ADL survey: More than a quarter of the world is anti-Semitic

[Mosby]

NEW YORK (JTA) – A lot of people around the world hate the Jews.

That’s the main finding of the Anti-Defamation League’s largest-ever worldwide survey of anti-Semitic attitudes.

The survey, released Tuesday, found that 26 percent of those polled — representing approximately 1.1 billion adults worldwide — harbor deeply anti-Semitic views. More than 53,000 people were surveyed in 102 countries and territories covering approximately 86 percent of the world’s population.

“Our findings are sobering but, sadly, not surprising,” ADL National Director Abraham Foxman said at a news conference Tuesday morning at ADL’s national headquarters in New York. “The data clearly indicates that classic anti-Semitic canards defy national, cultural, religious and economic boundaries.”

Among the survey’s key findings:

• Some 70 percent of those considered anti-Semitic said they have never met a Jew. Overall, 74 percent of respondents said they had never met a Jew.

• Thirty-five percent of those surveyed had never heard of the Holocaust. Of those who had, roughly one-third said it is either a myth or greatly exaggerated.

• The most anti-Semitic region in the world is the Middle East and North Africa, with 74 percent harboring anti-Semitic views. Eastern Europe was second at 34 percent. The least anti-Semitic region was Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) at 14 percent.

• The three countries outside the Middle East with the highest rates of anti-Semitic attitudes were Greece, at 69 percent, Malaysia at 61 percent and Armenia at 58 percent.

• About 49 percent of Muslims worldwide harbor anti-Semitic views, compared to 24 percent of Christians.

• The West Bank and Gaza were the most anti-Semitic places surveyed, with 93 percent of respondents expressing anti-Semitic views. The Arab country with the lowest level of anti-Semitic views was Morocco, at 80 percent. Iran ranked as the least anti-Semitic country in the Middle East, at 56 percent.

• The least anti-Semitic country overall was Laos, where 0.2 percent of the population holds anti-Semitic views. The Philippines, Sweden, the Netherlands and Vietnam all came in at 6 percent or lower.

• Approximately 9 percent of Americans and 14 percent of Canadians harbor anti-Semitic attitudes.

• Thirty-four percent of respondents older than 65 were deemed anti-Semitic, compared to 25 percent of those younger than 65. Men polled were slightly more anti-Semitic than women.

Read more: http://www.jta.org/2014/05/13/news-opinion/world/survey-more-than-a-quarter-of-the-world-hates-jews#ixzz31cvKSxq9

[Behind the Aegis]

1. I am reading through the actual surveys now.

Here: http://global100.adl.org/did-you-know

[Mosby]

2. thanks for the link.

[Iggo]

4. I see a lot of results, but I don't see the survey.

It is a busy page. Maybe my old eyes missed it.

[Behind the Aegis]

5. The site is a bit odd.

It is very interesting and allows you to serach for various things, so I have already spent two hours and will likely spend much more reading various data. The survey is at this link: http://global100.adl.org/did-you-know and scroll all the way to the bottom and in the left hand corner you will see the questionnaire (just in case this pdf link doesn't work: http://global100.adl.org/public/ADL_GLOBAL_100_SURVEY_QUESTIONNAIRE.pdf .

[Iggo]

6. Thanks!

[kickysnana]

12. Is the survey a reasonable representation?

Is it able to find out if the person answering is:

1. Speaking about all the Jews or one at at time?
2. Have any actual experience with Jewish people?
3. Have a valid reason for their feelings ie living in Gaza or had had something like their home taken by eminent domain for a new temple sort of situation?
4. Does the opinion have to be anti, as opposed to "anti" being not more supportive of Jews than other groups of people?

With the level of ignorance in America today, the state of our "media" and all the scape goating done by the rightwing nuts I guess I am surprised it wasn't worse.

Sorry I am copping out here you said you had down some research and I won't be able to do that any time soon so I was wondering your opinion of their survey and interpretation of results.

[Mosby]

15. The questions were straightforward

From the article:

The survey gauged anti-Semitism by asking whether respondents agreed with an index of 11 statements that the ADL believes suggest anti-Jewish bias:

Jews talk too much about what happened to them during the Holocaust.

Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the countries they live in.

Jews think they are better than other people.

Jews have too much power in international financial markets.

Jews have too much power in the business world.

