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Survey Finds One Billion Anti-Semites

Anti-Defamation League’s new global study yields sobering conclusions

by
Stephanie Butnick
May 14, 2014
(Shutterstock)
(Shutterstock)

The Anti-Defamation League released the results of its new ADL Global 100 survey, and the results are informative, if bleak. The survey, which they’ve billed as a “comprehensive data-based research survey of the level and intensity of anti-Jewish sentiment across the world,” polled 53,100 adults in 102 countries.

One of the more jaw-dropping findings is that 26 percent of people surveyed internationally—a figure which represents roughly 1.09 billion adults across the world—harbor anti-Semitic attitudes. That’s an estimated one billion anti-Semites, in the world, today. According to this world population clock, there are approximately 7.2 billion people in the world, 1.09 billion of whom apparently hate Jews.

Also shocking is that only 54 percent of people polled internationally had heard of the Holocaust. Another 32 percent of respondents had heard of the Holocaust, but either believe it’s a myth or has been exaggerated. That means that two out of three respondents fall into either one of those two categories, a supremely grim conclusion.

Here are some of the survey’s other findings.

• The most widely accepted anti-Semitic stereotype worldwide is: “Jews are more loyal to Israel than to this country/the countries they live in.” Overall, 41 percent of those surveyed believe this statement to be “probably true.” This is the most widely accepted stereotype in five out of the seven regions surveyed.



• The second most widely accepted stereotype worldwide is “Jews have too much power in the business world.” Overall, 35 percent of those surveyed believe this statement to be “probably true.” This is also the most widely held stereotype in Eastern Europe.



• Among the 74 percent of those surveyed who indicated they had never met a Jewish person, 25 percent harbor anti-Semitic attitudes. Of the 26 percent overall who harbor anti-Semitic attitudes, 70 percent have never met a Jewish person.



• Three out of 10 respondents, 30 percent, believe Jews make up between 1 to 10 percent of the world’s population. Another 18 percent believe Jews make up more than 10 percent of the world’s population. Sixteen percent (16%) responded less than 1 percent. (The actual number of Jewish people as a percentage of the world’s population is 0.19 percent).

You can see the full report here.

Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.