Study: 38.4% of Americans say Jews to blame for downturn

Survey finds significantly higher percentage hold anti-Semitic opinions among Democrats.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
38.4 percent of non-Jewish Americans ascribe to "the Jews" at least some degree of culpability for the economic downturn, with the percentage of Democrats showing an even greater tendency than Republicans to blame Jews for the crisis, according to a survey published by the Boston Review. The study, conducted by Neil Malhotra and Yotam Margalit, of Stanford University and Columbia University, respectively, found that 24.6 percent of Americans blamed "the Jews" a moderate amount or more, with 32 percent of Democrats and 18.4% of Republicans choosing to ascribe at least moderate blame to "the Jews." The study also found that there was a correlation between anti-Semitism and lack of education, with "only" 18.3% of respondent who had earned a bachelor's degree assigning at least moderate blame on Jewish people, a figure that grew to 27.3 percent among those lacking a degree. Malhotra and Margalit also conducted an experiment in which they showed the respondents - part of a survey of 2,768 adults - media reports regarding the Bernard Madoff scandal, some of which made reference to his religious affiliation and some of which did not. They found that among those who had been apprised of Madoff's affiliation there was a markedly lower support for tax cuts to big businesses. Jewish respondents were not affected by the information that Madoff was Jewish. Writing in the Boston Review, Malhorta and Margalit called the results of their survey "troubling," mentioning that "Financial scandals are widely regarded as contributors to the rise of anti-Semitism in European history."