Polling
Recognizing and Resisting Antisemitism Online
In July 2026, Boundless and the ADL Center for Antisemitism Research surveyed 7,499 Americans ages 18–44 to examine how well young adults recognize antisemitism online and what might help them respond to it. Participants were randomly assigned to receive one of six brief messages about antisemitism, or no message at all, before evaluating examples of antisemitic social media content.
We found that many young Americans struggle to recognize antisemitism online, particularly when it appears through contemporary language about Israel and Zionism. Most of the messages we tested produced little measurable change, but reinforcing that antisemitism is broadly rejected by other Americans showed the most promise in improving both recognition and willingness to report it.
Key Findings:
Even blatant antisemitism is not consistently recognized by young Americans, and contemporary forms of antisemitism are harder to identify than classical stereotypes and conspiracy theories.
Millennials are better than Gen Z at recognizing antisemitism, but once Gen Z identifies content as antisemitic, they are more likely to say they would report it.
Democrats and Republicans were no more tolerant of antisemitic content from their own political side than from the opposing side.
Most of the educational messages tested did not significantly improve participants’ ability to recognize or respond to antisemitism after a single exposure.
Social norming showed the most promise: telling people that antisemitism is broadly rejected by other Americans produced measurable improvements in both recognition and willingness to report antisemitic content.
Even a single brief social-norming message produced shifts of roughly 6% on several measures of recognition and intended reporting behavior
Among political Independents, explaining how antisemitism can be used to manipulate people and spread disinformation improved recognition by roughly 10% on several measures.