Nearly half of adults across the world hold antisemitic beliefs, with many even denying facts about the Holocaust, according to an unsettling survey from the New York-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
The ADL’s Global 100 survey found that of more than 58,000 adults questioned from 103 different countries, 46% of them displayed antisemitic attitudes, more than double the levels of the first-ever survey launched in 2014.
“Antisemitism is nothing short of a global emergency, especially in a post-Oct. 7 world,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement.
“Negative attitudes towards Jews are an important pillar that ADL uses to assess overall levels of antisemitism within a country, and our findings are deeply alarming,” he added.
The survey centers around the Global 100 Index Score, which highlights the percentage of respondents who answered “definitely true” or “probably true” to six or more of the 11 negative stereotypes about Jews they were asked.
Some of the tropes include: “Jews have too much control over world affairs,” “Jews don’t care what happens to anyone but their own kind,” and “People hate Jews because of the way Jews behave.”
In the Americas, about 24% of adults believed these stereotypes to be true, with the highest Index scores recorded in the West Bank and Gaza at 97%.
Along with surveying the negative attitudes towards Jews, the survey also found that only 48% of respondents recognized historical facts about the Holocaust, during which more than six million Jews were killed.
The survey found that about 20 percent of respondents around the world had not even heard of the Holocaust and that historical knowledge of the attempted genocide dropped among 18- to 34-year-olds.
The finding pointed to a more significant problem as the survey found that younger respondents overall showed a greater prevalence for antisemitic attitudes.
About 40% of respondents under the age of 35 agreed with the view that “Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars,” the survey found.
The ADL suggests that the prevalence of social media, including TikTok and Instagram, is helping antisemites spread their message and misinformation to the masses like never before.
“This dangerous trend is not just a threat to Jewish communities — it’s a warning to us all,” said Marina Rosenberg, ADL Senior Vice President for International Affairs.
“Even in countries with the lowest levels of antisemitic attitudes globally, we’ve seen many antisemitic incidents perpetrated by an emboldened small, vocal and violent minority.
Despite the bleak outlook, the survey did find that a majority of respondents agreed that antisemitism was a serious issue around the world that needs to be addressed.
The ADL’s survey is the latest to show the disturbing rise of antisemitism in recent years following the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, where Hamas killed more than 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped another 251 others.
