New survey on anti-Semitism finds Europeans still hate the Jews

New ADL survey of global anti-Semitism shows widespread agreement with anti-Jewish statements old and new.

By The Algemeiner

About one in four Europeans polled harbor pernicious and pervasive attitudes toward Jews, according to a new global survey on anti-Semitism published by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Thursday.

While anti-Semitic attitudes held mostly steady in Western Europe, the poll commissioned by the U.S. Jewish advocacy group found that hateful notions about Jews were rising in the Eastern and Central European countries surveyed, where long-held tropes about Jewish control of business and finance and of “dual loyalty” remain widespread.

“It is deeply concerning that approximately one in four Europeans harbor the types of anti-Semitic beliefs that have endured since before the Holocaust,” Jonathan Greenblatt — ADL CEO — said in a statement accompanying the poll’s publication.

“These findings serve as a powerful wake-up call that much work remains to be done to educate broad swaths of the populations in many of these countries to reject bigotry, in addition to addressing the pressing security needs where violent incidents are rising.”

The Anti-Defamation League’s survey of anti-Semitic attitudes covers over 9,000 respondents in 18 countries across four continents.

Since the ADL Global 100 Index survey conducted in 2015, anti-Semitic attitudes have significantly increased in Ukraine (up 14 percent), Poland (up 11 percent), South Africa and Brazil (both up 9 percent), Russia (up 8 percent) and Argentina (up 6 percent).

Meanwhile, anti-Semitic attitudes saw significant declines in Italy (down 11 percent), Austria (down 8 percent) and Canada (down 6 percent).

At the same time, across all the countries surveyed – except for South Africa – support for the campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against the State of Israel was found to be extremely low. In most European countries, support for the boycott of Israel was less than 15 percent.

The poll also found that Muslim acceptance of anti-Semitic stereotypes was substantially higher than among the national populations — on average almost three times as high — in the six countries tested: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the U.K..

At the same time, the scores for European Muslims were significantly lower than for respondents in the Middle East and North Africa region polled in 2014, “possibly reflecting the impact of Holocaust education, exposure to Jews, and societal values of acceptance and tolerance,” the ADL said.