JANUARY 26 • 2023 | 5
continued on page 7
opinion
A Sobering Survey
A
new survey
commissioned by
the Anti-Defamation
League shows that antisemitic
stereotypes in the United
States have reached their
highest level in
decades.
The data
is “stunning
and sobering,”
says Jonathan
Greenblatt,
ADL’s chief
executive officer.
“I hope this
survey is a wakeup call to the
entire country.”
It should be.
The survey was conducted
among a representative sample
of more than 4,000 adults
in September and October
2022 and was released after
the ADL recorded 2,717
antisemitic incidents in the
United States in 2021, the
highest since 1979.
It underscores the fact that
“antisemitism in its classical
fascist form is emerging again
in American society, where
Jews are too secretive and
powerful, working against
the interests of others, not
sharing values, exploiting
— the classic conspiratorial
tropes,” said Matt Williams,
vice-president of the ADL’s
Center for Antisemitism
Research.
One of its most disturbing
revelations is that 20% of the
respondents agreed with six or
more of 11 antisemitic tropes
listed by the ADL. Three
percent believed all the tropes.
Eighty-five percent agreed
with at least one trope.
More specifically, 20%
thought that Jews have “too
much power,” while 21%
said that Jews don’t care
about anyone but themselves.
Thirty-nine percent believed
that Jews are more loyal to
Israel than the U.S.
According to the ADL, the
findings indicate that a fairly
substantial proportion of
Americans believe Jews are
“too powerful, selfish, foreign
and clannish.”
ADL found that many
Americans with antisemitic
beliefs tend to be anti-Israel
as well. “ADL has seen the
ways in which criticisms
of Israel can exceed policy
critiques and instead morph
into traditional anti-Jewish
conspiracy theories and
antisemitic tropes as well as
be weaponized to malign or
increase hostility toward Jews
generally.”
Needless to say, American
Jews will be bitterly disap-
pointed by the survey, having
blithely assumed that their
acceptance in American
society was a fait accompli,
carved into stone and could
not be undone.
America is still the goldenne
medene for Jews, a country
whose democratic traditions
have enabled them to thrive
and prosper as never before
in the diaspora. But there are
dark and inhospitable corners
in this land where toxic and
ineradicable hatreds flourish
and flare.
Hence the proliferation
of white supremacist and
neo-Nazi parties, from
Aryan Nations to Storm
Front. Hence the Unite the
Right rally in Charlottesville,
Virginia, in 2017 during
which hundreds of bigots
chanted “Jews will not replace
us” in a nighttime march lit
up by tiki torches. Hence
Robert Bowers’ murderous
rampage in 2018 during which
he fatally shot 11 Jewish
congregants in the Tree of
Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh,
in the deadliest antisemitic
attack in U.S. history.
And long before these raw
manifestations of anti-Jewish
rage exploded, Jews were the
targets of late-19th century
nativists who sought to curb
Jewish immigration. And in
the 20th century, Jews were
singled out for opprobrium by
the Ku Klux Klan, the German
American Bund, Father
Charles Coughlin, the Silver
Shirts and George Lincoln
Rockwell of the American
Nazi Party.
Decent Americans were
disgusted by Nazi Germany’s
antisemitic campaign, but in
the United States, Jews faced a
litany of onerous restrictions
in employment, housing,
university and country club
admissions that rendered
them second-class citizens on
a practical basis.
A GOLDEN AGE?
The golden age of American
Jewry dawned after World
War II as a succession of
barriers fell under the impact
of progressive social change
and federal legislation.
Universities gradually
dropped numerus policies that
had limited Jewish student
enrollment at institutions like
Harvard and Princeton.
Jews were selected as
presidents of corporations and
universities. U.S. presidents
appointed Jews as advisers
and cabinet ministers and
gave them senior positions
in federal agencies. Jewish
ambassadors were chosen to
head up embassies. In 2000,
Joseph Lieberman was chosen
as Al Gore’s running mate in
the presidential election.
It seemed as if Jews had
finally arrived and were on
an equal footing with the
Anglo-Saxon elite, despite
the occasional jarring
incident that underscored the
persistence of antisemitism.
Sheldon
Kirshner
Times of
Israel
ACCORDING TO THE ADL, A FAIRLY
SUBSTANTIAL PROPORTION
OF AMERICANS BELIEVE JEWS
ARE “TOO POWERFUL, SELFISH,
FOREIGN AND CLANNISH.”