Worse Than Before: Antisemitic Attitudes Reach New Levels Across the U.S.
Two years ago, Blue Square Alliance research revealed that antisemitic attitudes had increased across the United States, driven by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks and the war that followed. By mid-2024, that increase had plateaued. Our hope was that the plateau marked a turning point.
It did not.
Key findings
+6 percentage points
More Haters and Leaning Haters vs. August 2025
– 7 percentage points
Fewer Allies and Leaning Allies vs. August 2025
Second wave
comparable in scale to Oct 7 surge
Relative change based on segment share. Largest ongoing tracking study of American attitudes.
Get the full report ↓
The Plateau is Over: Antisemitism is Rising Again
Americans’ antisemitic attitudes have noticeably worsened since our last survey in August 2025. Using our segmentation model, which classifies Americans into five groups based on their attitudes toward Jewish people, belief in antisemitic tropes, and perceived seriousness of antisemitism as a social issue, we now find fewer Allies and more Haters compared to just seven months ago.
The Landscape of Americans Based on Attitudes Toward Jews and Antisemitism
Percentage in each segment, by survey wave — filter waves using the buttons above the chart
Samples: Aug 2025 n=7028 Dec 2024 n=8,000, June 2024 n=8,000, Dec 2023 n=8,000, June 2023 n=1,500
Four Key Drivers of the Shift
The drivers of this shift were concentrated and identifiable. Analysis of scoring changes across our survey’s battery of attitudinal questions revealed four key beliefs for which respondents’ attitudes changed significantly:
Belief in Antisemitic Tropes Is Increasing
Every one of the ten antisemitic tropes and beliefs we track increased since the summer of 2025, with gains ranging from 12 to 38 percent.
More striking is the longer arc: belief in most of the 10 tropes has nearly doubled from single digit to double digit agreement, since we began tracking in June 2023, representing a consistent shift.
The increases are not confined to fringe beliefs. Among the most significant: the share of Americans agreeing that Jews have too much influence in the media has grown six percentage points since June 2023. Belief that Jewish people think of themselves as the “chosen ones” has grown by 10 percentage points.
Antisemitic Tropes Have Increased Since 2023
Respondents selected mostly true or strongly agree
Source: Blue Square Alliance US Antisemitism Landscape Survey, June 2023–March 2026. Respondents selecting “mostly true” or “strongly agree.”
Conflicting Signals: Rising Awareness, Retreating Responsibility
The March 2026 survey contained a finding that, at first, appeared contradictory. More Americans recognized antisemitism as a major problem, yet also believed Jewish people can handle antisemitism on their own.
American Attitudes Toward Antisemitism
Click any legend label to toggle that line
Source: Blue Square Alliance US Antisemitism Landscape Survey, June 2023–March 2026.
32%
of Americans do not consider Holocaust questioning to be antisemitic
Up from 19% in June 2023. For a growing share of the public, even documented historical atrocities are becoming contested terrain.
That impulse to step back is also visible in how Americans engage with specific antisemitic incidents. Consistently, across every wave of our research, the majority of Americans report being not very familiar or not at all familiar with major antisemitic attacks that received widespread news coverage. In our most recent survey, 53 percent lacked familiarity with the December 2025 attack in Bondi Beach, Australia, in which 15 Jewish people were killed. Sixty-six (66) percent lacked familiarity with the arson of the largest synagogue in Jackson, Mississippi.
Antisemitism Is Making Headlines. Most Americans Aren't Seeing Them.
% not very familiar or not at all familiar with each incident
Above are some hate crimes and hate speech that took place against members of the Jewish community across the world in the past six months. How familiar are you with each of these stories? (Not very familiar / Not at all familiar).
Awareness of antisemitism as an abstract problem is growing. But awareness of antisemitism as a concrete recurring reality in American life remains much lower.
Young Americans: A Generation Moving in the Wrong Direction
Across nearly every measure in our survey, Gen Z and Millennials hold more antisemitic attitudes than older Americans. This is not a marginal difference. It is consistent, broad, and visible across beliefs about Jewish people, antisemitic tropes, and willingness to recognize and confront prejudice.
