Anti-Semitism on campus -- it's out there

In the course of the ongoing debate on the relationship between
anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, Barry at Amptoons has linked to this press release about an ADL “survey” from last spring. In particular, the ADL found:

Campus faculty and students are the least anti-Semitic among Americans. Anti-Semitism on U.S. college campuses is virtually non-existent. Only 3% of undergraduates, and 5% of faculty fall into the most anti-Semitic category. Fully 74% of undergraduates, and 79% of faculty, are prejudice free.

In light of the rabid eruptions of anti-Semitism on college campuses across North America in the last several months, I found this result intriguing, to say the least. So I took a look at the actual survey itself, which can be found here (in PDF). The data on campus attitudes, it turns out, came from two separate surveys taken of 800 college students and 500 faculty members, respectively. The students were interviewed between April 26th and May 3rd; the faculty between May 1st and May 31st. In other words, this survey took place immediately following the increase in terror attacks in Israel and the height of the Israeli military response to those attacks.

But the ADL’s conclusions are based on the answers to eleven specific questions that they believe reveal the presence of anti-Semitism. I would suggest right off the bat that these particular questions, even if answered honestly, would indicate anti-Semitism only in the narrowest, most classical sense. But the fact is that there is no way that otherwise liberal, left-wing, progressive students and faculty members would respond positively to such questions no matter who they were asked about. And here we arrive at one of the very trickiest nubs of this whole debate. It’s clear to me that those neo-leftists leading today’s anti-war, anti-globalization, anti-Israel campaigns who are in fact anti-Semites simply can’t express their anti-Semitism in classical terms. Such views create the worst kind of cognitive dissonance for them. Classical anti-Semitism is so politically incorrect and out-of-synch with the self-image that most neo-leftists have of themselves that they are compelled to find another way of expressing their feelings that “fits” their personae. And anti-Zionism seems to fit quite nicely.

I don’t pretend to be an expert on polls, but I have a number of problems with this one. Primarily, I don’t believe that the questions asked reveal anything about the population to whom they were addressed except that they don’t feel comfortable with classic anti-Semitic statements. The ADL says this is the first time they’ve done a separate study of college campuses, but they used the same old index. It doesn’t work.

Here are the eleven questions that constitute the ADL's "anti-Semitism index."

1) Jews stick together more than other Americans.
2) Jews always like to be at the head of things.
3) Jews are more loyal to Israel than America.
4) Jews have too much power in the U.S. today.
5) Jews have too much control and influence on Wall Street.
6) Jews have too much power in the business world.
7) Jews have a lot of irritating faults.
8) Jews are more willing than others to use shady practices to get what they want.
9) Jewish businesspeople are so shrewd that others don't have a fair chance at competition.
10) Jews don't care what happens to anyone but their own kind.
11) Jews are [not] just as honest as other businesspeople.

This sort of self-indicting poll, phrased as it is in the language of classical bigotry, isn't going to ferret out anti-Semitic or racist attitudes among those who choose not to display them. This is especially true in the context of the "new" anti-Semitism growing in the academic community today, which is coming not from the classic right but from the neo-left.

To the extent they're of any value, the rosy survey results actually highlight the nature of the problem rather than indicate it doesn’t exist. Compare and contrast the survey findings with those on this page of the ADL website, which indicate quite an alarming trend. While students and faculty are reporting their own anti-Semitic sentiments to be negligible, incidents of violence against Jews, hate speech, Holocaust denial and, yes, anti-Zionist propaganda are proliferating on campus as never before.

This is part of the problem with teaching people how to talk the talk but not how to walk the walk. When bigotry and intolerance are forced underground, they don’t go away. They just pop up somewhere else and, usually, the new incarnation is even uglier and more virulent than the old.