Posted on 01/14/25
| News Source: WSJ
New York, N Y- Jan. 14, 2025 - Around half of adults across the world hold antisemitic beliefs and deny the historic facts of the Holocaust, according to the latest edition of the largest global study of anti-Jewish attitudes by the Anti-Defamation League, a New York-based advocacy group.
The study surveyed more than 58,000 adults from 103 countries and territories representing 94% of the world’s adult population, and found that 46% of them—which when extrapolated to the global population would equal an estimated 2.2 billion people—display antisemitic attitudes. A fifth of the respondents haven’t heard of the Holocaust, during which six million Jews were killed, while 21% believe it has either been exaggerated by historians or it never happened.
According to the survey, known as Global 100, the level of antisemitism in the global adult population has more than doubled since it was launched in 2014.
The report is the latest among a number of surveys charting a steep rise in antisemitism across the globe, including violent offenses, with some data showing a surge in anti-Jewish sentiment after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, and Israel’s subsequent invasions of Gaza and Lebanon.
In Europe, the European Union’s executive body reported in October that “the conflicts in the Middle East have led to levels of antisemitism” unprecedented since the founding of the bloc decades ago.
In November, Israeli soccer fans were chased and beaten by crowds in the Netherlands, with the prosecutor saying the unrest was triggered by the situation in Gaza. In Germany, government officials and Jewish community leaders often warn Jews to hide their identity in public to avoid being assaulted on the street.
“The fact that nearly half of the global population has elevated antisemitic sentiments tells us we are in nothing short of a global emergency,“ said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, the ADL chief executive. “This is a virus that has spread, it is accelerating and intensifying.”