It is an old and uneasy history, the long relationship between the Christian and the Jew, and so the plainest measure of it today is also the most surprising: warmth. On the standard 0 to 100 feeling thermometer, Jews are rated among the warmest of any religious group in America, and evangelical Protestants rate them at a warm 61, about as warmly as the other Christian traditions do and well above the 50 registered by the religiously unaffiliated (Covenant Research analysis of the General Social Survey). That regard has climbed for half a century, it rises with a person’s devotion rather than falling, and it deepens where there is a friendship behind it. And yet, in these same recent years, antisemitism has surged again. This report sets both truths side by side: a measured, growing regard between American Christians and the Jewish people, and a hardening countercurrent that gives that regard its urgency.
Key Findings
- Evangelical Protestants rate Jews 61 out of 100 on the feeling thermometer, about the same as Catholics (63) and mainline Protestants (63) rate them, and well above the 50 registered by the religiously unaffiliated (Covenant Research analysis of the General Social Survey).
- Warmth toward Jews rose across five decades, from about 62 in 1964 to a high of 71.5 in 2020, and born-again Christians tracked at or above the national average in every year measured, rising to 72.5 (Covenant Research analysis of the American National Election Studies).
- Among evangelicals, warmth toward Jews rises with commitment: weekly worship attenders rate Jews 66 against 58 for the less frequent, and strong affiliates 66 against 57 for the weakly affiliated (Covenant Research analysis of the General Social Survey).
- Roughly 9 in 10 evangelicals reject hostile claims about Jews, including that Jews endanger others’ safety (94% reject) or hold morally inferior values (92% reject) (Covenant Research analysis of the Baylor Religion Survey, 2017).
- Against that warmth, antisemitism has risen sharply: the share of Americans holding extensive antisemitic beliefs climbed from a low near 11% in 2019 to about 24% in 2024, and reported antisemitic incidents reached record highs (Anti-Defamation League).
Are evangelicals cooler toward Jews than other Christians?
On the 0 to 100 feeling thermometer, evangelical Protestants rate Jews at a warm 61, close to the 63 that Catholics and mainline Protestants give them, and well above the 50 registered by the religiously unaffiliated (Covenant Research analysis of the General Social Survey, pooled 1986 to 2004). Baylor’s 2007 survey shows the same shared ground on a different instrument: about 82% of evangelicals say they trust Jews “some” or “a lot,” a rate indistinguishable from Americans as a whole (Covenant Research analysis of the Baylor Religion Survey, 2007).
The pattern that emerges is not one of Christians set against Jews, but of the religious set apart from the unaffiliated. Across Catholic, mainline, and evangelical traditions, warmth toward Jews clusters in a narrow band in the low 60s, and runs cooler mainly among those with no religious affiliation. Evangelicals, often assumed to be the coolest toward those outside their fold, are in fact right in that warm band with everyone else.
Has that regard grown, or faded?
It has grown, and steadily. Warmth toward Jews rose from about 62 degrees in the mid-1960s to a series high of 71.5 in 2020, on the long-running American National Election Studies thermometer (Covenant Research analysis of the American National Election Studies, 1964 to 2020). The climb was not perfectly smooth, with a dip to 57 in 1976, but the arc across the whole series bends clearly upward, and the warmest readings are the most recent.
Born-again Christians moved with the country and often a step ahead of it. Their warmth toward Jews rose from 64 in 1988 to 72.5 in 2020, and in every year the two items were fielded together, born-again respondents rated Jews at or above the national average. The long shift historians have described, from old suspicion toward regard, is visible in the numbers, and the most devout are not lagging it but leading it.
Are the most devout the coolest toward Jews, or the warmest?
The warmest. Among evangelicals, warmth toward Jews rises with religious commitment on every measure: weekly worship attenders rate Jews 66 against 58 for those who attend less often, and evangelicals with a strong religious affiliation rate them 66 against 57 for those whose affiliation is weak (Covenant Research analysis of the General Social Survey). The same gradient holds among born-again respondents. The more seriously an evangelical takes the faith, the warmer the regard, not the cooler.
It is a quietly important finding, because it cuts against the intuition that devotion breeds suspicion of the outsider. Here the opposite is measured: the practices that mark a committed believer, worship, belonging, a serious hold on the faith, travel together with a warmer view of the Jewish people, not a colder one.
