THE REGION ADL report ‘should be wake-up call to all of us’

By Becky Raspe Cleveland Jewish News

The Anti-Defamation League released new survey results Jan. 12, which suggests the number of Americans harboring antisemitic prejudice has nearly doubled since a 2019 study on a similar topic.

Conducted online in September and October 2022, the study surveyed a weighted, representative sample of 4,007 respondents from the NORC AmeriSpeak panel.

This is the first of several reports ADL plans to release based on this survey. The results also included in-depth, hour-long, oneon-one interviews with more than 100 Americans in addition to the online survey.

ADL has regularly conducted nationally representative surveys about attitudes toward Jews. In partnership with NORC and the One8 Foundation, the survey was updated to examine antisemitism more holistically, and also evaluated sentiment toward Israel, according to an ADL news release.

Additionally, 39 percent of the respondents indicated they believed Jews are more loyal to Israel than the United States; 20 percent indicated Jews have “too much power” in the United States; 21 percent agreed Jews “don’t care” about anyone other than themselves; and 53 percent indicated Jews go out of their way to hire other Jews in the workplace.

ADL Regional Director James Pasch said that as someone “on the front lines” of fighting antisemitism, nothing in the report’s findings shocked him. Based in Cleveland, ADL's region office covers Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, and western Pennsylvania.

“We’ve been responding to record levels of antisemitic incidents in the region over the last several years,” he said, adding that in 2022, the regional office saw the highest number of antisemitic incidents in Ohio since it began tracking in 1979.

“So, while disturbing and sobering, it’s another indication of the rising tide of antisemitism in the nation.”

As numbers increase, so does the frequency of antise-