Antisemitism

Antisemitism is the bias, prejudice or discrimination against Jews. A synonym of antisemitism is Judeophobia, preferred by those considering "antisemitism" ambiguous.

Overview

Human history has been full of antisemitism, the worst instance of which is the Holocaust, while the most common form of antisemitism is conspiracy theories. The adjective of antisemitism is antisemitic. Those with antisemitic views are called antisemites.

Recent trend

Main articles: Holocaust denial, Holocaust inversion, and Holocaust trivialization

Black Hebrew Israelites, who refuse to believe that Jesus was Jewish, protested in San Diego, California against the long-standing depiction of Jesus as a "White man" rather than a Black man.

A propaganda poster made by the Black Hebrew Israelites (BHI) implying that Black and Native Americans are the "real" descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. The BHI allege that the said peoples have been "wrongfully" classified by White imperialists into different ethnic groups across the Western hemisphere.

On January 14, 2025, American civil rights group Anti-Defamation League (ADL) announced the findings of their newest global survey (58,000 respondents) that 46% of the world's adult population (around 2,200,000,000 people) held deeply entrenched antisemitic views.

Among the respondents, 56% thought that Jews were "only loyal to Israel" while 46% "Jews had too much power over global affairs". 76% of those in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are found to agree with 11 negative stereotypes of Jews, the highest of all regions. Meanwhile, Kuwait and Indonesia are found to have highest % of such.

Regarding the Holocaust, only 48% of the respondents recognized its historical accuracy, with the percentage being the lowest (39%) among the age group 18–34.

Etymology

American historian Deborah Lipstadt and several antisemitism experts said that the word antisemitism was invented by anti-Jewish German nationalist Wilhelm Marr in his tract Path to Victory of Germanism Over Judaism to refer to the prejudice against Jews, which he deemed necessary for the German race to stop Jews (the leading group of Semites in Europe back then) from subverting the German culture. Despite Semites including other Middle Eastern ethnic groups, German nationalists like Wilhelm Marr referred to Jews as Semites specifically.

Semantically, antisemitism cannot be assumed as the prejudice against all Semitic groups, or it would constitute the etymological fallacy (using a word's ancient meaning to make a point about its current meaning). Moreover, the word covers Jews who practice Judaism, Jews who converted to Christianity and those with traceable Jewish ancestry, all of whom can be victims of antisemitism.

Spelling

The term is spelled by some as anti-Semitism, but such spelling is controversial. Historians have pointed out that anti-Semitism is misleading as there is no such an ideology as "Semitism" that can be opposed, while the concept Semites derived from pseudoscientific 19th-century scientific racism.

Asia

Antisemitism in Asia (Polling agency: ADL)

Country	% population holding biases against Jews (95% confidence level)
Malaysia	61	61
South Korea	53	53
Indonesia	48	48
Bangladesh	32	32
Kazakhstan	32	32
Mongolia	26	26
Japan	23	23
China	20	20
India	20	20
Thailand	13	13
Vietnam	6	6
Philippines	3	3
Laos	0.2	0.2

Europe

Main article: Antisemitism in Europe

In a 2013 survey of 5,847 Jews in Europe, 76% thought that antisemitism had increased in the previous five years, while 29% had thought about moving countries as they felt unsafe. A 2023 ADL survey found that as many as one-third of Western Europeans believed in stereotypes of Jews. This was reportedly worse in some Eastern European countries, particularly Hungary (37%), Poland (35%) and Russia (26%). In Eastern Europe, the level of antisemitism is found to be high. The cause of persistent antisemitism in Europe is under debate.

Antisemitism in Europe (Polling agency: ADL)

Country	% population holding biases against Jews (95% confidence level)
Greece	69	69
Armenia	58	58
Poland	45	45
Bulgaria	44	44
Serbia	42	42
Hungary	41	41
Belarus	38	38
France	37	37
Azerbaijan	37	37
Lithuania	36	36
Romania	35	35
Croatia	33	33
Bosnia and Herzegovina	32	32
Georgia	32	32
Russia	30	30
Moldova	30	30
Spain	29	29
Montenegro	29	29
Latvia	28	28
Austria	28	28
Slovenia	27	27
Belgium	27	27
Germany	27	27
Switzerland	26	26
Estonia	22	22
Portugal	21	21
Ireland	20	20
Italy	20	20
Iceland	16	16
Norway	15	15
Finland	15	15
Czech Republic	13	13
Denmark	9	9
United Kingdom	8	8
Netherlands	5	5
Sweden	4	4

Latin America

Mariana de Carabajal, a Jewish Catholic convert, was executed over the false charge of "relapsing into Judaism," in where is now the Mexico City, 1601 AD.

"JEWS GO HOME!", a graffiti on the wall of the Israeli Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela.

