12 percent of Americans hold anti-Semitic views, poll finds

Anti-Semitic attitudes in the United States are at a historic low, with 12 percent of Americans prejudiced toward Jews, a survey by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has found. The level of anti-Semitism matched that of 1998 as the lowest in the 45-year history of the poll, the ADL said in a statement. National Director Abraham Foxman said the poll results could simply be attributed to the United States becoming "a more accepting society.” He added: “At the same time there continues to be violence targeting Jews and an increasing use of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories," Foxman said in a statement. "We can't dismiss that 12 percent of the American people means that there are still over 30 million Americans that hold anti-Semitic views." When the poll was first conducted in 1964, it found 29 percent of Americans held anti-Semitic views.

The telephone survey of 1,200 adults 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. "Remarkably, since 1964, approximately 30 percent of Americans have consistently believed that Jews are more loyal to Israel than to America even though the makeup of the American population has changed dramatically," the survey said.