Gallup: Gen Z believes antisemitism less of a problem in America

(JNS) — Only one in three Americans under the age of 35 believe that antisemitism is a “very serious problem” in the United States, a significantly lower figure than among the broader public, according to a Gallup poll.

Gallup polled a sample of 1,024 American adults from all U.S. states and Washington, D.C., between May 1-23. (The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level, Gallup noted.)

Just under half of all respondents believed that Jew-hatred is a very serious problem, while 32 percent said it was “somewhat” of an issue. At the same time, 10 percent responded that prejudice against Jews was “not much” of a problem and 8 percent said they didn’t see the concern “at all.”

Though the share of Americans who regard the threats facing U.S. Jewry as “very serious” has grown by 40 percent since 2003, according to the survey, the data indicates that these concerns are primarily coming from those over the age of 35.

According to the poll, only 33 percent of respondents under 35 viewed prejudice against Jewish Americans as a very serious issue, compared to 46 percent in the 35-54 age group and 66 percent of those aged 55 and up.

At the same time, almost one in three Gen Z respondents stated that they saw antisemitism in the United States as “not much of a problem” (17 percent) or “not a problem at all” (15 percent) 

A separate poll that surveyed almost 50,000 Americans, including Jews, found that 46 percent of Jewish Americans experienced more poor treatment or harassment in the past year than in prior years. More than one-third said this has happened frequently (11 percent) or occasionally (25 percent).

Reform, Conservative and Orthodox Jews in the United States reported similar levels of poor treatment in 2023, according to the Gallup poll.

Sixty percent of Jewish Americans said they have felt reluctant to share their Jewish background with others over the past year because they feared being harassed over it—more than double the national average.

Even before Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel, Jew-hatred was on the rise. However, a dramatic spike followed the terrorist attacks, according to the 2023 Antisemitism Worldwide report, which was released on May 1 by Tel Aviv University and the Anti-Defamation League.

Antisemitism has run rampant on college campuses, in particular, due to weeks of pro-Hamas rallies featuring calls for genocide against Jews.

In the United States, the ADL recorded 7,523 incidents in 2023 compared to 3,697 in 2022. The number of assaults increased from 111 in 2022 to 161 in 2023, and incidents of vandalism rose from 1,288 to 2,106, per the ADL.