The ADL Surveyed 18 Countries On Anti-Semitism. Here’s What You Need To Know.
A woman lights a candle in front of a synagogue during a protest against anti-Semitism in Munich on October 11, 2019. The protest occurred two days after a shooter killed two people while targeting a Jewish community in Halle, Germany. Image by Getty
By Ari Feldman November 21, 2019
The Anti-Defamation League has released a new poll of anti-Semitic attitudes in 18 countries around the world. The ADL spoke to residents of Canada, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and several countries in Western and Eastern Europe. While anti-Semitic attitudes appear to have largely held steady across Western Europe as compared with the two previous years, Eastern Europeans appear to increasingly embrace anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Jewish control of the global economy.
Here are four take-aways from the new poll:
Eastern Europe is falling for anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
The four Eastern European countries sampled — Ukraine, Poland, Hungary and Russia — saw the most marked jump in anti-Semitic attitudes. Nearly 7 in 10 people in Hungary and Ukraine, along with about half of people in Russia and Poland, agreed with the statement “Jews have too much power in the business world.”
The results in Eastern Europe follow on political developments that have many Jews in the region afraid for the futures of their communities. Far right parties in Ukraine and Hungary have surged. One Forward correspondent hid from anti-Semitic marchers in Poland in his bathroom, as the country’s political leadership has mounted a public relations campaign to erase references to Polish complicity in the Holocaust.
Muslims in Western Europe show markedly less anti-Semitism than those in Muslim-majority countries.
Muslims in Western Europe also know more Jews, support Israel at a higher rate and hold Holocaust-denying beliefs at a lower rate than Muslims in majority-Muslim countries. About 31% of Muslims polled in Western Europe this year have a favorable view of Israel, compared with 7% of Muslims polled in Muslim countries in 2014.
BDS is not as popular as you might think.
Support for efforts to economically isolate Israel — known as the Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) movement — is low, with only 15% of people most European countries saying they support it.
Spain and South Africa evince some anti-Semitic attitudes.
In South Africa, about four in 10 respondents agreeing with the statement “Jews want to weaken our national culture by supporting immigrants coming to our country.”
In Spain, about 3 in 10 of respondents feel that Jews have too much control over global media.
Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at feldman@forward.com or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman
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