Jews have too much control over global affairs.

people hate Jews because of the way Jews behave.

Jews have too much control over the U.S. government.

Jews have too much control over global media.
.
Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars.

Jews don’t care about what happens to anyone but their own kind.

I honestly don't understand most of your questions, do you think there are some valid reasons for a person to be anti-Semitic?

[kickysnana]

21. There is no valid reason to be Anti-Semetic.

What I was asking was what they were determining was antisemitism.

Do they consider being anti-Israeli policies anti-Semitic? I am very much against some of their policies. I do not hold all Jewish people or even all Israelis responsible for the policies of Israel but some people who may have been harmed by those policies might because they have not been among any other Jews. You don't ever change people's minds by being more draconian.

This question is problematic for me:

"Jews think they are better than other people."

If people believe they are the "chosen people" doesn't that make them believe they are better than other people? That sentiment, being chosen, is common in most belief systems. Why would you belong to a religion where you to not strive to be better and at one point is that "better than others."?. My main problem with religion, not talking faith here, just religion. So how would I answer that question and what would my answer mean?

Don't psychologists say you mentally suffer if you feel you are less than others so therefore in order to be sane and healthy you need to feel at least as good as others perhaps better?

So what was the weight of that question in the results of this survey?

We already know that polls can be push-pulled, results misinterpreted. Is this a study a true measure of Anti-Semitism?

I wonder what those same polled people feel about those same questions for Buddists, Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Christians?

If you are anti-everything-but-what-you-are is that significant when judging what answers mean as opposed to being only Anti-Semetic.

We just learned we were right in feeling that our opinions in the good old USA are not being heard, or acted on by our leaders, good or bad. Do we only need to know what the 1% feels in order to judge the actual influence on lives?

On one hand It would make no difference if I was anti-Eskimo because I have no way to have my opinions acted on and the chances of an Eskimo moving into my low income MN Sr building where I spend 99.9% of the time would personally interact is about 0. (I usually try not to lump people so I am not anti any group, however right now I am not too happy with one sister for cause so I might snub her) So since many of the people polled have no interaction is this survey taken and published as a tool to make Jews feel afraid and affect their opinions and actions?

I admit to being a type E and see patterns where others might not. I also take into account sometimes I am wrong, so patterns are not proof.

Historically major Jewish groups such as ADL have strived to be at least seen as thoughtful, fair and balanced, are they still?

I realize that those questions are beyond what you can glean from the poll and the supporting info. I like to know what way the wind is blowing and I want to make sure if someone says the terrible storm is coming from the north whether I should believe them and take appropriate action, or check with another source.

[hobbit709]

3. Is anyone surprised by the percentage in the West Bank and Gaza?

[JI7]

7. what's up with Greece and Armenia ?

[Behind the Aegis]

8. I can't speak to Armenia, but I can to Greece, slightly.

Greece has a long history of anti-Semitism, which culminated in WWII. A good portion of Greek Jews were sent to the camps or murdered in Greece. With recent economic woes, the far right has chosen its two most perdicitable scapegoats, Jews and immigrants. Jews usually get double duty because they are likely seen as immigrants anyway, even if they have been in the country fro centuries. Here are the stats for Greece: http://global100.adl.org/#country/greece . If you look off to the right, you can pull up different info about different topics (same for every country). Click "current state of affairs" and it will give you a look into how they view their country's economic situation. Given that 82% think that "Jews have too much power in international financial markets." and 85% think "Jews have too much power in the business world." and you get a better picture of the hate toward Jews, who are often associated with money.

[whatthehey]

16. It's possible much of the reported Armenian bias comes from the first question posted above

Their own genocide at the hands of the Turks predates and, if I recall correctly, in percentage terms exceeds the Jewish holocaust, but is greatly overshadowed by it in taught history, political influence and public sensibilities. They quite often resent this, with some reason albeit nothing objective to fault Jewish people over of course, and would generally dearly like to see 2/3 of the population be aware of it. They'd probably be pleased at the 35% inverse. When a tad over half your ethnic group were slaughtered and hardly anybody else even knows and fewer still care, it's likely to cause you to get surly about another ethnic group who suffered slightly less depopulation rates but have so captured the greater world's attention and concern over genocide that their experience crowds out consideration of yours.

