Survey finds 63% of U.S. Jews feel ‘less safe’ than decade ago

On Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Anti-Defamation League Tuesday released a survey finding nearly two-thirds or 63% of American Jews feel less safe than they did a decade ago.

Holocaust Remembrance Day — called Yom Hashoah in Hebrew — takes place each year on the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

David Goldenberg, ADL’s midwest regional director in Chicago, said in a statement, “With antisemitic [sic] incidents occurring on a daily basis, it is unsurprising that many in the Jewish community are increasingly concerned about their safety.

“No community should ever be fearful to openly express their identity or practice their religion. Elected officials must do their part to reverse this trend by condemning antisemitic rhetoric and incidents, improving hate crime laws, and expanding anti-bias education in schools.”

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Director Sara Bloomfield said in a statement, “Seventy-five years ago this spring, U.S. and other Allied troops liberated camps across Nazi-dominated Europe.

“Those brave individuals who defeated Germany and its allies, finally brought an end to the genocide of European Jews. We remember the six million Jewish men, women and children whose voices, hopes and dreams were silenced. Their struggles to retain their dignity and humanity in the face of unimaginable terror and violence, and their stories of defiance, resistance and resilience remind us of what is possible in moments of crisis,” she said.

The ADL survey, conducted by YouGov, was taken in January before the global COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 538 responses were collected and weighted to reflect the demographic makeup of Jews across the U.S.

Other key findings of the study:

• 49% of U.S. Jews “say they have heard antisemitic comments, slurs or threats targeting others” while 21% “have themselves been directly targeted by antisemitic remarks.”

• “In the face of widespread anxiety about antisemitic attacks, some Jewish-Americans have modified their behaviors to minimize the risk of being targeted. More than one-in-four (27%) have employed at least one strategy to avoid being targeted. The most common strategy, adopted by more than one-in-ten (12%) Jews, is avoiding markers of Jewish identification — for instance, by not using one’s last name, covering or not wearing a Jewish star, or not identifying as Jewish on a social media site. Almost one-in-ten (9%) have avoided wearing religious clothing or accessories.”