We welcome your comments to this and any other CIJR publication. Please address your response to: Rob Coles, Publications Chairman, Canadian Institute for Jewish Research, PO Box 175, Station H, Montreal QC H3G 2K7 – Tel: (514) 486-5544 – Fax:(514) 486-8284; E-mail: rob@isranet.wpsitie.com
One Quarter of Adults Worldwide 'Deeply Infected' With Anti-Semitism: Sam Sokol & Maya Shwayder, Jerusalem Post, May 13, 2014—Negative attitudes toward Jews are “persistent and pervasive around the world,” the Anti-Defamation League announced on Tuesday during a press conference for the release of the ADL Global 100 Index, a global survey of anti-Semitism.
Israel and the Reality of Anti-Semitism: Jonathan S. Tobin, Commentary, May 13, 2014— In an era when acceptance of Jews in virtually every facet of society in the United States is universal, discussions about anti-Semitism are often understandably shelved in favor of those about prejudice about other, less successful minority groups.
Amid Rising Anti-Semitism in Western Europe, Italian Jews Are Staging a Surprising Revival: Michael Ledeen, Tablet, Apr. 25, 2014 — On March 20, Shalom Bahbout, chief rabbi of Naples and Southern Italy, sent a letter to the governors of the six regions that comprised the old Spanish Viceroyalty—Sicily, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, and Puglia—calling on them to institute an annual holiday for “research and memory” about the expulsion or forced conversion of the Jews from those regions on Oct. 31, 1541.
My First Trip to Israel, a Light to Indigenous People: Ryan Bellerose, Arutz Sheva, May 13, 2014— I got off the plane already a Pro Israel advocate, but I had no idea how much my views were about to change.
Canadians More Likely to be Anti-Semitic Than Americans, Poll Finds: Katrina Clarke, National Post, May 13, 2014
What the Media Won’t Report: The Palestinians Are the Most Anti-Semitic People in the World: Adam Levick, Algemeiner, May 15, 2014
Venezuelan Jewish Leader Says Anti-Semitism Has ‘Exploded’ in Recent Years in Latin America: Shiryn Ghermezian, Algemeiner, May 1, 2014
French Jews Say Prime Minister Manuel Valls Has Their Back: Jerusalem Post, Apr. 8, 2014
Great in Uniform (Video): Youtube, Apr. 30, 2014
ONE QUARTER OF ADULTS WORLDWIDE
'DEEPLY INFECTED' WITH ANTI-SEMITISM
Sam Sokol, Maya Shwayder
Jerusalem Post, May 13, 2014
Negative attitudes toward Jews are “persistent and pervasive around the world,” the Anti-Defamation League announced on Tuesday during a press conference for the release of the ADL Global 100 Index, a global survey of anti-Semitism. After surveying over 50,000 people in 102 countries in what it termed the “most comprehensive assessment ever of anti-Semitic attitudes globally,” the ADL came to a number of surprising conclusions. The First International Resources poll determined that 26 percent of respondents are “deeply infected” with anti-Semitic attitudes while only a little more than half of those polled have heard of the Holocaust. Two thirds of those asked stated that they have either not heard of the Nazi genocide or do not believe that accepted historical accounts are correct. Those who responded positively to six or more questions out of a set of 11 questions based on common Jewish stereotypes were deemed anti-Semitic by the New York-based Jewish advocacy group. The ADL’s National Director Abraham Foxman told reporters at the press conference that they purposely set the bar high. “We didn’t want to hype. We wanted to understate, rather than overstate, and to be careful that we’re only labeling those people who are really bad,” he said. When the bar was lowered – answering “probably true” or higher to only five out of the 11 questions – the number of respondents “deeply infected” with anti-Semitism rose from 26% to 34%. Over a quarter of the respondents, 28%, were marked as free from any negative attitudes toward Jews.
Of the people surveyed, 41% said that the assertion that “Jews are more loyal to Israel than to this country/the countries they live in” is probably true, making it the “most widely accepted stereotype in five out of the seven regions surveyed,” the ADL revealed. Following that, 35% of respondents said they believe that “Jews have too much power in the business world,” making it the most prevalent stereotype in Eastern Europe. Such beliefs, the ADL stated, are “fueled by conspiracy theories on the Internet, and in some countries it is still politically expedient to scapegoat and blame Jews for social, economic and political ills by accusing them of having ‘dual loyalties’ or even of being a foreign enemy in their midst.”
