One in three American Jews say they were personally targeted by an antisemitic incident in 2025, according to a new survey released by the American Jewish
Committee, underscoring what Jewish leaders describe as a troubling sense of permanence around anti-Jewish hostility in the United States.
The finding is unchanged from the previous year — a stagnation that, for many, signals not progress but the entrenchment of a new and unsettling normal in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
“Things aren’t getting markedly better,” said Ted Deutch, the chief executive officer of the AJC. “I don’t think that we can afford to accept it as a baseline. We can’t accept that, and America shouldn’t accept that.”
The survey, conducted between Sept. 26 and Oct. 9, polled 1,222 American Jewish adults and found that antisemitism continues to shape daily life for a majority of respondents. Fifty-five percent said they altered their behavior in 2025 out of fear — avoiding certain places, events, or activities, or refraining from wearing or posting items online that would identify them as Jewish.
That figure mirrors 2024 levels but represents a sharp increase from earlier years. In 2023, 46% reported changing their behavior due to antisemitism; in 2022, the number stood at 38%.
The survey also asked respondents how recent high-profile antisemitic attacks affected their sense of personal safety. Those incidents included the arson attack on Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s home in April, the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., in May, and the firebombing of a demonstration for Israeli hostages in Boulder, Colorado, in June.
Nearly a quarter of respondents said those attacks made them feel “a great deal” less safe, while another 31% said they felt “a fair amount” less safe. An additional 32% reported feeling “a little” less safe.
Taken together, the results paint a grim picture: two-thirds of American Jews now believe Jews in the United States are less secure than they were a year ago.
Deutch said the implications of the findings extend beyond the Jewish community.
“This is about more than just what’s happening to Jews,” he said. “Jews have always been a canary in the coal mine. The broader community has to take this seriously — not just for the benefit of our Jewish community, but for our society and our democracy.”
For the first time, the AJC survey also measured Jewish attitudes toward President Donald Trump’s handling of antisemitism. About two-thirds of respondents said they disapproved of his response, though opinions split sharply along partisan lines. Eighty-four percent of Jewish Democrats said they disapproved at least somewhat, compared with just 9% of Jewish Republicans.
The findings arrive amid growing debate within the Jewish world over how best to respond to the surge in antisemitism. At the Second International Conference on Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem last month, political theorist Yoram Hazony criticized what he called widespread incompetence among organizations dedicated to fighting antisemitism. More recently, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens argued that Jewish institutions should shift their focus away from combating antisemitism and instead prioritize strengthening Jewish life itself.
Deutch rejected the idea that the two approaches are mutually exclusive.
“It’s not a trade-off,” he said. “We don’t have the luxury of choosing one or the other — either investing in education and leadership or engaging the broader society about the scourge of antisemitism. We have to do both.” Photo by Quinn Dombrowski from Berkeley, USA, Wikimedia commons.