Does knowing someone change it?
It deepens it. Evangelicals who personally know a Jewish person express clearly warmer regard toward Jews than those who do not, and about 48% of evangelicals said they personally knew someone Jewish (Covenant Research analysis of the General Social Survey, 2000). The regard is warm on its own, and warmer still where an actual friendship stands behind it.
The finding is correlational, not causal: warmer people may seek out friendships, as much as friendships warm people. But it points to something plain and hopeful. Regard for a people in the abstract is one thing; a neighbor with a name is another, and the second tends to be the warmer of the two.
Where do Christians and Jews stand on the hardest claims?
Evangelicals overwhelmingly reject hostility toward Jews. In Baylor’s 2017 survey, 94% of evangelicals reject the claim that Jews endanger others’ safety, 92% reject that Jews hold morally inferior values, and 89% reject that Jews want to limit others’ freedoms (Covenant Research analysis of the Baylor Religion Survey, 2017). Rejection of open antisemitic tropes is close to universal among the very group most often assumed to harbor them.
The reverse direction, how Jews regard conservative Christians, is measured on a much smaller sample and cannot be stated precisely here: the Jewish respondents in the survey number only about two dozen, too few for a stable estimate, though most reject the parallel claims about Christians. It is an honest limit worth naming. The warm regard documented throughout this report is best measured from the Christian side; the reciprocal is thinner in the public data and deserves its own careful study.
And yet, what is happening to antisemitism itself?
It is rising. The share of Americans who hold extensive antisemitic beliefs fell for decades, from about 29% in 1964 to a low near 11% in 2019, and has since climbed back to about 24% in 2024, on the Anti-Defamation League’s long-running index of anti-Jewish stereotypes (Anti-Defamation League). The broader measure moved too: the share endorsing at least one antisemitic trope rose from 61% to 85% over the same span.
The count-based measures moved the same direction and more steeply. Reported antisemitic incidents reached 9,354 in 2024, a fourth consecutive annual record (Anti-Defamation League), and the FBI recorded 1,938 anti-Jewish hate crimes, close to 70% of all religion-based hate crimes in a year, against a Jewish share of about 2% of the population (Federal Bureau of Investigation). The share of American Jews who changed something about their daily lives out of concern for their safety rose from 38% to 56% in three years (American Jewish Committee).
These are three different instruments, a survey of attitudes, a tally of incidents, and a record of reported crimes, and they should not be summed or confused. The attitudes series carries a further caveat: the Anti-Defamation League revised its method after 2019, so the recent rise is best read as a direction rather than a precise continuation of the older line. But the shape is unmistakable and consistent across all three: a long decline through the late twentieth century, and a sharp recent turn back upward. The warmth this report documents and the hostility it now records are both real, and they are rising at the same time.
Methodology and limitations
The warmth findings in this report are Covenant Research’s own analysis of three public survey datasets, run on the microdata with each survey’s recommended weight applied. The feeling-thermometer figures come from the General Social Survey (NORC at the University of Chicago), where the 0 to 100 rating of Jews was fielded in 1986, 1988, 1989, and 2004, and from the American National Election Studies Time Series Cumulative File, where the same rating was fielded in thirteen years between 1964 and 2020. The trust and hostility measures come from the Baylor Religion Survey, Waves II (2007) and V (2017). Evangelical respondents are identified by the standard religious-tradition classification and by born-again and evangelical self-identification. The antisemitism figures come from three separate instruments: the Anti-Defamation League’s survey of antisemitic attitudes, its Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, and the FBI’s Hate Crime Statistics, with a self-reported behavior measure from the American Jewish Committee.
Several limits apply. Feeling thermometers measure expressed warmth, a self-report, not behavior. The General Social Survey thermometer readings are drawn from 1986 to 2004 and are best read as a durable baseline rather than a current snapshot; the American National Election Studies series carries the trend to 2020, and Baylor’s hostility items are from 2017. The reciprocal direction, Jewish regard for conservative Christians, rests on a very small Jewish subsample (about two dozen respondents) and is reported only as directional. All of these associations are correlational; the contact finding in particular cannot separate whether friendship warms people or warmer people seek friendship. The three antisemitism instruments measure different things and are not comparable in their units; incident and hate-crime counts are sensitive to reporting, and the attitudes series spans a methodological revision, so its recent rise is directional. Figures are current as of the releases cited and are worth checking against newer editions.
