‘Stamp on the Jews’ — antisemitic graffiti on an Italian street. Photo: Osservatorio Antisemitismo.

Antisemitic attitudes remain alarmingly high across Europe, with one in four Europeans harboring antisemitic prejudices according to a new Anti-Defamation League (ADL) survey published on Wednesday morning.

However, the 2023 edition of the ADL’s European Global 100 survey, which examines 10 countries, also revealed a steep decline in antisemitic attitudes in Ukraine over the last year, as the country has confronted the ongoing Russian invasion led by its Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

The survey found that one out of three respondents in six Western European countries believe that Jews are more loyal to Israel than to their home countries. In Spain, one in four people are likely to believe classic antisemitic stereotypes – particularly hateful beliefs about Jews and money and Jews controlling the government.

Spain remains the country with the highest level of antisemitic attitudes, followed by Belgium (24 percent), France (17 percent), Germany (12 percent) and the United Kingdom (10 percent). The Netherlands registered the lowest score of the 10 countries polled for the antisemitism index, with just six percent of those polled holding antisemitic views.

However, despite the country’s low index score, 18 percent of Dutch respondents agreed that “Jews have too much power in the business world” and 38 percent believe “Jews are more loyal to Israel than to this country.”

In Eastern Europe, antisemitic attitudes are even more firmly entrenched, the ADL survey found. Despite modest declines in each of the four countries polled, there are still high levels of antisemitic beliefs in Hungary (37 percent), Poland (35 percent) and Russia (26 percent). “Holocaust awareness is virtually universal across Europe, but Holocaust denial is markedly higher in Eastern Europe,” the ADL observed. “In Hungary and Ukraine, 19 percent of those polled agree with the statement that ‘the Holocaust is a myth and did not happen,’ or say the numbers of Jews who died were ‘greatly exaggerated.” In Russia and Poland, those denying the Holocaust were at 17 percent and 15 percent, respectively.

The ADL observed that the largest decline in hateful attitudes toward Jews was recorded in Ukraine, where antisemitic attitudes dropped from a record high of 46 percent in 2019 to 29 percent in 2023. The organization speculated that this change was driven in part by the popularity of Zelensky, whose approval ratings have risen dramatically in response to his defiance in the face of Russian military attacks.

“The dramatic improvement in antisemitic attitudes in Ukraine seems linked to the popularity of President Zelensky, a leader who is both proudly Jewish and public about his heritage,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s chief executive, said in a statement. “While the survey findings do not directly address questions of causality, there’s no doubt that having a Jewish president who is being praised for his response to Russian aggression seems to have affected perceptions of Jews among ordinary Ukrainian citizens.”

Greenblatt added that it was “disturbing that so many Europeans continue to subscribe to some of the most dangerous antisemitic canards from history, including that Jews are inherently greedy, that they control government and finance, or are more loyal to Israel. And unfortunately, this has not gotten better since our last poll of the region in 2019.”