A quarter of those who have never met a Jew are anti-Semitic, while 70% of those labeled as anti-Semitic have stated that they have never met a member of the tribe. Respondents severely overestimated the world Jewish population, with 30% pegging the Jewish people at between 1% to 10% of global population and a further 18% stating that Jews constitute more than a tenth of people currently alive. By asking the same set of questions of people living around the world, the ADL was able to isolate specific trends by region, religion and ethnicity. “For the first time, we have a real sense of how pervasive and persistent anti-Semitism is today around the world,” Foxman said. “The data from the Global 100 Index enables us to look beyond anti-Semitic incidents and rhetoric and quantify the prevalence of anti-Semitic attitudes across the globe. We can now identify hot spots, as well as countries and regions of the world where hatred of Jews is essentially nonexistent.”
Ranking anti-Semitic sentiments by region, the ADL determined that the least bigoted country was Laos, with 0.2% of adults holding anti-Jewish views. The most anti-Semitic regions were found to be the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Palestinian anti-Semitism is “pervasive throughout society,” the ADL found, with 93% of respondents affirming anti-Jewish stereotypes. “The level of anti-Semitism in some countries and regions, even those where there are no Jews, is in many instances shocking,” ADL National Chairman Barry Curtiss-Lusher declared. “We hope this unprecedented effort to measure and gauge anti-Semitic attitudes globally will serve as a wake-up call to governments, to international institutions and to people of conscience that anti-Semitism is not just a relic of history, but a current event.”
The highest concentration of anti-Semitic sentiment can be found in the Middle East and North Africa, with 74% of respondents agreeing with the negative stereotypes presented by the ADL. The next most anti-Semitic region is Eastern Europe, with 34% of respondents agreeing with the negative stereotypes, followed by Western Europe (24%), sub-Saharan Africa (23%), Asia (22%), the Americas (19%) and Oceania (14%). The most anti-Semitic country outside of the Middle East and North Africa was Greece, with a 69% anti-Semitism rate. Greece’s government has been cracking down on the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party, whose rapid rise has worried European Jewry. The highest rates of anti-Semitism in Western and Eastern Europe were in France (37%) and Greece (69%), a finding that Liszt called “disturbing,” and Foxman estimated was partly a reflection of the economic and political instability.
“While it is startling to see how high the level of anti-Semitism is in the Middle East and North African countries, the fact of the matter is even aside from those countries. Close to a quarter of those polled in other parts of the world is infected with anti-Semitic attitudes,” Foxman said. “There is only a three-point difference when you take world attitudes toward Jews with the Middle East and North African countries, or consider the world without.” The least anti-Semitic countries in the world are Thailand (13%), Tanzania (12%), Denmark (9%), the United States (9%), the United Kingdom (8%), Vietnam (6%), the Netherlands (5%), Sweden (4%), Philippines (3%) and Laos (0.2%)…
[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.]
ISRAEL AND THE REALITY OF ANTI-SEMITISM
Jonathan S. Tobin
Commentary, May 13, 2014
In an era when acceptance of Jews in virtually every facet of society in the United States is universal, discussions about anti-Semitism are often understandably shelved in favor of those about prejudice about other, less successful minority groups. But when one looks around the globe, it’s clear that anti-Semitism is alive and thriving. Any doubts about that were removed by what may have been the most ambitious effort ever to quantify levels of prejudice. The international survey of attitudes toward Jews by the Anti-Defamation League published today has removed any doubt about the virulence of anti-Semitism.
The ADL Global 100 Index of Anti-Semitism is based on polls of adults in 101 countries plus the Palestinian territories. It contains few surprises, but confirms what has already been widely understood to be true about the persistence of bias against Jews. That 26 percent of all respondents across the globe agreed with at least six out of a list of 11 anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jews is hardly remarkable. Nor is the fact that this hate is largely concentrated, but not exclusive to the Middle East and North Africa, where 74 percent hold such views, and is most prevalent among Muslims (49 percent worldwide and 75 percent in the Middle East and Africa), who are, ironically, held in even lower esteem by those polled than the Jews.
