Appreciative Attitudes Toward Jews Among Non-Jewish US College Students

The purpose of this study was to examine appreciative attitudes toward Jews – a historically marginalized and targeted worldview identity group in the context of American higher education – among non-Jewish undergraduates. Drawing from a sample of 13,489 students across 52 institutions and using a multilevel modeling approach, we found that appreciative attitudes toward Jews varied by students’ perceptions of structural, psychological and behavioral climate dimensions related to worldview and by students’ identification patterns, including worldview. Of specific interest to Jewish educators, the presence of a Jewish organization on campus was associated with greater appreciative student attitudes toward Jews after controlling for demographic and other institutional covariates.