The pattern begins with threat perception. 21 percent of all Americans believe Jews are very much or somewhat a threat to the unity of American society. Among Gen Z and Millennials that number rises to 29 percent, compared to 19 percent among Gen X and 13 percent among Baby Boomers. Young Americans are more than twice as likely as the oldest cohort to view Jewish people as a societal threat. That view is reinforced by a related finding: Gen Z is over four times and Millennials over three times more likely than Baby Boomers to say it is mostly true that Jewish people cause problems in the world.
Gen Z and Millennials Lead Belief in Key Antisemitic Tropes
Select a measure to compare across generations
Jews are a threat to the unity of American society (very much / somewhat a threat)
Source: Blue Square Alliance US Antisemitism Landscape Survey, March 2026
45%
Gen Z
46%
Millennials
48%
Gen X
47%
Boomers
consider it essential to stand up to Jewish hate
Virtually identical across every generation — the failure to prioritize action against antisemitism is not a generational problem. It is an American problem.
The Sticky Note Campaign
The data in this report paints a deeply concerning picture of where American attitudes stand today. Our response is to meet Americans where they are with messages that build awareness, create empathy, and motivate action. This past February, we brought that work to the largest audience in American television.
Our Work Is Breaking Through
Our “Sticky Note” ad aired during the Super Bowl, where a HarrisX poll ranked it among the top five most popular ads of the night, and where, as of February 2026, it placed in the top five of the hundreds of messages the ADL Center for Antisemitism Research has ever tested.
The results confirmed what our longitudinal data has shown repeatedly: repeated exposure helps important messages break through in a crowded media environment and connect with audiences at scale.
The message itself resonated strongly and broadly. Nearly three-quarters of Americans who recalled the ad said they liked or loved its message, and roughly one-third said they loved it.
Most importantly, Sticky Note inspired action. Nearly half of those who recalled watching the ad reported discussing hate or antisemitism with friends and family, extending the conversation beyond the screen and into personal networks. More than four in ten took a Jewish-focused action, including learning more about antisemitism or reaching out to Jewish friends about their experiences.
How Viewers Responded to Sticky Note
Share of Americans who recalled the ad
Liked or loved the message
Discussed hate / antisemitism with others
Took a Jewish-focused action
Looking Ahead
The broader findings of this report make the case for urgency.
Antisemitism has risen to its worst levels since we began tracking perspectives in 2023. Tropes have nearly doubled.
Young Americans are moving in the wrong direction. And yet the Unengaged, the largest and most reachable segment of the American public, remain responsive to the right messages delivered consistently. Of course, this messaging cannot reverse cultural trends overnight. But this data shows it works, especially with repeat reinforcement, even as the environment grows more challenging.
Download The Report
Share this report
Sign up for updates
Methodology
This report presents findings from the second wave of the BSA Antisemitism Tracker, a national survey conducted on behalf of the Blue Square Alliance. The survey examined how Americans feel about Jewish people and antisemitism. We surveyed 7,053 U.S. adults between the ages of 18 and 79. Respondents completed the survey between March 4 and April 3, 2026, and took an average of 23 minutes to complete it. The survey was conducted online and in English only, which means individuals without internet access or with limited English proficiency may be underrepresented.
To ensure we could draw meaningful conclusions about different communities from our non-random sample, we intentionally recruited more Black, Hispanic, and Asian respondents than their share of the U.S. population would typically produce. We then applied a statistical adjustment method called weighting. After weighting, the survey closely reflects the demographic profile of U.S. adults, making the findings broadly applicable to the general population.
About Blue Square Alliance
To ensure we could draw meaningful conclusions about different communities from our non-random sample, we intentionally recruited more Black, Hispanic, and Asian respondents than their share of the U.S. population would typically produce. We then applied a statistical adjustment method called weighting. After weighting, the survey closely reflects the demographic profile of U.S. adults, making the findings broadly applicable to the general population.