The survey did not directly establish whether the persistence and widespread nature of anti-Semitic attitudes could be directly linked to hostility to Israel. Indeed, some of the results may point in another direction since the people of Holland have one of the lowest indexes of anti-Semitic attitudes (5 percent) in the world while also harboring great hostility to Israel. Similarly, Iran has become Israel’s most virulent and potentially dangerous foe in the Middle East while actually having the lowest level of anti-Semitic views in the region, albeit a still alarmingly high rate of 56 percent. Yet despite these anomalies (which can perhaps be explained by other factors), it is hardly possible to look at the map that charts these numbers without coming to the conclusion that the willingness to single out the one Jewish state on the planet for discriminatory treatment and to think it–alone of all nation states–deserves to be eliminated without understanding the strong link between levels of anti-Semitism and the war on Israel and the vital need to preserve that bulwark of Jewish existence against those who seek its destruction.
Among the fascinating details to be gleaned from this is the fact that 70 percent of those who hold anti-Semitic views have never met a Jew, most wildly overestimate the number of Jews in the world (instead of the fraction of a percent they invariably guess it to be vastly greater), and that more young people doubt the Holocaust while harboring fewer anti-Semitic views. While the survey centered on several basic canards about Jews, such as Jewish power (including control over the media, finance, the U.S. government or starting wars) and those who hold such vile views generally do so without personal knowledge of Jews, Jewish history, or the Holocaust. Nor is it possible to draw a direct correlation between bad economies and hate since while a depressed Greece has the highest anti-Semitic rating in Europe at 69 percent, the generally prosperous people of South Korea (almost all of whom have never had any contact with Jews) have an ominous rating of 53 percent.
But while a deep dive into the numbers provides a fascinating look at the way the world thinks with often perplexing results, there is no doubt about one hard and fast conclusion: the grip of anti-Semitism on the inhabitants of Planet Earth 70 years after the Holocaust remains powerful and perhaps impervious to reason. Why single out one of the world’s tiniest populations for such hatred? To that question, the survey offers no answer, as ADL head Abe Foxman admitted to the Wall Street Journal. Like traditional staples of anti-Semitism such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the justification for these noxious attitudes come from a variety of often contradictory frames of reference about Jewish activity, most of which are rooted in myth rather than reality.
Anti-Semitism has survived the death of European theocracies, Nazism, and Communism and metastasized into a belief system embraced by Muslims and Arabs, and remains a deadly force. Though some might claim that the existence of Israel and allegations about its behavior has become the single greatest motivating factor for anti-Semitism (judging by the survey, the Palestinians are the most anti-Semitic people on Earth), that assertion must be placed up against the fact that the attitudes that indicate hostility to Jews long predate the birth of the Jewish state or its coming into possession of the West Bank in 1967. Seen in that perspective, it’s clear that Israel is just the latest, albeit a vicious, excuse for Jew hatred. If not all those who hate Israel also embrace the full roster of anti-Semitic stereotypes, their willingness to embrace the war against the Jewish state demonstrates the way Jews remain the planet’s boogeyman and the objects of unthinking bias and potential violence.
Many Jews will look at these numbers and, no doubt, wonder how they can change the minds of the haters or adopt behaviors that will undercut the stereotypes. But whatever else it tells us, the survey is a reminder that anti-Semitism is about the minds of the anti-Semites and their desire to seek out a small group for hostility, not what the Jews do. Those who will seek to blame Israel or Jewish power for these numbers are deceiving both themselves and others. Anti-Semitism is an ancient belief system that can adapt itself to any set of circumstances or locale.
While the ADL and others will continue their work of seeking to educate the world against hate, until that seemingly futile task succeeds, Jews would do well to redouble their support for the Jewish state and to stand ready to defend it. There was no ADL survey in 1933 to tell us what we already knew about anti-Semitism as there is today. But all these years after the Holocaust and the subsequent rebirth of anti-Semitism in the guise of anti-Zionism, the necessity of the existence of Israel—a place where Jews can defend themselves against the haters and shelter those in need—is no less an imperative for being the obvious verdict of history.
