More than nine in 10 American Jews feel less safe as a Jewish person in the United States, according to a new American Jewish Committee survey.
The AJC’s State of Antisemitism in America 2025 survey cites violent attacks last year, including the burning of the home of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, the firebombing attack on a Run for their Lives hostage awareness event in Boulder, Colo., and the killing of two people at an AJC event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. The 2024 survey found 77 percent of American Jews feel less safe, 14 percent lower than this year’s 91 percent.
“We need Americans to wake up to the reality of what their Jewish neighbors are experiencing,” said AJC CEO Ted Deutch. “Right now, in America, when Jews gather, whether at synagogue or a community event, it’s routinely behind metal detectors and armed guards. No one in America should have to change their behavior because of what they believe, but that’s how most Jews are living their lives. What we’re asking for is what every other minority group expects in America: the freedom to be who we are without fearing for our safety.”
The survey included both American Jewish and non-Jewish respondents, and was conducted in September and October of 2025.
Sarah Van Loon, the Midwest director for the AJC, said there was a less prominent attack in the orthodox West Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, where a father walking to synagogue at the end of the High Holidays survived an attack when the gunman’s weapon jammed.
“This is happening to Jews all across America, where we’re being targeted,” Van Loon said. “That’s something I’ve certainly heard anecdotally amongst my community. But to see it in black and white in the survey…we’ve been ringing the alarm we’re in a five-alarm fire.”
The vast majority – 93 percent – of American Jews say antisemitism is a problem in the U.S. today, with 55 percent of American Jews reporting that they changed their behavior out of fear of antisemitism in the past year, with significant increases from pre-October 7, 2023, levels:
- 41 percent say they have avoided publicly wearing or displaying things that might identify them as a Jew, an 18-point increase from 23 percent in 2022;
- 39 percent say they have avoided posting content online that would identify them as a Jew or reveal their views on Jewish issues, a 12-point increase from 27 percent in 2022; and
- 30 percent say they have avoided certain places, events, or situations out of concern for their safety or comfort as a Jewish person, a 14-point increase from 16 percent in 2022.
“Since Oct. 7, it’s become the norm that where possible, we don’t advertise where events are going to be,” said Ethan Roberts, the deputy executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. He added that the registrants get the location after vetting. “It’s just prudent at this point. There’s more interest in attending Jewish events,” since Oct. 7.
The vast majority of U.S. Jews (88 percent) express that seeing or hearing ‘Globalize the Intifada’ would make them feel unsafe as a Jewish person in the U.S. to some degree – ranging from “not too unsafe” (19 percent) to “somewhat unsafe” (42 percent) to “very unsafe” (27 percent). By comparison, just 12 percent of U.S. Jews say the phrase would not make them feel unsafe at all.
Almost one-third (31 percent) of American Jews say they have been the personal target of antisemitism – in person or virtually – at least once over the last year, and 83 percent of American Jews surveyed consider the phrase “Israel has no right to exist” to be antisemitic.
Another recent study for the Jewish Federations of North America showed that 88 percent of Jews believe Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state, although only 37 percent identify as Zionist.
“It is far more substantively important that 88 percent, whether they call themselves [Zionists] or not, they are Zionists,” Roberts said. “They think it’s important that Israel is both a Jewish and democratic state.
“It’s not just what we are, our board or our staff think is important, but it’s what we believe the consensus view of the community is in this. Both these surveys, I think, validate that.”
In all, nearly three-fourths (73 percent) of American Jews experienced antisemitism online – either by seeing or hearing it or by being personally targeted. This group reported noticeable jumps in incidents on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. When asked where online they experienced antisemitic content:
- 54 percent report seeing or hearing it on Facebook, a seven-point rise from 47 percent in 2024;
- 38 percent report seeing or hearing it on YouTube, an 11-point increase from 27 percent in 2024;
- 40 percent report seeing or hearing it on Instagram, an eight-point increase from 32 percent in 2024, and
- 23 percent report seeing or hearing it on TikTok, up 5 points from 18 percent in 2024.
American Jewish college students – including current students and those who have been students in the past two years – continue to express concerns about antisemitism, with roughly four in 10 (42 percent) reporting experiencing antisemitism during their time in school. Critically, the vast majority (80 percent) of parents of Jewish high school students say that reports of antisemitism on campus are at least somewhat important in deciding where their student will attend college.
In 2024, 35 percent of Jewish college students reported experiencing antisemitism during their time in college, and 68 percent of parents of Jewish high school students said reports of antisemitism impacted their decision on where their student would attend school.
One in four (25 percent) Jewish college students say they have felt or had been excluded from a group or an event on campus because they are Jewish, and 24 percent report the same because of their assumed or actual connection to Israel.
Despite the unpleasantness, Van Loon found a bright spot. In the survey of the general American public, people who answered that they know a Jewish person were more likely to recognize and name antisemitism or recognize antisemitic incidents.
“These personal relationships matter so much in the fight against antisemitism,” she said. “It’s not all hopeless. There is a path and an opportunity to combat this hatred. It starts here at home.”