Has America Been Too Good to the Jews?

How does the rise in antisemitism affect the daily lives of American Jews?

This unpleasant and extremely sensitive question is rarely discussed. The reality is that the focus, some say hysteria, on antisemitism has not harmed American Jews’ well-being.

While being the target of a verbal attack for being Jewish is traumatic and unsettling, these sad events do not affect the vast majority of American Jews.  This does not excuse the perpetrators of these slurs.

Still, since the B’nai B’rith began collecting statistics on antisemitism, American Jews have enjoyed their most incredible ascent of prosperity in over 2,000 years of Jewish history.

There has never been a pogrom on American soil, but there have been isolated, deadly attacks, most by lone individuals.

From June 2025 to December 1862, there have been 38 killings of Jews in the US, according to this list on Wikipedia. This includes the 1915 lynching of Leo Frank, a textile worker wrongly convicted of murdering a 13-year-old, up to the June 2025 firebombing of a synagogue in Boulder, Colorado, which killed one congregant.

During this same period (from 1862 to June 2025), American Jews have enjoyed more security and financial prosperity than at any time. A 2021 Pew Research Center study found that 23% of US Jews have household incomes of $200,000 or more, a significantly higher percentage than that of the general US adult population (4%).

An earlier 2014 Pew study found that 44% of Jewish households in the US had incomes of at least $100,000. The same study also found that 10% of US Jews reported an annual household income of less than $30,000, much lower than the 26% of all US adults who are below that threshold.

Among the ultra-rich in 2017, the Forbes 400 list included 139 Jewish Americans, or about 35% of the list, and previous years have shown Jewish individuals making up a large portion of the wealthiest Americans. Jewish Americans make up about 2% of the US population.

So, while statistics show that antisemitic attacks and incidents are increasing, this does not seem to affect the prosperity of many Jewish Americans. So, while many agree that antisemitism is a threat, some Jewish scholars say the bigger danger to the religion is assimilation, not antisemitism.

A recent article in the Jewish Insider quotes 21-year-old author Theo Baker about his new book, How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University. In the interview, Baker said the antisemitism he experienced on campus increased his self-identity. “Certainly, I, like many college students in the last few years, have been made to feel more Jewish just by the circumstances around us.”

Similarly, writing in the book, “The Vanishing American Jew,”* legal scholar Alan Dershowitz writes that “American Jews have an ambivalent relationship with antisemitism.”  He goes on to say that because social acceptance leads to assimilation, antisemitism would be Judaism’s ally, “since it preserves cultural-religious identity.  This would be a positive element of outsiders stigmatizing or restricting the access of Jews to the social and business structures.

Sociologists have also said that being stigmatized and discriminated against forges self-identity and group cohesion.  Could it be argued that if there were more antisemitism, it could foster stronger group identity and reduce the intermarriage rate?

Jews Climb the Ladder of Success with No Problem

More Jews have climbed the ladder of success in business, academia, the professions, and government in the US than in any other nation in history. As part of this ascent, many have achieved notoriety, awards, and accolades.

Then, there is the growing awareness that the AI revolution, which is controversial and considered part of the new techno-fascism movement, is being run by AI firms that are owned/managed by Jewish technologists, who are also some of the richest people in the world.

This includes Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg), Google (Sergey Brin and Larry Page), Palantir (Alex Karp), Oracle (Safra Katz, Gal Tirosh, Larry Ellison), crypto (David Sacks), Shift4Payments (Jared Isaacman), and OpenAI (Sam Altman).

Other Jews have crossed the line and used their success to become criminals (mostly white-collar) or engaged in unethical, unsavory, cringeworthy, illegal actions.

Many of these Jews hold high positions in the Trump administration, considered one of the most corrupt in US history.  Then there is also the lurid case of Jeffrey Epstein, who is also a cause of a more rancid type of antisemitism. One Evangelical pastor railed against “the Epstein class” of criminals- rich men who go free because they are wealthy- and, in this case, many of Epstein’s cohorts are Jewish. This is a new engine for antisemitism since most Jewish criminals were white-collar. Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein have opened a whole new category of disgust.

Other Jews on the Shanda list have demonstrated their complete assimilation into Americanism, and in the process have violated many Jewish ethical and moral norms. These people have become a public disgrace to other Jews and serve as a marker of the dangers of assimilation without Jewish awareness and moral-ethical grounding.

Could a degree of antisemitism or increased Jewish identity have made this list smaller? We will never know.

Jews who have a strong self-identity are better equipped to handle antisemitism. This is a primary purpose of the Birthright Israel program, which sends college-age people to Israel for an immersion in Israeli and Jewish history and contemporary Israeli life.

Great self-identity also preserves the Jewish family. A Pew Research study, Jewish Americans 2020, found that 42% of married Jewish respondents reported having a non-Jewish spouse. Among those who have gotten married since 2010, 61% are intermarried.

Yet, at the same time, intermarriage is exceedingly rare among Orthodox Jews: 98% of Orthodox Jews who are married say their spouse is Jewish, the Pew study found.

The bottom line is that some degree of prejudice could check the rising trend towards assimilation, which many Jewish leaders consider a greater threat to community strength than anything else.

The Biggest Cause of Antisemitism Today is Israel

Leaders of major Jewish organizations ignore the fact that the biggest spike in antisemitic attacks occurred after the Israeli army unleashed its demolition of towns in the West Bank.

While there was a military reason for demolishing buildings in cities ripe for guerrilla warfare, the media coverage of civilian casualties causes more public outrage than military victories.  The Israeli government ignores this.  Similarly, when the IDF participates or sits by as thug Orthodox settlers harass Palestinian farmers and kill their animals in the West Bank, it only fuels anti-Israel hate.

American Jews should not get caught up in the false, mind-numbing distinctions between antisemitism, anti-Zionism, anti-Netanyahu, and anti-Israel.

This never existed before the Netanyahu government went on its rampage to reconfigure the old Ottoman Empire and settle old scores with the ancient Achaemenid Dynasty. Since 1948, Israel has contended with international pushback against some of its policies, but it has never engaged in bulldozer diplomacy by displacing civilians on the international stage.  Everyone loves an underdog, and today Israel is the thug.

That’s why it will take Israel at least a generation to recover its reputation once the war in Lebanon ends.  Since Netanyahu has tied his wrists to the most unpopular and deranged president in US history, the end of the Iran War may leave Israel in a worse position than before the war started.

Jewish history resounds with stories of heroism, sacrifice, and resilience.  The phrase “The People of Israel Live” (“Am Yisrael Chai”) is frequently heard in large Jewish gatherings.  But this phrase is said in the sunlight of optimism, as it has for thousands of years.  It is not whispered in the shadows of fear.

Jews who obsess over antisemitism miss the point. Sometimes, a bit of prejudice can strengthen individual and group identities and social cohesion. But recognizing that antisemitism has existed before Christ was born, and that it has never gone away, is something that negates the messages of major Jewish fundraising organizations.  The hundreds of millions of dollars fundraised to fight antisemitism have not reduced its existence. So, why continue with that same activity? If the fundraising pays salaries, then admit it, but don’t raise money by telling people their donation will eliminate a belief that has persisted for thousands of years and shows no sign of abating.

Or, be honest and admit that the rise in antisemitism can be tied to Israel’s actions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

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*Alan Dershowitz, The Vanishing American Jew, 1997, Little, Brown & Co.