With these figures on anti-Semitism surely a good sign, how many Jews truly believe that criticising Israel is anti-Semitic? And how many Jews would like to erect boundaries around “acceptable” debate over the Middle East?
Anti-Semitic attitudes in the United States are at a historic low, with 12% of Americans prejudiced toward Jews, an Anti-Defamation League survey found on Thursday.
The US civil rights group said the level of anti-Semitism matched that of 1998 as the lowest in the 45-year history of the poll.
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“Remarkably, since 1964, approximately 30% of Americans have consistently believed that Jews are more loyal to Israel than to America even though the makeup of the U. population has changed dramatically,” the survey said.
When the poll was first conducted in 1964, it found 29% of Americans held anti-Semitic views.
The telephone survey of 1,200 adults, conducted between Sept. 26 and Oct. 4, showed men were more likely to hold anti-Semitic views than women, and that anti-Semitic tendencies among black Americans were higher than among the rest of the population.