Anti-Semitism Survey Finds Prejudice Down but Not Out

Anti-Semitism has been slowly declining over the last 28 years, but one in five adult Americans still holds deeply prejudicial views of Jews, the Anti-Defamation League reported Monday as it released a survey of race relations in the United States.

The poll by the Boston firm of Marttila and Kiley conducted for B’nai B’rith’s Anti-Defamation League showed anti-Semitism is most prevalent among people who are older than 65, have a high school education or less and are blue-collar workers.

The latest data underscored the fact that the vast majority of Americans reject most anti-Semitic stereotypes, but there remains a core of about 35 million to 40 million people who are unquestionably prejudiced.

“The good news is fewer Americans than 28 years ago harbor anti-Semitic attitudes,” said Abraham H. Foxman, the ADL’s national director. “The bad news is that an ugly and more dangerous element--political rather than social--has begun to take hold in the United States.”

”. . . We’re here to say a great deal has changed for the better, but there is still much that is troubling.”

Foxman said that he was particularly troubled by the findings that 31% of those questioned said that Jews have too much power in the United States today and that 35% believe Jews are more loyal to Israel than to America.

Black Americans (37%) are more than twice as likely as whites (17%) to fall into the survey’s “most anti-Semitic” category. This marked a decline from a similar poll in 1964 that found 45% of blacks showing a clear prejudice against Jews.

As part of the survey, people were asked about the beating by police officers in Los Angeles of Rodney G. King: Was it an unusual incident that is not typical of police behavior toward blacks or does this kind of brutality toward blacks happen quite often? Fully 70% said they believed it happens often.

At a news conference with Foxman as the survey’s findings were made public, pollster John Marttila said that the results showed “America is a more tolerant country than it was 28 years ago. . . . Anti-Semitic beliefs in all segments of society, including black Americans, is going down.”

He said the 1992 survey refuted the widespread notion that college-educated blacks are more anti-Semitic than less-educated black Americans. Among those blacks without any college education, 46% were in the most anti-Semitic group. The number dropped to 27% among those who have attended or graduated from college.

According to the survey of 1,400 people last May, there is little difference in the propensity for anti-Semitism among religious groups. Christian fundamentalists were not significantly more likely to accept anti-Semitic attitudes than other Americans.

The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The poll found that people with strong anti-Semitic attitudes also were likely to be racist, sexist and intolerant of immigrants.

“These viruses travel together,” Marttila said.

Age was one of the strongest predictors for anti-Semitic beliefs. The survey showed that people over 65 were twice as likely as those under 65 to fall into the anti-Semitic category.

But most people questioned, 68%, did not see the possibility of an increase in anti-Jewish feeling in the country in the next few years.

To determine anti-Semitism, respondents were asked 11 questions that were used in previous surveys for ADL. These included whether Jews stick together more than most other Americans, whether Jews have too much power in the United States, whether they are more loyal to Israel than to America and whether they have too much control and influence on Wall Street.

Respondents placed in the anti-Semitic category answered yes to six or more of the questions.