WATCH: What do Londoners think of when they think of Jews?

The word association game was the idea of the Israel Advocacy Movement, a British organization that seeks to build a "mass movement" of support for Israel.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Updated: AUGUST 10, 2015 17:07
What Londoners first think when they hear the word 'Jew' (Israel Advocacy Movement)
Word association is not necessarily the best barometer of popular opinion, but there is no doubt that it can be a tool in an interesting social experiment.
That was the idea behind a recent video by the, a British organization that seeks to create a "mass movement of Israeli advocates" in order to "counter British hostility to Israel."
In their latest video, uploaded to YouTube Sunday, the group took to the streets of London to find out "what Londoners first think when they hear the word 'Jew.'"
"To do this," Joseph, the video's presenter, explains, "we devised a quick word association game where we said a load of random words and people said the first thing that came to mind."
Among the random words presented to the respondents were "hipsters," which received the instinctive reactions of "Goofy" and "Trendy."
Reactions to other minority groups, such as Hindus, focused on those peoples' "religion" and "different" background.
"Israel", was said five times and was the most repeated answer, and one respondent added some less than flattering flair, associating Israel, as well as the British government and Obama with activities that ought to be done in the privacy of a restroom.
Some of the more "veteran" associations with the Jewish people also cropped up, especially "money," which came up three times, and "gold" which came up once.
Dark episodes from modern Jewish history were also a common thread. One respondent associated Jews with the Holocaust, another with Hitler, while a younger respondent phrased his answer rather simply, telling the camera that Jews got "really F'ed up."
Some of the more eccentric responses included "tree," "cultural," "wise" and "Jesus," who was mentioned twice.


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