Antisemitism in Latin America (Polling agency: ADL)

Country	% population holding biases against Jews (95% confidence level)
Panama	52	52
Colombia	41	41
Dominican Republic	41	41
Peru	38	38
Chile	37	37
Guatemala	36	36
Paraguay	35	35
Nicaragua	34	34
Uruguay	33	33
Costa Rica	32	32
Venezuela	30	30
Bolivia	30	30
Haiti	26	26
Mexico	24	24
Argentina	24	24
Trinidad and Tobago	24	24
Jamaica	18	18

Since 7 October 2023, a spike in harassment and violence against Jews has also been recorded across Latin America. According to the Latin American Jewish Congress, 91% of community leaders from several Latin American countries reported that antisemitism had increased since 7 October 2023.

Hispan TV, the Spanish channel of the antisemitic Iranian regime's state television Press TV, has reportedly contributed to antisemitism among its 600 million audience in Latin America by promoting the

• Holocaust denial
• myth of Jews controlling the Hollywood and governments
• perception of the antisemitic Iranian regime being the "leader of global resistance movements"

MENA

Further information: History of Jews in the Arabian Peninsula, Calls for the destruction of Israel, and Palestinian political violence

Background

Execution of a Jewess in Morocco (Sol Hachuel), c. 1861; painting by Alfred Dehodencq.

Jews started living in the Arabian Peninsula in the 6th century BC, when Babylonian Empire's conquest of the Kingdom of Judah forced Jews out of Judea. Successive waves of Jewish exiles – caused by alternating conquests of Judea – made Jews the leading ethnoreligious group in the Arabian Peninsula, where Judaism stood in contrast to the multi-god religion of ancient Arabs, many of whom had arrived later than the Jews due to their nomadic nature.

Middle Ages

Jews thrived in the Arabian Peninsula until Muslims conquered the Peninsula, when they, along with other conquered indigenous peoples, were required to pay jizya in exchange for their existence to be tolerated. The payment of jizya granted Jews the status of dhimmi under which they were prohibited – under the threat of execution – from criticizing any aspects of Islam, sharing Jewish ideas to Muslims or touching a Muslim woman. Jews were also not allowed to

• drink wine in public
• ride horses or camels
• pray or mourn in loud voices
• build synagogues taller than mosques
• construct houses taller than Muslim houses

21st century

2010s

Antisemitism is extremely common in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). In 2011, the Pew Research Center polled a significant number of Middle Eastern countries' citizens, where Muslims are the majority. Most of the interviewees were hostile to Jews. Only 2% of Egyptians, 3% of Lebanese Muslims and 2% of Jordanians reported feeling good about Jews. Some scholars believe that mass media have played a significant role in such phenomenon. Further data are presented as follows.

Antisemitism in the MENA (Polling agency: ADL)

Country	% population holding biases against Jews (95% confidence level)
Palestine	93	93
Iraq	92	92
Yemen	88	88
Algeria	87	87
Libya	87	87
Tunisia	86	86
Kuwait	82	82
Jordan	81	81
Bahrain	81	81
Qatar	80	80
Morocco	80	80
United Arab Emirates	80	80
Lebanon	78	78
Oman	76	76
Egypt	75	75
Saudi Arabia	74	74

Sub-Saharan Africa

Antisemitism in sub-Saharan Africa (Polling agency: ADL)

Country	% population holding biases against Jews (95% confidence level)
Senegal	53	53
Mauritius	44	44
South Africa	38	38
Cameroon	35	35
Kenya	35	35
Botswana	33	33
Côte D'Ivoire	22	22
Nigeria	16	16
Uganda	16	16
Ghana	15	15
Tanzania	12	12

The % of South Africa's population holding biases against Jews rose to 47% in 2019 from 38% in 2014. Since the Israel–Hamas war started on 7 October 2023, there has been an upsurge in harassment and violence against Jews in South Africa. Between 7 October and 31 December 2023, attacks on Jews rose by 631% in South Africa as compared to the same period in 2022.

United States

Further information: Louis Farrakhan, Nation of Islam, and Black Hebrew Israelites

2010s

Neo-Nazi Goyim Defense League (GDL) member Patrick Little holding an antisemitic placard ("JEWS RAPE KIDS") at a street corner in Los Angeles, United States.

A 2017 survey showed that 14% of Americans were hostile to Jews. Since the October 7 massacre, antisemitism has surged in America and Europe, especially on college campuses. Such antisemitism has caused thousands of Jewish students to get attacked over their identity.

2020s

In August 2024, the advocacy group Combat Antisemitism Movement did a poll which found that around 3,500,000 American Jews had faced antisemitism since the October 7 massacre in 2023. 1,075 American Jews were asked, 28% of whom said that they, often, were told that "Jews care too much about money," 25% were told that "Jews control the world" and 13% were told that "the Holocaust did not happen" or its "severity has been exaggerated." Meanwhile, the FBI released crime statistics illustrating that antisemitic incidents constituted 68% of all religion-based hate crimes in 2023, a 63% rise compared to 2022.

A follow-up research between May and October 2024 found that American Jews faced rising discrimination in job search, with American Jews having to make 24% more applications to receive the same amount of favorable first responses as Western European Americans, while Israeli Americans having to make 39% more applications to receive the same amount of such.

Related pages

• Khazar myth
• Antiziganism
• Historical revisionism
• Anti-Judaism and antisemitism
• Antisemitism in the Soviet Union
• Antisemitic stereotypes
• Nazism