Letter to U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, entered into the record at the "Never to be Silent: Stemming the Tide of Antisemitism in America”
March 4, 2025
Senate Judiciary Committee
224 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Jewish Electorate Institute (JEI) is honored to submit the following Comments for the Record to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary in support of the Never to be Silent: Stemming the Tide of Antisemitism in America hearing being held on Wednesday, March 5, 2025.
JEI is an independent, non-partisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that conducts surveys, and interprets, reports, and educates the public and legislators alike about the perspectives, voting behaviors, and motivations of the American Jewish
electorate. JEI undertakes all its work and reports its findings without bias or favor with respect to any political group or ideology. Through its polling, studies, seminars, focus groups, and educational programming JEI is the leading nonpartisan
voice explaining the positions and voting behaviors of the American Jewish electorate.
This is why we are so grateful to the Committee for holding today’s important hearing. As you know, the spike in antisemitic incidents nationwide is cause for deep alarm in both the American Jewish community and broader American society.
The drivers of antisemitism are diverse, yet their impact severe. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) most recent report tracking anti-Jewish hate crimes, published in September 2024, in 2023 “… single-bias anti-Jewish hate
crime incidents rose to 1,832 incidents, a sharp increase of 63 percent from 2022, and the highest number ever recorded by the FBI since it began collecting data in 1991.” In addition, “… although Jews only make up around two percent of the U.S.
population, reported single-bias anti-Jewish hate crimes comprised 15 percent of all hate crimes and 68 percent of all reported religion-based hate crimes in 2023.”
It's clear from these statistics that antisemitism in the U.S. is not only on the rise, but that without strong action taken to defeat it, will be here with us to stay. Because of this unacceptable situation, JEI commissioned The Mellman Group
shortly after the November 2024 presidential election to conduct a national post-election survey via online interviews of over 1000 American Jews who voted in the 2024 election (margin of error: +/-3.3%). See www.JewishElectorateInstitute.org.
Among its many findings, the poll revealed interesting statistics on American Jewish voters’ concerns about antisemitism in America, post-October 7th. For example, 70% of those polled who voted for the Democratic presidential
candidate felt extreme concern about antisemitism, whereas just 27% of those who voted for the Republican presidential candidate were extremely concerned about antisemitism in America. However, some 45%, a plurality, of both Republican and Democratic voters equally saw antisemitism as a serious threat. On the question of ‘how much antisemitism do you think there is in America?,’ voters for both the Republican and Democratic candidates showed that 64% of those polled believed that there was “a lot” and 30% believed there was “some.”
The November 2024 poll also revealed that large majorities of both Republican and Democratic voters believed that antisemitism in America had increased, and nearly a third had experienced it personally in the year prior. In fact, 80% of those polled acknowledged that, compared with five years earlier, there was considerably more antisemitism in the U.S. at present. In addition, concerns about campus antisemitism were much more intense, with 71% of those polled either
“extremely” or “very” concerned about antisemitism on college campuses.
Given how these numbers reveal antisemitism to be a serious and growing problem in America today, JEI is very pleased that this hearing is being held and will gladly work alongside this Committee to help alleviate this major disruptive
issue for all our Nation’s citizens.
Sincerely,
Jewish Electorate Institute
