The voluminous new Pew poll titled “A Portrait of Jewish Americans” is getting a lot of attention and is bound to be picked apart in many ways in weeks to come. Yesterday Jane Eisner of the Forward, who helped create the survey, spoke on public radio about the poll’s central finding, that definitions of their Jewish identity among the young are becoming looser and looser.
Clearly certain religious practices and values are just not feeling very relevant to young Jews, and I think that is something that we older Jews really have to think about.
Eisner mentioned the acceptance of Jews:
There is so much of a greater acceptance of Jewish people and culture in this country. You see this reflected in the intermarriage rate. My goodness, in the last few years you’ve seen the vice president and the secretary of state marry their children off to other Jews.
In that connection, I would like to point out a major oversight in the poll. There are no questions about Jews’ perceptions of anti-Semitism, as such. The poll does ask about discrimination against Jews.
Anti-Semitism used to define the American Jewish relationship to the rest of the country. Just pick up a Philip Roth book. But the Pew survey asked nary a question about it! Here’s the full report, 214 pages, and if you search for anti-Semitism, you get only one reference, in a paragraph about what Jews think are long-term problems facing Israel. (11 percent “mentioned general threats like anti-Semitism.”)
The question is, Why did Pew leave this out? I think it was a mistake, but a revealing one. Gentleman’s Agreement came out nearly 70 years ago; and young readers won’t even know what that phrase means. In an era of staggering Jewish success, anti-Semitism is simply not a factor in our lives.
P.S. And when are the rightwing groups going to seize on this omission?
Updated: Because I searched for anti-Semitism, I missed the part of the survey that treats discrimination against Jews, which commenter Krauss pointed out to me. My original post said that the poll left anti-Semitism out. The discrimination section is not that long, but here are the findings:
More Jews say several non-Jewish groups face a lot of
discrimination in American society than say this about
Jews; 72% of Jews say gays and lesbians face a lot of
discrimination, 72% say this about Muslims, 64% say
blacks face a lot of discrimination, and 56% say
the same about Hispanics. By contrast, most American
Jews (54%) do not think there is a lot of discrimination aga
inst Jews in the U.S. today. A substantial minority,
however, says Jews do face a lot of discrimination (43%)…About one-in-ten American Jews say that in the past year they have been called offensive names (12%) or been snubbed in a social setting or left out of social activities (7%) because they are Jewish. Overall, 15% of Jews say they have experienced one or another of these things in the past year. Younger Jews are more likely than others to say they have been called offensive names
because they are Jewish. Among Jews under age 30, 22% say they have been called offensive names because they are Jewish, as have 16% of Jews in their 30s and 40s. By comparison, 6%
of those ages 50-64 and 4% of those 65 or older say this has happened to them in the past year.
Have you read the report? I’m sure you have, but you’ve must have missed it.
They ask a series of questions about anti-Semitism, including racial slurs Jews in the report have heard this past year.
It’s at about 10% for all Jews. Interestingly, it’s higher for younger Jews than it is for older Jews.
My working theory is that young people are simply cruder. It’s likely that younger women get told misogynist remarks at a higher rate than older women in today’s America. As people get older this levels off. For Jews over the age of 65, only 4% or so have heard a racial slur this past year. I’d love to compare that to what 65+ year old blacks or Arab muslims get told on average over a year, but alas, the survey didn’t go that deep. My intial guess would be that both of those groups get told racial slurs at a substantially higher rate, including older members.
They also ask questions relating if they’ve been snubbed in a social setting that had to do with their Jewishness, although that’s much harder to actually quantify if you compare to a racial slur. About 10% also responded that yes, their Jewishness did lead them to a social snub.
But this does go to what you’re groping for, namely that around 90% of American Jews have had no direct experience of anti-Semitism this past year.
Which is also why the ADL has since long branched into advocacy for Israel and other projects because they know this too.
anti-Semitism is not acceptable , and has not been for ages. I wonder why it is that the hasbara alleges that it is alive and well (growing) ad nauseam. I also wonder if the loss of it has caused the endless invocation of the Holocaust by hasbarists, while at the same time they continue to deny the ongoing Occupation of the Palestinian people and the Nakba. Being Jewish is not a problem, being Zionist is.
Game is up.
Islamophobia is the new rage. Cultivated and nourished by the elites in the “West” as a gift to the afraid, “very afraid”, uninformed, uninterested masses.
Gotta “hate” somebody…Pew has not exactly been helpful at all in telling the “truth”.
I found these items in the Pew survey, that I think relate to anti-semitism or perception of same:
Chp 1 re discrimination in the USA:
“… 43% say Jews face a lot of discrimination. Overall, 15% of Jews say that in the past year they personally have been called offensive names or snubbed in a social setting because they are Jewish”.
Chp 5 re most important problem facing Israel: “…about one-in-ten mentioned general threats like anti-Semitism (11%)”
Chp 6 re Social & Political views: “More Jews say several non-Jewish groups face a lot of discrimination in American society than say this about Jews; 72% of Jews say gays and lesbians face a lot of discrimination, 72% say this about Muslims, 64% say blacks face a lot of discrimination, and 56% say the same about Hispanics. By contrast, most American Jews (54%) do not think there is a lot of discrimination against Jews in the U.S. today. A substantial minority, however, says Jews do face a lot of discrimination (43%). And Jews are more likely than the population as a whole to say that Jews face a lot of discrimination in the U.S. today (43% vs. 24% among the general public).
______________
About one-in-ten American Jews say that in the past year they have been called offensive names (12%) or been snubbed in a social setting or left out of social activities (7%) because they are Jewish. Overall, 15% of Jews say they have experienced one or another of these things in the past year.
Younger Jews are more likely than others to say they have been called offensive names because they are Jewish. Among Jews under age 30, 22% say they have been called offensive names because they are Jewish, as have 16% of Jews in their 30s and 40s. By comparison, 6% of those ages 50-64 and 4% of those 65 or older say this has happened to them in the past year.”
By the way, a smart piece on the Pew poll:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/10/01/pew_poll_on_jewish_identity_jews_are_intermarrying_aren_t_raising_their.html
“Clearly certain religious practices and values are just not feeling very relevant to young Jews, and I think that is something that we older Jews really have to think about.”
Why do older Jews have to think about it?
(Even acknowledging the universal principle that everything Young People do is wrong.)