A recent survey found that over a quarter of Americans find it acceptable for a family member to support the terrorist group Hamas, and nearly a quarter have friends or family who dislike Jews.
The Anti-Defamation League said, “In total, more than 42% of Americans either have friends/family who dislike Jews or find it socially acceptable for a close family member to support Hamas.”
At MIT, a professor detailed ongoing antisemitic incidents on campus following Hamas’ attacks on Israel last year, including events targeting Jewish students.
In response, students at a California charter school staged a walkout to protest growing antisemitism after a Jewish student was attacked with antisemitic slurs.
Jewish student Danielle Eshed, 15, said, “He called me a dirty Jew, and then I said something out of defense. He said he was going to beat me up, and I didn’t believe him until he got up, pushed me and started punching me repeatedly in the neck and the back.”
A Jewish cyclist was disinvited as a keynote speaker from an International Women’s Day event due to her previous service in the Israeli military, despite alleging that her religion was the true reason and questioning if a Palestinian woman would face the same treatment.
Leah Goldstein said, “If I was a Palestinian woman, would I also be removed? And, as a Jewish woman, let me just add that I wouldn’t feel offended listening to a Palestinian woman talk about her life experiences and stuff that she had gone through, so why am I excluded from this? But it is simply because I’m Jewish. The IDF is just an excuse.”
The findings and incidents indicate an increasing normalization of antisemitism in the U.S.