AMID RISING ANTI-SEMITISM IN WESTERN EUROPE, ITALIAN JEWS
ARE STAGING A SURPRISING REVIVAL
Michael Ledeen
Tablet, Apr. 25, 2014
On March 20, Shalom Bahbout, chief rabbi of Naples and Southern Italy, sent a letter to the governors of the six regions that comprised the old Spanish Viceroyalty—Sicily, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, and Puglia—calling on them to institute an annual holiday for “research and memory” about the expulsion or forced conversion of the Jews from those regions on Oct. 31, 1541. “The departure of those people, by all rights native Italians, created grave damage to the cultural, economic, and social patrimony of the southern regions,” Bahbout wrote. His letter stressed that remembering the episode—which is rarely studied or seriously discussed in schools and universities, if at all—was important not only for Jews, but for promoting tolerance of all those considered different or outside the mainstream of society.
Yet, while southern Italians may have forgotten the details of how their ancestors treated local Jews, whose presence on the peninsula stretches back more than two millennia, they are in the midst of a widespread—and surprising—revival of contemporary Jewish life. From Rome to Palermo, Jewish religious activity is visibly on the rise, and Jewish-themed festivals have become regular events throughout the country, with religious leaders celebrating in some of the country’s most famous public squares—and even the legendary San Paolo soccer stadium in Naples. Last December, for Hanukkah, Italy’s Prime Minister Enrico Letta hosted Benjamin Netanyahu for a menorah-lighting in Rome, and candles were lit in Naples’ elegant Piazza dei Martiri and at Palermo’s Palazzo Steri, the old site of the Spanish Inquisition tribunal and prison. Meanwhile, Italian Jews—particularly in Rome—have organized new self-defense groups to combat outbursts of anti-Semitism, and leaders, Bahbout only one among them, have demanded that public officials confront the darker moments of Italy’s relationship with its Jews.
This is driven, at least in part, by the fact that a considerable number of southern Italians have reason to suspect or believe that their ancestors were forcibly converted to Catholicism 550 years ago. Some are interested in exploring their families’ Jewish roots, and that in turn has generated a wave of interest in conversion—but there are also some remarkable cases of recent conversions involving those without Jewish ancestors at all. The result has been an injection of new energy into congregations ranging from Orthodox groups operating under the umbrella the Union of Italian Jewish Communities in Rome to a lively Reform shul in Calabria that is now under the spirited leadership of Rabbi Barbara Aiello, an Italo-American who recently returned to her father’s birthplace of Serrastretta after spending years working in Milan.
It is hard to get accurate dimensions for this largely unnoticed phenomenon, perhaps because it runs directly counter to the larger theme of intensifying anti-Semitism in so much of Western Europe. Italian Jews have also traditionally preferred to maintain a low profile and are consequently reluctant to discuss their affairs, especially with outsiders. Chabad certainly has played a role—the group is especially active in Florence and Venice, where it operates popular kosher restaurants—but the central components are Italian. The rabbis themselves are unsure of the numbers involved. As Riccardo Di Segni, the chief rabbi of Rome, recently told me, they themselves are a bit baffled. “Yes, it is certainly real, all of us agree,” Di Segni told me. “But I can’t give you an explanation.”
Italian Jews have seen plenty of oppression—“ghetto” is, of course, an Italian word, originally used to describe the area in Venice where Jews were restricted to living—from the time of the Inquisition forward to the Fascist period, when Benito Mussolini passed racial laws more restrictive than Berlin’s. But while there have certainly been, and still are, Italian anti-Semites, Italians by and large never participated in the popular European anti-Semitic movements, whether racist or nationalist, of the 19th and 20th centuries that contributed to episodes like the Dreyfus Affair in France or for Nazism in Austria and Germany. By 1914, before the outbreak of World War I, the country had been led by two Jewish prime ministers, Alessandro Fortis and Luigi Luzzatti; two decades later, Italian authorities declined to join in the Nazis’ mass murder of Jews.
For decades after the Second World War, Roman Judaism was quiet, even moribund. In 1973, when I married my wife, Barbara, in the big early-20th-century synagogue on the banks of the Tiber, there was only one kosher restaurant in the ghetto area. Services were sparsely attended, the median age of worshipers was advanced, Jewish holidays were observed quietly, and by and large community leaders either preferred to maintain a low profile or threw in with the secular, leftist intelligentsia. The central piazza was notable mainly for its ancient bakery, which still produces spectacular sweets. It wasn’t a very chic place to live and was mostly populated by poor Jews, the shopkeepers in the neighborhood, or by a small group of movie people.
