Young Americans hold more anti-Israel & antisemitic views than their elders – Yale survey

Younger voters are much more likely to hold anti-Israel and antisemitic views than older Americans, according to a new survey among over 3,400 registered U.S. voters by the Yale Youth Poll, an undergraduate-led research organization.

The poll sampled 3,426 registered voters, including 1,706 voters aged 18-34, and was weighted for age, sex, race, education, and party identification with a margin of error at ±1.7% for the full sample, and ±2.4% for the youth sample.

The poll follows a recent increase in reports suggesting that there is a rise in antisemitism among young Americans, and particularly among those on the political right.

A recent survey conducted by the Manhattan Institute found that 17% of Republicans hold views it categorized as “anti-Jewish,” while noting that consistent church attendance is the strongest predictor against holding such views.

While some leading Republicans have taken a vocal stand against right-wing thought leaders who have peddled antisemitic ideas, most notably Tucker Carlson, Vice President JD Vance told NBC News last week that he disagreed that there was a “simmering antisemitism that’s exploding” among young conservatives.

According to the findings of Yale Youth Poll, just 8% of voters said that they believed that Jews have had a negative impact on the United States.

However, this was much higher among younger voters, as 18% of 18- to 22-year-olds, and 15% of 23- to 29-year-olds, said Jews had negatively impacted the country.

The survey asked respondents whether they agreed with three statements commonly considered to be antisemitic: First, that Jews in the U.S. are more loyal to Israel than to America; second, that it’s appropriate to boycott Jewish American-owned businesses to protest the war in Gaza; third, that Jews in the U.S. have too much power.

“Among all voters, 70% disagreed with all three of these items. But the same is true for just 57% of 18- to 22-year-olds and 60% of 23- to 29-year-olds,” the survey found.”

Similar to the findings of the Manhattan Institute poll, minority respondents were slightly more likely to agree with at least one of the antisemitic statements. 74% of White respondents disagreed with all three statements, but only 63% of Hispanic, 62% of Black, and 57% of Asian respondents disagreed with all three.

“Young white liberals were much more likely to disagree with all three statements (73%) than young white conservatives (55%),” according to the survey’s authors.

While there were no clear ideological divides in the overall sample, voters between 18-34 years who self-identified as “extremely conservative” were “much more likely to agree with at least one statement (64%) than 18-34 year old voters in general (38%) or any other ideological subgroup of young voters.”

Regarding Israel, a strong generational divide emerged on the crucial question of whether Israel should exist as an explicitly Jewish state, a non-Jewish state, or not exist at all.

Only 46% of all respondents said they believed Israel should exist as an explicitly Jewish state, 18% said that while Israel should exist, it should be a non-Jewish state; and 5% said Israel shouldn’t exist at all (5%).

However, a full 15% of respondents under 30 years of age replied that Israel should not exist, and less than 30% believe that Israel should exist as a Jewish state.

Once again, minorities showed a greater hostility to Israel, as Black (24%), Asian (30%), and Hispanic (36%) voters were less likely to say that Israel should exist as a Jewish state than White voters (51%).

On this question in particular, a large proportion of the respondents said they were “not sure” how to answer, including 31% overall, over 30% among those under 30, and up to 46% among voters 35-44.

Regarding another key question for Israel, the survey found that “young voters overwhelmingly support decreasing American military aid to Israel, or ceasing aid entirely.”

46% of those under 30 said they support a total stop to military aid to Israel, and another 22-23% said they want to reduce it.

Overall, 43% said they want to stop or decrease aid, 31% said they want to maintain current levels, and only 9% said they would like it to increase.

“The poll results also showed that self-identified Republicans, conservatives, and 2024 Trump voters were more likely to favor either increasing or maintaining the current level of military aid to Israel, while self-identified Democrats, liberals, and 2024 Harris voters were more likely to favor decreasing aid or stopping it entirely,” the survey found.