Conclusion
The plain question this report opened with has a plain and, on its face, heartening answer: American Christians regard the Jewish people warmly, and more warmly than a generation ago. Evangelicals rate Jews at 61 on the thermometer, about as warmly as the other Christian traditions; the national reading has climbed to 71.5 by 2020; the warmth runs highest among the most devout, not the least; and roughly nine in ten evangelicals reject open hostility toward Jews outright.
Set against that is a harder reading, measured just as carefully: antisemitic attitudes, incidents, and hate crimes have all turned sharply upward in recent years, after decades of decline. The two portraits are both true, and they do not cancel each other. A people can be growing in regard for its older kin and, at the same moment, living in a season when that regard is tested and needed. The warmer path is not a wish; it is already there in the data, the ordinary work of honoring, befriending, and living at peace with a neighbor. It asks only to be recognized, and chosen, one relationship at a time.
Frequently Asked Questions
How warmly do evangelicals actually feel toward Jews?
Warmly, and about as warmly as other Christians do. On the 0 to 100 feeling thermometer, evangelical Protestants rate Jews at 61, essentially the same as Catholics and mainline Protestants and well above the religiously unaffiliated (Covenant Research analysis of the General Social Survey). The common assumption that evangelicals are cool toward Jews is not borne out by the measure.
Has Christian regard for Jews risen or fallen over time?
Risen. Warmth toward Jews climbed from about 62 in the mid-1960s to a high of 71.5 in 2020, and born-again Christians rated Jews at or above the national average in every year measured (Covenant Research analysis of the American National Election Studies). The most recent readings are the warmest in the series.
Are more religious Christians more hostile toward Jews?
The reverse. Among evangelicals, warmth toward Jews rises with devotion: weekly attenders rate Jews 66 against 58 for the less frequent (Covenant Research analysis of the General Social Survey). Commitment tracks with warmer regard, not colder.
Do Christians and Jews feel the same warmth toward each other?
The Christian side is well measured and warm; the reverse is harder to pin down. The Jewish respondents available in these public surveys are too few for a stable estimate, so this report measures Christian regard for Jews confidently and treats the reciprocal only as directional (Covenant Research analysis of the Baylor Religion Survey). It is a real gap in the public data worth its own study.
Is antisemitism actually rising in the United States?
Yes, on every available measure. The share of Americans holding extensive antisemitic beliefs rose from about 11% in 2019 to about 24% in 2024 (Anti-Defamation League), reported antisemitic incidents reached a record 9,354 in 2024 (Anti-Defamation League), and the FBI recorded 1,938 anti-Jewish hate crimes, close to 70% of all religion-based hate crimes (Federal Bureau of Investigation).
What does the data say about friendship between Christians and Jews?
That it matters. Evangelicals who personally know a Jewish person express warmer regard than those who do not, and about 48% said they knew someone Jewish (Covenant Research analysis of the General Social Survey). Regard for a people in the abstract is warm; regard for a neighbor with a name is warmer.
Sources
- American Jewish Committee, 2024. The State of Antisemitism in America 2024. American Jewish Committee. Established survey program.
- American National Election Studies, 2022. Time Series Cumulative Data File, 1948 to 2020. ANES, Stanford University and the University of Michigan (distributed via the Association of Religion Data Archives). Established survey program. Covenant Research analysis.
- Anti-Defamation League, 2024. Antisemitic Attitudes in America 2024. ADL Center for Antisemitism Research. Established survey program.
- Anti-Defamation League, 2025. Audit of Antisemitic Incidents 2024. Anti-Defamation League. Report.
- Baylor University Institute for Studies of Religion, 2007 and 2017. The Baylor Religion Survey, Waves II and V. Distributed by the Association of Religion Data Archives. Established survey program. Covenant Research analysis.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2025. Hate Crime Statistics 2024. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Official statistic.
- National Opinion Research Center, 2025. General Social Survey 1972 to 2024 Cumulative File. NORC at the University of Chicago. Established survey program. Covenant Research analysis.