KEY FACTS
The survey of nearly 600 Jewish Americans by the anti-hate group found 60% reported witnessing behavior or comments they personally deemed to be anti-Semitic following the violence.
That is roughly the share of American Jews who said in a January ADL survey they had experienced anti-Semitism in the prior five years.
Over half (53%) said the level of anti-Semitic behavior or conduct, which many respondents deemed encompasses verbal attacks on the state of Israel (like comparing Israel’s actions to Nazis or calling Zionism racist), surpasses that they witnessed before the Israel-Gaza fighting began.
As a result of their observed uptick in anti-Semitism, some 40% of the Jewish Americans surveyed indicated they are “more concerned about their personal safety.”
A vast majority (77%) said they are at least somewhat concerned about anti-Semitism in America following the recent violence, while most also want federal and state leaders to do more to address the recent uptick in anti-Semitism.
CRUCIAL QUOTE
While the ADL typically sees spikes in anti-Semitism amid fighting in Israel, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt described this recent surge as “particularly dramatic and violent.” “This activity has affected more than specific individuals targeted: American Jews broadly are feeling less secure than before, and they believe strongly that our leaders need to do more to prevent further incidents,” he said in a statement.
KEY BACKGROUND
State leaders across the U.S. have decried attacks on Jews that began to surge in multiple countries amid the fighting in May. Among the more recent incidents, the vandalism of two synagogues in Arizona over the course of a month—the second with a swastika and an anti-Semitic slur—prompted Gov. Doug Ducey (R) to declare anti-Semitism has “no place in Arizona.” Analysis from the ADL’s Center on Extremism found anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. more than doubled during the military conflict and its immediate aftermath compared to the same period in 2020.
BIG NUMBER
305. That’s how many anti-Semitic incidents the ADL recorded in May 2021, a 115% increase from the same period last year. This included 190 cases of harassment, 50 cases of vandalism and 11 assaults.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
Authorities and groups tracking the data also highlighted a rise in Islamophobia and anti-Arab incidents since the onset of violence in the region last month, however, there has been significantly less polling to detail the extent of this trend.
FURTHER READING
“Violence on Iraeli Streets Sows Fear of Lasting Rupture” (The New York Times)
George Deek is an Arab-Israeli diplomat. In 2018, Deek was appointed Israeli ambassador to Azerbaijan. He is the first Israeli Arab Christian to become an ambassador. Deek grew up in an Eastern Orthodox Christian family in the Ajami neighborhood of Jaffa, in a building where the other tenants included Muslims, Catholics, Jews and a Catholic priest of Jewish ancestry.[2][3] His father, who worked as a tax advisor,[3] was one of the leaders of the Christian community in Jaffa who served as chairman of the Orthodox Association, and was considered a well-known and popular figure in the city until in 2015 a square was inaugurated in his memory in Jaffa in the presence of Mayor Ron Huldai.[4] According to Deek, his grandparents fled to Lebanon for safety when the 1947–1949 Palestine war, having been told that the Jews would slaughter them if they remained in their homes, but expecting to return home once Arab armies defeated the Jews.[3] According to Deek, when the war ended, his grandparents felt that they had been “deceived”, and decided to return illegally to their home in Jaffa rather than remaining in Lebanon as refugees. Since reentering the country was illegal, Deek’s grandfather, an electrician, was arrested and jailed.
