New survey highlights 'concerning' levels of anti-Semitism in New Zealand

Tuesday, 29 March 2022

High levels of anti-Semitism have been highlighted in a new survey by the New Zealand Jewish Council, with 63 per cent of respondents agreeing with at least one anti-Semitic viewpoint.

The Antisemitism Survey of New Zealand 2021 put 18 internationally recognised statements to more than 1000 New Zealanders to measure anti-Semitism sentiment. It was conducted online by Curia Research.

The survey revealed 21 per cent of respondents held two or more classical anti-Semitic views, agreeing with statements like “Jews have too much power in international financial markets”, and 6 per cent of those surveyed held nine or more anti-Semitic views.

Former chief science adviser Sir Peter Gluckman wrote the survey foreword and said the significant percentage of people who held classical anti-Semitic views was very concerning.

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“This survey shows that classic antisemitism has re-emerged – particularly during the pandemic – as Holocaust denial and has become conflated with conspiracy theories and alt-right politics,” he said.

“That is the guts of my concern, it’s the guts of the Jewish community's concern, it’s the guts of the difficulties that we face as a community, and frankly it’s the guts of the difficulties that New Zealand faces when there are these kinds of attitudes out there that will grow as we deal with all the other issues of geostrategic instability, of climate change …

“Issues that will make people uncertain, scared, nervous… anti-Semitism will rise.”

For 83-year-old Wendy Ross, life in New Zealand as a Jewish woman has been mainly positive.

“One is always conscious of the possibility of anti-Semitism, and we know when things are tough politically, internationally, whatever, that anti-Semitism gets worse,” she said.

“I don’t think I encountered any at school or at secondary school or at university …”

But anti-Semitism has reared its head from time to time, she said.

Ross knows that whenever she goes to the Jewish community centre, security will be on the door.

While she steers clear of social media, Ross has heard recent second-hand stories of conspiracy theories cropping up on some platforms.

“You know, that Jews are behind it all, the most ridiculous stuff.”

She worries about the lack of education around the Holocaust, fears backed up by findings in the Jewish Council survey.

Less than half of the respondents could correctly identify that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust and one-fifth admitted to knowing virtually nothing about it.

“The ignorance of the Holocaust. That is really, really worrying. There are some schools that do a good job in teaching the children, but not nearly enough,” said Ross.

“The same thing goes for Israel. Some of the most libellous things are said by otherwise, you would think, well-educated people. And, of course, almost all Jews feel that Israel is very, very special. It’s part of our religion, Israel is the historic homeland.”

In total, 47 per cent of respondents held one or more anti-Israel view, with 7 per cent believing it did not have the right to exist as a majority Jewish state.

Gluckman said anti-Israel sentiment and ‘Zionophobia’ could be used as a cover for deeper anti-Semitic views.

However, that did not mean legitimate criticism of Israel and its position in the Middle East was invalid.

“I have no problem criticising Israel and nor should other people if they understand the issues,” he said.

“The problem is, simply, that most of the criticism is because Israel chooses to exist.”