1 in 5 Americans say it is OK to refuse Jews business service – survey

Of those questioned 19% felt it was permissible to discriminate against Jewish people when providing a product or service.

By ALEX WINSTON
Survey (Illustrative) (photo credit: INGIMAGE)
Survey (Illustrative)
(photo credit: INGIMAGE)
The percentage of Americans who believe it is acceptable for a small business owner to refuse service to Jews if doing so would violate their religious beliefs has shown a rise over the past five years, according to a new survey published this week by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).
Nineteen percent of those surveyed felt it was permissible to discriminate against Jewish people when providing a product or service, a seven percentage-point rise from the 2014 survey, when 12% thought it was acceptable.
When questioned about political affiliation, data showed that Republicans are most likely to support this sort of service refusal, with 24%, compared with Democrats (17%) and independents (16%).
This again marks an increase from 2014, when only 16% of Republicans and 9% of Democrats agreed.
Support for religious-based service refusals has also increased among most religious groups since 2014.
Numbers among those who identified as white evangelical Protestants doubled from 12% to 24%, and Catholics also saw a rise from 10% in 2014 to 20% in 2019.
The largest increase was among white mainline Protestants, up to 26% from 11%.
The survey also showed that support has increased across all ages since 2014.
The survey was conducted throughout the United Sates, with over 1,000 people questioned. The data collected was then weighted to provide a national representation.
Those interviewed were questioned about a number of different sexual, religious and ethnic groups.
Jews, Muslims, African-Americans, those in the LGBT community and transgender people all saw a rise in the percentages of those who find it acceptable to refuse them service based on religious grounds.
The margin of error for the survey is +/- 3.5 percentage points.


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