Scene of Jersey City kosher grocery store shooting
Scene of Jersey City kosher grocery store shootingReuters

Nearly two-thirds of US Jews believe they are less secure today than they were a decade ago, according to a new Anti-Defamation League (ADL) survey on anti-Semitic incidents in the US.

The survey found that more than half of US Jews (54 percent) have experienced an anti-Semitic incident themselves, or witnessed an incident that they believe was anti-Semitic. Almost two-thirds of Jews (63 percent) believe their communities are "less safe" than they were a decade ago.

“Our tracking has shown that lethal and nonlethal antisemitic attacks have been on the rise in recent years, and now we’ve also found that American Jews are deeply concerned for their personal safety and their families’ and communities’ security in a way that they haven’t been in more than a decade,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO and National Director. “It is a sad state of affairs that in the face of widespread anxiety about antisemitic attacks, some Jewish Americans are modifying their routines and avoiding public displays of Judaism to minimize the risk of being targeted.”

“American Jews are deeply concerned for their personal safety and their families’ and communities’ security in a way that they haven’t been in more than a decade,” he said.

The survey was conducted in January 2020, before the coronavirus epidemic spread across the US.

“We recognize the reality on the ground has changed dramatically for Jewish communities, as it has for all communities, in recent months; this survey offers a snapshot of a window in time prior to the coronavirus outbreak that has so altered our daily lives,” Greenblatt added.