Antisemitism Monitor | Week of June 5, 2023

A new study published in Political Research Quarterly suggests that antisemitism is not as prevalent on the far left as it is on the far right. While some academics and Jewish leaders have used the “horseshoe” theory to argue that both sides of the ideological spectrum hold a “common set of anti-Jewish prejudicial attitudes,” Eitan Hirsh, an associate professor at Tufts University, and Laura Royden, a PhD student at Harvard University, suggest otherwise. Using quantitative data, their study, “Antisemitic Attitudes Across the Ideological Spectrum,” locates young adults on the far right at the “epicenter of antisemitic attitudes.”

Hirsh and Royden conducted an original survey of 3,500 adults that comprised two tests. The first test measured overt antisemitic attitudes and asked a series of questions, such as whether Jews have too much power or are more loyal to Israel than to the United States. The second test measured double standards. It asked a series of questions, such as whether Jewish Americans who want to participate in social justice activism should denounce Israel’s discrimination against non-Jews, then asked a similar series of questions about other religious groups (e.g., did they agree that “In order to participate in social justice activism, Muslim Americans should unequivocally denounce Muslim countries’ discrimination against non-Muslims.”). According to the study, overt antisemitic attitudes were significantly lower on the left than the right, contradicting the horseshoe theory. However, the study noted that “socialist identifiers appear to have higher agreement with the antisemitic statements than others on the left,” while “alt-right identifiers stood out with the highest rate of support for antisemitic statements.” The researchers also found “evidence on the left of anti-Jewish double standards compared to Muslim Americans and Indian Americans.”

Hirsh and Royden emphasize that their research primarily focused on comparing participants by their political ideology and age rather than other demographics such as race/ethnicity or education level. Although they agree that the far left and far right share some antisemitic attitudes that can be attributed to populism and discontent with the status quo, they refute the broader generalization that the political extremes are identical. While far-left antisemitism often blames Jews for Israel’s actions, far-right antisemitism tends to thrive on conspiracy theories accusing Jews of being disloyal to white people or rejecting conservative values.