Of all the most bizarre reasons yet to emerge to try and explain anti-Semitism, a new “study” which claims that it is linked to geography is the most outlandish one yet.
According to the new “study,” details of which were published in the Haaretz newspaper in Israel, a link can be found “between the place a person lives, and their tendency to prejudice against Jews.”
The paper quotes two German researchers who specialize in cultural economics, who in their study “Hatred transformed: How Germans changed their minds about Jews, 1890-2006,” published by the Centre for Economic Policy Research in London, as saying that a person’s place of birth bears a great influence on his or her level of hatred toward Jews (and foreigners in general).
The report goes on to say that “ith the help of the appropriate (but measured) education – we can reduce levels of anti-Semitism (and hatred of foreigners).”
The two researchers, Nico Voigtländer and Hans-Joachim Voth, claim they have combined historical data with current statistics and surveys to “sketch a wide-ranging and interesting portrait of the trends in modern anti-Semitism, from the end of the 19th century, to the beginning of the 21st century.”
The report said the “questions researchers asked and analyzed are interesting themselves, and can serve other researchers in different parts of the world, not only in regards to Jews. The list includes the following questions: ‘Do you think that Jews brought persecution on to themselves?’ ‘Would you mind if you had Jewish neighbors?’ ‘Should Jews have equal rights?’ ‘Would you mind if a Jew married into your family?’ ‘Do Jews have too much influence in the world?’ ‘”Jews are exploiting their victim status for their own financial gain – do you agree?’
“On examination of the answers that Germans gave to these questions, from 1996 to 2006, the researchers discovered a consistent difference between different areas of Germany, which is made up of 16 states. In some areas, for example, 87 percent were convinced that the Jews brought persecution onto themselves.
“In contrast, in other places the number of people who agreed with this sentiment was 38 percent of the population. At the top of the list, however, is Lower Bavaria, where the study found the highest rate of anti-Semitism, according to a number of variables.
“Following this, the researchers examined the rate of anti-Semitism in the same places in the past. They did this by examining the rate of voting among Germans for anti-Semitic parties from 1890 to 1912, as well as the Nazi party in the 1920s, and also in the 1930s.
“And what happened after the war? The study also examined the influence of the policy of the countries that occupied Germany after 1945. At a time when all the allies were committed to a process of “de-Nazification,” every one of them implemented it in a different way. Analysis of the data showed that Germans who lived under British occupation are the least anti-Semitic. Areas controlled by the Americans, however, tend to have stronger anti-Semitic attitudes among residents.”
