Poll: Jews overplay the Holocaust

ADL poll reveals many Europeans still cling to anti-Jewish stereotypes.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Europeans believe Jews talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust, a poll conducted by the Anti-Defamation League and released Thursday revealed. The poll, conducted among 2,714 adults in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Poland, also showed that many in Europe still cling to anti-Jewish stereotypes, saying they believed that Jews held too much power in the business and finance fields, controlled the US's Middle East policy, and killed Jesus. Thirty-nine percent said they believed that Jews held "too much power in the business world," and 44% said that Jews had "too much power in international financial markets." One-fifth of the respondents blamed Jews for Jesus's death. When polled on Jews' perception of the Holocaust, 47% said that Jews still talk too much about it. When asked about the Middle East conflict, slightly more than half (51%) of those polled said they believed Jews were more loyal to Israel than to their own nations, while a quarter of those polled said their opinion of Jews was influenced by Israel's actions. Of those whose perception of Jews was influenced by events in Israel, 52% said that the influence was a negative one. Fifty-three percent of respondents in Spain and 56% in Poland said they believed that American Jews controlled US policy in the Middle East. ADL Director Abraham Foxman said that the poll's findings were not surprising. "Millions of Europeans continue to accept a wide range of traditional anti-Semitic stereotypes and conspiracy theories," he said. "The findings…demonstrate that individual governments and the EU…need to find methods and implement programs that will break down the old stereotypes," Foxman added.