Report: anti-Jewish views have doubled
Negative attitudes towards Jewish people have more than doubled in four years, a national survey finds.
The proportion of Australians with a negative attitude towards Jewish people has more than doubled in four years, according to the Scanlon Foundation Research Institute’s Mapping Social Cohesion 2026 report.
The survey of more than 10,000 adults found 18 per cent hold a somewhat or very negative attitude towards Jewish people, up from eight per cent in 2022. The share with a very negative attitude rose from two to six per cent over the same period.
The report also found 36 per cent hold a negative attitude towards immigrants from Israel, one of three countries added to the survey this year.
According to the report, which was released last Thursday, negative attitudes towards Jewish people have risen across the political spectrum. In 2026, negative views ranged from 17 per cent among those who describe themselves as centre right to 20 per cent on the left. The largest increases since 2024 were on the centre right and right, up eight and seven percentage points respectively.
“So while attitudes to the current conflict are sharply polarised along demographic and political lines, anti-Jewish sentiment appears to be a society-wide problem,” the report states.
By age, the biggest shift was among 35 to 44-year-olds, whose negative views rose from 14 per cent in 2024 to 22 per cent. Negative views were least common among people aged 65 and over.
The report contrasts this with attitudes towards Muslims, which it says have become increasingly concentrated among older Australians and those on the political centre and right. Negative views of Muslims rose from 29 per cent in 2022 to 43 per cent.
Most Australians, 54 per cent, remain neutral towards Jewish people, and positive views still outnumber negative ones.
The report notes that the questions measure attitudes people are willing to admit to, and “are not direct indicators of Islamophobia, antisemitism and racism generally”. It also says the survey does not include enough Jewish respondents to measure discrimination against the community directly.
Asked where their sympathies lie in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 17 per cent said mostly or entirely with Israelis and 35 per cent with Palestinians, while 19 per cent said both equally and 28 per cent neither.