How antisemitic a nation is at present? How unpopular are Jews there in this day an age? There are several ways to rise above the anecdotal and the historical and measure that objectively. No single way is perfect, and none has that ultimate ‘eye-opening’ quality that we all hope for. That ‘ultimate eye-opening quality’ is, of course, the capacity to signal where Jews are most at risk, where a host population is most likely to turn against them, dispossess them, torture them mentally and then expel them or annihilate them physically. No measure of antisemitism enlightens us on that exactly. Why to collect them at all? Why to run population surveys asking people what they think about Jews, if we do not know how to convert these findings into a tangible measure of risk for Jews?-ask the cynical souls. The patient souls, myself included, continue to run the surveys, because one day we, the analysts, may be able to create a tangible measure of risk out of them. And if we do not run them, we may never be able to do so. On this cheerful note, let us see what the data say specifically about where the populations of Russia and Ukraine stand on the issue of Jews.
Just how prevalent is the open dislike of Jews in Russia and Ukraine? By ‘open’ dislike I mean the capacity of a person to state openly something along the lines ‘I do not like Jews, actually’, when asked. That is different from a latent dislike, or suspicion, of genuine neutrality-all of these positions may not express themselves in readiness to say ‘I do not like Jews’ quite as clearly but in avoidance of the survey, refusing to answer or giving a ‘neutral’ response. One source of information on the open dislike is the Pew Global Attitudes surveys. Pew Center has been surveying different European populations asking them the so-called ’favourability question’: ‘what is your opinion of Jews?’ offering ‘very favourable’, ‘favourable’, ‘unfavourable’ and ‘very unfavourable’ as response options. Below I plot the responses of people in Ukraine and Russia, compared to UK and Spain-to enhance their meaning. Why UK and Spain specifically? Because these countries represent the different ends of the Western European spectrum of antisemitism: the North with its very low levels of antisemitism and the South with its relatively high levels.
What do we observe? Thirty years of data are in front of us (Figure 1), more than a demographic generation, so we have a panoramic view of negativity towards Jews in both contexts. In 1991, at the dawn of the post-communist era, 20%-25% of Russians and Ukrainians had an unfavourable opinion of Jews. A very gradual decline in negativity is visible in both countries, with Russia ending around 20% and Ukraine around 10% in 2019. One should not over-interpret these differences, the gap between the two is not tremendous, but from the ‘purist’ Jewish perspective: Ukraine seems to have a little less intense anti-Jewish negativity than Russia at present. That is when it comes to open dislike as conveyed by the favourability question. In the Western context, the question of ‘social desirability’ is often raised: levels of the open dislike of Jews and other groups, the critics say, may be suppressed due to the respondents being aware of the ‘social sanctions’ against them. In Western culture of political correctness, revealing open dislike of this or that group is considered a little risky. Well, even if it is true in the West, that is not the case in Russia and Ukraine. People’s minds there are less affected by political correctness Western-style. The levels are what they appear to be, in my view.
How do Russia and Ukraine compare to the West? In both contexts, negativity to Jews is above the very low British levels (below 10% at all times and trending toward 5% most recently), and it is actually below the levels seen in some places in Southern Europe, here represented by Spain. Specifically, Russia seems to be level with Spain since 2011 and Ukraine is best described as being between Spain and the UK. So far so good.
Now, how do Russia and Ukraine compare on specific ways of anti-Jewish thinking rather than non-specific emotional negativity? These specific ways are documented by the surveys of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). In addition to favourability question, they also ask people whether they agree or disagree with certain statements about Jews. The statements are carefully crafted to reflect long-existing anti-Jewish sentiments, mostly focusing on ‘excessive power’ or ‘deviousness’ of Jews, but also including a criticism of the Jewish ‘excessive sensitivity’ towards all-things-Holocaust-related.
It appears that Russia and Ukraine are at the same level when it comes to thinking that ‘Jews talk too much about the Holocaust’. A very strong minority of over 40% of the population in these countries feel that way. They are also at about the same level when it comes to thinking that ‘Jews are responsible for all world’s wars’, though that sentiment is considerably less prevalent in both, around 15%. Finally, a greater proportion of Ukrainians think that ‘Jews have too much control over global affairs’ (about 50% , compared to about 30% in Russia). Here again, Russia and Ukraine resemble Spain and are very different from the UK. So, when it comes to specific anti-Jewish sentiments, Russia and Ukraine are similar to each other, with Ukraine possibly ‘leading’ on certain sentiments.
The final installment of information on this topic is the anti-Israel sentiment. This, too, comes from the ADL surveys. Both in Russia and Ukraine it is rather low, and in Ukraine more so. Countries of the West featuring here display a much higher level of unfavourability towards Israel.
To conclude, Russia and Ukraine, are by and large, the proverbial ‘birds of feather’ when it comes to negativity to Jews. The absolute levels in both countries are not science-fictionally high, similar or indeed higher levels are observed in Southern Europe. When it comes to anti-Israel sentiment, it is somewhat less prevalent in Ukraine compared to Russia. In that both Russia and Ukraine compare favourably to the West, where anti-Israeli stance is more central than the old-style antisemitism.
Interestg paradox or seeming contradictn in the UK, where v low levels of anti Jewish sentiment co-exist with v high levels of anti Israel sentiment, (considerg the obvious ie that Israel is the Jewish Homeland). Also the low levels of anti jewish sentiment in the UK may contain those with a sizeable & even disproportionate influence on public discourse & policy
In the immortal words of Bob Dylan in “Oxford Town”: “Whaddya say about that my friend!”