On July 10, 1933, Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, was featured on the front cover of TIME Magazine. The headline was unambiguous and inflammatory: “Say it in your dreams – THE JEWS ARE TO BLAME!” As we are all painfully aware, in the years that followed, millions of Jews across Europe were terrorised, hunted and murdered by not only the Nazis, but those who collaborated with them. Hatred of the Jews did not end there and it is an inescapable fact that the same antisemitism which drove hatred of the Jews in the 1930s is once again infecting the hearts of many people today.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recently released the results of their Global 100 Survey and the findings are alarming to say the least. The aim of the ADL Global 100 Survey is to gauge levels of antisemitic sentiments through an index comprised of 11 questions that measure general acceptance of various negative Jewish stereotypes. The recent results were taken from over 58,000 adults in 103 countries and in terms of measuring the level of antisemitism, survey respondents who say at least 6 out of the 11 statements are “probably true” or “definitely true” are considered to harbour elevated levels of antisemitic attitudes.
So, let’s examine some of the concerning data:
- 20% of respondents have not heard about the Holocaust.
- Only 48% of respondents recognise the Holocaust’s historical accuracy (falling to 39% among 18 to 34-year-olds).
- 40% of those under age 35 say that “Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars”.
- 23% of respondents worldwide express favourable opinions toward the terror group Hamas, which increases to 29% among respondents younger than 35.
Overall, 46% of the world’s adult population – an estimated 2.2 billion people – harbour deeply entrenched antisemitic attitudes. Concerningly, this is more than double compared to ADL’s first worldwide survey a decade ago and the highest level on record since ADL started tracking these trends globally.
In terms of where these negative attitudes are most prevalent, 76% of respondents in the Middle East and North Africa believe most of the 11 tropes to be true. Around half of the respondents in Asia (51%), Eastern Europe (49%), and Sub-Saharan Africa (45%) harbour high levels of antisemitic attitudes. The Americas (24%), Western Europe (17%), and Oceania (20%) have relatively lower levels of antisemitic attitudes, yet still around one in five adults harbour these sentiments. Breaking these percentages down into specific countries and territories, the highest and lowest index scores of those harbouring antisemitic attitudes are:
- West Bank and Gaza (97%)
- Kuwait (97%)
- Indonesia (96%)
- Canada (8%)
- Netherlands (8%)
- Norway (8%)
- Sweden (5%)
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