worse. The question now should 
be: What is the rest of America going to 
do about it? 

Daniel Elbaum is the American Jewish Committee’
s 
Chief Advocacy Officer. This essay was first pub-
lished in the Chicago Tribune. 

Daniel 
Elbaum

10 | OCTOBER 31 • 2019 

first half of 2019, compared to 
785 incidents reported for the 
same period in 2018.
In the year since the Tree 
of Life attack, there have 
been 15 plots, attacks or ter-
rorist threats against Jews by 
extremists of all types.
The threats in these cases 
were not idle, and the risks 
were exacerbated by aggravat-
ing circumstances, including 
criminal histories and/or the 
possession of weapons or 

bomb-making materials by the 
prospective attackers. 
 In each case, explicit threats 
were made against members 
of the Jewish community and, 
in most cases, the would-
be terrorists cited previous 
white supremacist murders as 
inspiration. In at least three of 
these cases, ADL’
s Center on 
Extremism provided critical 
intelligence to law enforce-
ment, leading directly to 
investigations and arrests. 

ONE YEAR AFTER continued from page 8

