At points in the past half-century, many U.S. antisemitism experts thought this country could be aging out of it, that hostility and prejudice against Jews were fading in part because younger Americans held more accepting views than did older ones.
\nBut a\u00a0survey\u00a0released Thursday shows how widely held such beliefs are in the United States today, including among younger Americans. The research by the Anti-Defamation League includes\u00a0rare detail about the particular nature of\u00a0antisemitism, how it centers on tropes of Jews as clannish, conspiratorial and holders of power.
\nThe survey\u00a0shows \u201cantisemitism in its classical fascist form is emerging again in American society, where Jews are too secretive and powerful, working against interests of others, not sharing values, exploiting \u2014 the classic conspiratorial tropes,\u201d Matt Williams, vice president of the ADL\u2019s year-old Center for Antisemitism Research, told The Washington Post.
\nThe study uses a new version of surveys the ADL has been doing in America since the 1960s in order to get at the specific nature of antisemitism, and what makes it different from other types of hate. Its new metric is centered on affirming or rejecting 14 statements, including whether Jews: \u201chave too much control and influence on Wall Street,\u201d \u201care more willing than others to use shady practices to get what they want,\u201d or are \u201cso shrewd that other people do not have a fair chance.\u201d
\nThe ADL\u2019s center was created in response to a spike in the past few years of reported incidents of antisemitic violence and\u00a0harassment, as well as a rise in antisemitic rhetoric from high-profile public figures.
\nThat includes\u2002a march by neo-Nazis in Charlottesville in 2017\u00a0that\u00a0turned deadly\u00a0and attacks on Jewish targets in\u00a0Pittsburgh in 2018\u00a0and in\u00a0Poway, Calif.,\u00a0and\u00a0Monsey, N.Y.,\u00a0in 2019. It also includes antisemitic comments, including from former president Donald Trump in October, when he\u00a0attacked American Jews\u00a0in a post on his Truth Social platform, saying Jews in the United States must \u201cget their act together\u201d and show more appreciation for the state of Israel \u201cbefore it is too late.\u201d Trump has\u00a0multiple times\u2002raised the old antisemitic trope that U.S. Jews hold, or should hold, a secret or dual loyalty to Israel rather than or in addition .<\/p>\n