No more. The ghetto is now a beehive of tourism—foreign and Italian, Jewish and gentile—and there are many kosher restaurants, some very good indeed and frequented by lots of well-to-do non-Jews. A second bakery has opened featuring Eastern and Central European specialties. The Jewish schools, which had been across the river, have now moved into the ghetto and are flourishing, and the synagogue is well-attended both on holidays and for regular weekly services. Moreover, Judaism is booming in other Roman neighborhoods. At last count there were 18 shuls in town, most Sephardic or Roman—a tradition all its own, with a unique t’filah—and with various approaches to would-be congregants, from very strict, demanding formal proof of the mother’s Judaism or of an official conversion, to very open, including non-Jews who are considering conversion…
[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.]
MY FIRST TRIP TO ISRAEL, A LIGHT TO INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
Ryan Bellerose
Arutz Sheva, May 13, 2014
I got off the plane already a Pro Israel advocate, but I had no idea how much my views were about to change. I had been asked to come to Israel by an organisation named Stand with Us and I was excited to see the land I have studied for so many years of my life. Some of you have read my articles, you know that I am an indigenous rights activist from Canada who believes strongly in the rights of all indigenous peoples. What you may not know is that I am also pretty well versed in middle eastern history and geo politics. At least I thought I was.
The one thing you cannot get from books and maps is the actual size of everything here, the distances are so small that unless you are actually standing there looking, its almost impossible to really get a good picture. I thought I understood this place and this conflict and perhaps I did better than most, but it really took standing here to actually see what had been hidden in maps and books. Everything is so close here, you can literally drive across the country in a day. The distances are miniscule, and this affects everything from warfare to politics in a way that is rarely acknowledged in the media. I have always supported Israel's right to its ancestral lands, but after visiting Judeah, Samaria and Gush Etzion, I have become much more firm in my belief that these lands are sacrosanct and cannot be given up. These are the lands of the forefathers of your people, something that cannot be denied. I stood on the hills at Shiloh, I walked to the Lone tree at Gush Etzion, I walked the walls of Old Jerusalem, these are places that hold sacred spots in the hearts of many, both Christian and Jew, but they are Jewish to the core. If we do not support Jewish presence in the Jewish ancestral lands why are you here? You would have been better off in Uganda.
I would like to write more, but I have been travelling this miracle land, this land of my Jewish friends at a frenetic pace, I have been travelling to sacred sites and places steeped in history while trying to find ideas for my own people as well as things for them to see next year. It's been emotional for me, because these are places I read about as a child but more importantly because what I am seeing is a wonderful example of what a fractured, displaced people can accomplish when they reignite their culture and traditions on their ancestral lands. Israel truly is a light unto the nations and I am hopeful that my own people can take some of these lessons and apply them to our own situations. I hope you are all proud of your country and what you have accomplished because coming from someone who is just now seeing it from an outsiders perspective, its a miracle and should be celebrated.
CIJR wishes all its friends and supporters: Shabbat Shalom!
Canadians More Likely to be Anti-Semitic Than Americans, Poll Finds: Katrina Clarke, National Post, May 13, 2014 —A new global poll reveals Canadians are more likely to be anti-Semitic than Americans.
What the Media Won’t Report: The Palestinians Are the Most Anti-Semitic People in the World: Adam Levick, Algemeiner, May 15, 2014—How would you characterize someone who believes that Jews have too much power over the global media and global political affairs, that Jews are responsible for most of the world wars, and that people only hate Jews because of the way Jews behave?
Venezuelan Jewish Leader Says Anti-Semitism Has ‘Exploded’ in Recent Years in Latin America: Shiryn Ghermezian, Algemeiner, May 1, 2014—Sammy Eppel, activist and director of The Commission for Human Rights at B’nai B’rith Venezuela, said on Monday that anti-Semitism in Latin America has significantly increased in recent years.
French Jews Say Prime Minister Manuel Valls Has Their Back: Jerusalem Post, Apr. 8, 2014—Even among those who anticipated it, the intensity of anti-Semitic violence that hit France in 2002 was shocking.
Great in Uniform (Video): Youtube, Apr. 30, 2014—The project "Great in Uniform" was set up 10 years ago.
The purpose of the project is to integrate young people with disabilities in the IDF, first as volunteers and then as soldiers in every aspect, including the simple soldier's ID and uniform, as part of their preparation for an independent life and their integration into Israeli society.
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