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May 13: A Survey of Anti-Semitism

lawrencebush
May 12, 2016

anti-semitic-incidents-los-angeles-460On this date in 2014, the Anti-Defamation League released the results of a survey about anti-Semitism involving over 50,000 people in 101 countries as well as the occupied Palestinian territories. The survey used belief in the following statements as a measuring rod of anti-Semitism; respondents who said at least 6 out of the 11 statements are “probably true” were considered to harbor anti-Semitic attitudes: “Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the countries in which they live”; “Jews have too much power in the business world”; “Jews have too much power in international financial markets”; “Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust”; “Jews don’t care about what happens to anyone but their own kind”; “Jews have too much control over global affairs”; “Jews have too much control over the U.S. government”; “Jews think they are better than other people”; “Jews have too much control over the global media”; “Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars”; and “people hate Jews because of the ways Jews behave.” In the Middle East and North Africa, 74 percent of people surveyed held such beliefs; in Western Europe, 24 percent; in Eastern Europe, 34 percent; in the Americas, 19 percent; in Asia, 22 percent; in sub-Saharan Africa, 23 percent; in Oceania, 14 percent. To see the survey in detail, click here.

“While Muslims are more likely to hold anti-Semitic views than members of any other religion (49 percent Index Score), geography makes a big difference in their views. Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa (75 percent Index Score) are much more likely to harbor anti-Semitic attitudes than Muslims in Asia (37 percent Index Score), Western Europe (29 percent Index Score), Eastern Europe (20 percent Index Score), and Sub-Saharan Africa (18 percent Index Score).” —ADL