Ask ten random people to name a great historical genocide and if fewer than nine come up with the Jewish holocauest I'd be greatly surprised. Unless you're talking to someone whose name ends in -ian, it's nigh certain they'll mention it well before Armenia. I'd be surprised if that preponderance of awareness did not drive Armenian resentment.

FWIW I am neither Jewish nor Armenian nor particularly closely tied to an example of either. This is simply dispassionate opinion.

[William769]

9. Truly disgusting.

I hope this doesn't come out the wrong way but I could not imagine being Jewish, I thought being Gay was bad enough.

I love my Jewish brothers & sisters as much if not more than my LGBT family, yes we have our share of haters but not on a epic scale as our Jewish friends. Of course our two Groups stand together because all Countries that hate Jewish people also Hate Gay people (they are barbaric people).

So to all concerned.

[Behind the Aegis]

10. Did you see this release?

The annual ranking on gay rights in Europe was released today. I think I may compare it to the anti-Semitism scale. I am betting they won't be too far off.

[Metatron]

11. How depressing. n/t

[Report1212]

13. This survey has a lot of ridiculous questions

For example, this one. How is this relevant?

https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/466620478958739456

The ADL has been involved in a lot of anti-Muslim stuff over the past including infiltrating and spying on Muslim and Arab groups. They are not a civil rights organization when they do stuff like that and I know there is a lot of hate in the world but they are obviously creating the result they're promoting here.

http://electronicintifada.net/content/fbi-files-reveal-anti-defamation-league-spied-arab-students/12453

[Mosby]

14. You posted an article written by an known anti-Semite

to prove what exactly?

Are you seriously suggesting that the ADL is creating anti-Semitism?

Here is a sample of Grant F Smith's "work"

http://mycatbirdseat.com/2013/03/grant-f-smith-1963-the-year-the-israel-lobby-transcended-us-law/

He is popular at hate sites like the one above, electronicintifada, veterenstoday and antiwar.com

[Behind the Aegis]

17. Well, it proves Blumenthal is an idiot as well as a bigot.

He is so worried about the "scoring" when all he had to do was go to the "about" section, which clearly states:

The Anti-Semitism Index

Since 1964, the Anti-Defamation League has conducted a series of public opinion surveys in the United States to measure levels of anti-Semitism. An index comprised of 11 questions was developed by researchers at the University of California to be used in these public opinion surveys to provide an analytical tool for identifying respondents who harbor anti-Semitic attitudes and for measuring general acceptance of various negative Jewish stereotypes.

Now, for the first time, the Anti-Defamation League has begun to employ a modified version of that original index of 11 questions for use in a 100+ country global public opinion survey aimed at gauging levels of anti-Semitic attitudes and adherence to traditional anti-Semitic stereotypes across the world.

Before answering the index questions, survey respondents were read the following statement: "I am now going to read out a series of statements, some of them you may think are true and some of them you may think are false. Please say which ones you think are probably true and which ones you think are probably false."

As with previous public opinion research conducted by ADL in the United States, survey respondents who said at least 6 out of the 11 statements are "probably true" are considered to harbor anti-Semitic attitudes. The Index Score for each country represents the percentage of adults in that specific country who answered "probably true" to a majority of the anti-Semitic stereotypes tested. The following are the eleven statements that constitute the ADL GLOBAL 100 anti-Semitism index:

Bold added by me.

[Mosby]

18. The ADL was very careful with this latest survey

They eliminated what I call "positive stereotype" type of questions which, while indicative of bigotry imo, can be misconstrued by some people as OK.

Honestly they set a very high threshold (6/11), people that scored 3/11 for example are most likely anti-Semites as far as I'm concerned.

The whole thing is depressing, I couldn't even start looking at the data until today.

[Behind the Aegis]

19. I agree.

It is interesting to see the other information as well. I just stumbled across the Executive Summary: http://global100.adl.org/public/ADL-Global-100-Executive-Summary.pdf

I wonder how different the numbers would be if they set the threshold at 5/11 or 7/11. Your 3/11 would definitely see the numbers skyrocket, IMO.

ETA: Ooo, I found this little tid bit:


28% of respondents around the world do not believe that any of the 11 anti-Semitic stereotypes tested are "probably true." Additionally, 18% believe only one or two of the statements are "probably true."

I wonder how many (if any) believe all the anti-Semitic stereotypes.

[Mosby]

20. The flipside

41% of ALL respondents think the first question is "probably true".