Everything You Need to Know About Antisemitism

Here are the top four takeaways from the most comprehensive parallel surveys of American Jews and the U.S. general public on their perceptions and experiences of antisemitism in the U.S.

The time has come for Americans of all backgrounds and persuasions to realize that antisemitism is multifaceted and multiform, and that no group or community is immune to it. Our leaders must denounce antisemitism even – especially – when it manifests in their own political camps. Only after antisemitism is tackled resolutely, no matter its form and source, can we have any hope of eradicating it.

American Jewish Committee (AJC) today released its 2021 State of Antisemitism in America report based on new national polling of the U.S. Jewish and general adult populations. The surveys, the largest and most comprehensive of their kind ever conducted, confirm that hatred of Jews remains a severe problem in the United States, requiring urgent attention—and that American Jews and the U.S. general public view the problem very differently.

The 2021 State of Antisemitism in America report is based on two parallel surveys, of American Jews and of the U.S. general public. Majorities of both American Jews and the U.S. general public agree that antisemitism is a problem in America, though to differing extents. While 90% of American Jews believe antisemitism is either a very serious problem (40%) or somewhat of a problem (50%), that number drops to 60% among the general public, with 21% saying it is a very serious problem and 39% saying it is somewhat of a problem.

Receive an in-depth look at the American Jewish Committee’s just-released State of Antisemitism in America 2021 report, which includes the largest-ever surveys of American Jews and the United States general public on antisemitism. Listen as Avi Mayer, AJC’s Managing Director of Public Affairs and Senior Spokesperson, and Holly Huffnagle, AJC’s U.S. Director for Combating Antisemitism, break down the report’s findings and discuss what Americans should do to confront the normalization of Jew-hatred.

The State of Antisemitism in America Report 2021 released on October 25 by American Jewish Committee (AJC) found that one out of every four Jews (24%) encountered antisemitism in the last 12 months. Four Jews shared their story.

View a comparison of The State of Antisemitism in America 2021: AJC's Survey of American Jews and The State of Antisemitism in America 2021: AJC's Survey of the General Public.

AJC’s 2021 Survey of the General Public on Antisemitism, conducted by the research company SSRS, provides a unique opportunity to understand the impact of rising Jew-hatred in America. View the results here.

The State of Antisemitism in America 2021: Survey of American Jews, conducted by the research company SSRS, provides a unique opportunity to understand the impact of rising Jew-hatred in America. View the results here.

On Wednesday, October 27, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto will ask residents to observe a moment of silence and reflection at 9:54 a.m. That was the moment the shooting started at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood in 2018. The antisemitic attack left 11 worshippers dead, and wounded two other congregants and police officers. Listen to Mayor Peduto recount what it was like to comfort and protect not just the city he led, but his neighbors and friends, after America’s deadliest antisemitic attack three years ago.

This special podcast collaboration with Tablet’s Unorthodox unpacks the political shift of British Jews in the wake of Jeremy Corbyn’s antisemitic scandal-filled five-year tenure as Labour party leader. Did the Corbynization of the Labour party move Jews to the right or leave them politically homeless? Has current party leader Keir Starmer been able to regain the confidence of the country’s Jewish population? Listen for answers to these pressing questions and more.

A state-by-state survey of young Americans last year showed that more than half in Texas could not name a concentration camp or ghetto where Jews were imprisoned and tortured during the Holocaust, despite there being more than 40,000 sites in Europe. This lack of historical knowledge makes a Southlake school administrator’s advice to offer students an opposing perspective on the Holocaust even more disturbing.

Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure as British Labour party leader was fraught with antisemitic scandals. Has current party leader Keir Starmer been able to regain the confidence of the country’s Jewish population? Join American Jewish Committee (AJC) and Tablet Magazine as they unpack the political shift in the United Kingdom during a special podcast collaboration between AJC’s People of the Pod and Tablet’s Unorthodox.

Dara Horn is angry. And the award-winning author of five novels wants you to know why. This week, she’s sitting down with guest co-host Laura Shaw Frank, AJC’s Director of William Petschek Contemporary Jewish Life, to discuss why People Love Dead Jews, which is the title of her first work of nonfiction, and what that obsession means for modern-day Jewry, Israel, and efforts to counter rising antisemitism.

American Jewish Committee (AJC) President Harriet Schleifer today addressed the Malmö International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism. Schleifer stressed that “any genuine effort to remember the Holocaust and its victims must be coupled with the present-day fight against antisemitism.”

American Jewish Committee (AJC) welcomed a Texas court’s decision to recommend a new trial for Randy Halprin, a Jewish prisoner on death row who has long claimed that the judge presiding over his trial was inherently biased against Jews and other minorities. “The court reached the only possible result, that the original judge’s long uncontested and undisguised bigotry made it essential that Randy Halprin be granted a new trial,” said AJC Chief Legal Officer Marc Stern. “The district court’s recommendation that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals order a new trial is a vindication of core American principles of impartiality in American jurisprudence.”

Four years ago hundreds of torch-bearing far-right demonstrators marched through the University of Virginia campus. The Unite the Right rally/antisemitic hatefest in Charlottesville, Virginia featured chants of “Jews will not replace us” and Nazi flags. Self-identified white supremacist James Fields perpetrated the car ramming attack that killed Heather Heyer and injured countless others. While Fields was held accountable for his actions in court, what about those who meticulously organized the rally? Who will hold them accountable? Our guest for this week, Executive Director of Integrity First for America (IFA) Amy Spitalnick, previews the upcoming trial of Sines v. Kessler—IFA’s lawsuit against the rally’s organizers—and shares how she is working to push far-right extremists back into the shadows where they belong.

Today, a new strategy for combating antisemitism was announced by the European Union. Does it have a chance to help Jews in Europe? What are the plan’s implications for diaspora Jewish communities outside of the continent? Two of AJC’s leaders in Europe who have worked closely with the EU and member state governments in the effort to counter rising Jew-hatred, Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, Managing Director of AJC Europe, and Daniel Schwammenthal, Director of AJC’s Transatlantic Institute, answer these questions and more in this special bonus episode of AJC’s People of the Pod. 

American Jewish Committee (AJC), the leading global Jewish advocacy organization, congratulates Fernando Lottenberg on his appointment as the first Organization of American States (OAS) Commissioner for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism. Creation of the position was initially announced by OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro at the AJC 2021 Global Forum in June.

“The EU should be applauded for taking this significant step toward combatting antisemitism in Europe and abroad amid the dramatic surge of Jew hatred within living memory of the Holocaust,” said Daniel Schwammenthal, Director of the AJC Transatlantic Institute, the EU office of AJC, the global Jewish advocacy organization. “It is reassuring to see that the strategy aims at tackling antisemitism whether it originates from the far-right, the far-left, Islamists or mainstream society and clearly identifies “Israel-related antisemitism” as a major problem. As the Commission notes, it is in fact ‘the most common form of antisemitism encountered online by Jews in Europe today.’”