By Knewz Staff | Original Article
More than half of Jewish New Yorkers say they feel unsafe in the city, while 42% report having faced verbal harassment because they are Jewish, according to a new poll highlighting growing concerns about antisemitism three years after the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel.
Among those surveyed by the Honan Strategy Group, 51% of Jewish voters said Jewish New Yorkers are unsafe today, compared with 38% of non-Jewish voters.
At the same time, 47% of Jewish voters said they felt safe, while 2% declined to answer. Meanwhile, 55% of Jewish voters said conditions for Jewish people in the city have deteriorated since October 7, 2023.
Speaking of the survey’s findings, which show a significant level of fear among Jewish residents, Honan Strategy Group CEO Bradley Honan said, “Half of Jews saying they feel unsafe is an alarming figure. The Jewish people are intertwined with the culture and history of New York City.”
The poll also found a substantial gap between Jewish and non-Jewish voters over safety at demonstrations. Some 59% of Jewish voters said public protests were unsafe for them, a figure that is twice the percentage recorded among non-Jewish voters.
The safety concerns go beyond protests, with half of Jewish respondents saying they considered it unsafe to wear a kippah or a Star of David. The poll also found that 40% of Jewish people viewed college campuses as unsafe for Jews, while 57% said they were safe.
The reported fears have also affected how some Jewish New Yorkers present themselves in public, with many making changes to their daily routines in the years since the October 7 attacks. One-quarter of Jewish voters said they have concealed their identity online or at work, while 36% said they have stopped wearing Jewish symbols.
Although 58% of Jewish voters said they had not been verbally harassed, the survey found that one-third of Jewish voters had either witnessed or personally experienced an antisemitic incident somewhere in New York City’s five boroughs during the previous year. Among non-Jewish voters, the comparable figure was 12%.
The Honan Strategy Group 5 Borough Barometer surveyed 1,167 likely New York City voters by text between October 2 and October 6. The overall survey has a margin of error of 2.97 percentage points.
The poll included an oversample of 503 Jewish voters, which carries a margin of error of plus or minus 4.36 percentage points.