During and in the aftermath of the fighting, which saw some 4,000 rockets shot into Israel from Gaza and the IDF's retaliatory airstrikes on Hamas targets, Diaspora Jews experienced a significant spike in antisemitism.
According to ADL's survey, 60% of American Jews claimed they "witnessed behavior or comments they deem antisemitic either "online or in-person" following the conflict.
“Around the recent conflict in Israel and Gaza, there was a significant surge of antisemitic incidents in the US and abroad. American Jews are understandably now more concerned about the potential for violence overseas spilling over into antisemitic threats close to home,” Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL's CEO said.
Notable attacks in the US included the May 18th assault on Jews dining at a sushi restaurant in Beverly Grove, Los Angeles, as well an incident the prior night recorded by a security camera, in which an Orthodox Jewish man was chased by a caravan of Palestine supporters. In New York, pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Manhattan resulted in physical attacks on Jews and verbal antisemitic slurs.
“The antisemitic attacks we’ve witnessed in the streets and on social media in the past few weeks are weighing heavily on the American Jewish community," Greenblatt noted.
On social media, antisemitic posts have circulated, many with hashtags of "Hitler was Right" and other references to Jews deserving the Holocaust or behaving like Nazis, oppressing Palestinian people.
Some 70% of those who participated in the poll agreed that the comparison of Israel and Nazi Germany is an expression of antisemitism; 75% agreed saying Israel should not exist constitutes antisemitism, while 67% said the same of protesting Israel in front of US synagogues, 61% of calling Zionists racists, 56% of the encouragement of the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement against Israel, and 55% of calling Israel an apartheid.
ADL’s Center on Extremism recorded a 115% increase in antisemitic events compared to the previous May, with 251 incidents between May 11th and the end of the month.
“At times of unrest or violence between Israel and armed terrorist groups, we have historically seen a spike in antisemitic incidents, but this year the surge was particularly dramatic and violent,” said Greenblatt.
Beyond physical antisemitism and hate slurs, some 18% of those surveyed experienced a deterioration in their personal relationships due to conversations about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
YouGov, a public opinion and analytics firm, carried out the survey, in which 576 Jewish adults throughout the US and over the age of 18 answered the questions between May 25 and June 1st.Anna Ahronheim contributed to this report.