26% of Americans Think Jews Killed Jesus, Poll Says

By JTA October 31, 2013

Twelve percent of Americans harbor deeply anti-Semitic attitudes, according to a new poll conducted by the Anti-Defamation League.

The figure marks a decline of 3 percentage points from the last time the ADL took such a poll, in 2011, but approximately the same number as in an ADL poll in 2009. The latest ADL national telephone survey, of 1,200 adults, was conducted this month and has a margin of error of about 3 percent. The results were released Thursday.

“It is heartening that attitudes toward Jews have improved over the last few years and, historically, have declined significantly in America,” said Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s national director.

A 1964 ADL survey on the topic found 29 percent of American held anti-Semitic views.

In the latest survey, 14 percent of respondents agreed that Jews have too much power in the United States; 30 percent said American Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the United States; and 19 percent said Jews have too much power in the business world – all figures virtually unchanged from the 2011 survey.

The percentage of respondents who believe that Jews are responsible for the death of Jesus was 26 percent, down from 31 percent in 2011. Eighteen percent said Jews have too much influence over the news media and about one-quarter agreed that Jews talk too much about the Holocaust.

The survey was released on the first day of the ADL’s two-day centennial conference being held in New York.

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