Study Shows Rise In Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitic sentiment in the United States has risen after the Sept. 11 attacks and the recent upsurge in Palestinian-Israeli violence, reversing a decade-long decline in anti-Jewish sentiment, a prominent Jewish organization said Tuesday.
The Anti-Defamation League said a survey of 1,000 Americans aged 18 or older conducted in early 2002 showed 17 percent of Americans were strongly anti-Semitic, up from the 12 percent seen in the previous survey four years earlier.
The survey said 48 percent of Americans held no prejudices against Jews, down from 53 percent in 1998. It had a margin of error of 3 percent.
Incidents of anti-Jewish attacks had risen in 2002, the ADL said. From January to May, the ADL reported 626 incidents, compared with 564 in the same period last year. They ranged from arson attacks and anti-Semitic graffiti spray-painted on synagogues to attacks on individuals, who were punched or verbally assaulted. On March 30, a swastika was burned into the front lawn of a Jewish-owned senior care home in Las Vegas.
"We believe that September 11 and the Mideast conflict have clearly had an impact. As these life-altering events have transformed us as a nation, they have also triggered the anti-Semitism that was already there, but buried beneath the surface," said ADL National Director Abraham Foxman.
Unlike the ADL's previous surveys in 1998 and 1992, Foxman said the 2002 survey showed opinions about Israel were fostering anti-Semitic beliefs among some Americans. There was a close correlation between those Americans concerned that American Jews had too much control over U.S. Middle East policy and those Americans who were most anti-Semitic, the ADL said.
The poll was conducted shortly after some of the bloodiest fighting between Israelis and Palestinians. Israel launched an offensive in the West Bank in April after a spate of Palestinian suicide bombings that killed dozens of Israelis. At least 1,389 Palestinians and 508 Israelis have been killed since the latest Palestinian uprising started in September 2000 after Middle East peace talks stalled.
A Washington Post/ABC News poll in April found 49 percent of Americans surveyed sympathized more with Israel, while half of those polled said the Palestinians were more to blame for the recent violence.
But the ADL survey showed 51 percent of Americans believed the United States had been tilting too much toward Israel in its Middle East policy.
The ADL survey showed a slight increase in anti-Jewish sentiment to 12 percent among white Americans from 9 percent in 1998. The number of blacks with strong anti-Semitic beliefs remained steady at 35 percent, the survey said.
Foxman said the survey showed a distressing increase in anti-Semitism among America's fastest-growing ethnic group, Hispanics.
The survey showed 44 percent of foreign-born Hispanics held strongly anti-Semitic views, while 20 percent of Hispanics born in the United States were strongly anti-Jewish.