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Poll shows most Russians don't hate Jews

Updated: 14/Feb/2006 18:55

The Kremlin

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A poll taken in Russia has indicated that the majority of Russians do not hate or even dislike Jews. The poll conducted by the Russian pollster, the Public Opinion Foundation, shows most Russians are ambivalent about Jews and Jew-haters.

The poll shows that the overwhelming majority of Russians, 84 percent do not dislike Jews. Only seven percent do dislike Jews, which is down from eight percent in a similar poll a year ago.

The poll also asks the question, "How do you feel about people who dislike Jews?" The number of people who felt negative about such people has risen from 34percent to 42 percent, with only five percent having positive feelings towards such people.

Media response to Moscow attack

The same foundation also surveyed attitudes to how the media dealt with violence against Jews. A full 30 percent of respondents were satisfied with the media response to the recent attack at a Moscow synagogue and 15 percent thought there was too much reporting on the incident.

Many people surveyed were aware of the attack at a Moscow synagogue: 68 percent of polled Russians and 86 percent of Muscovites are aware of this event. Some respondents did say that more important events could have been given more attention.

One respondent claimed "if such an incident took place in an Orthodox Church, the mass media would not have paid so much attention to it."

The foundation concluded that "the number of statements with open or anti-Semitic subtexts is quite small. This is an indication of the marginal position in Russian society currently occupied by outright anti-Semitism."

Law proposed to ban anti-Semitic books

As the poll shows that the numbers of people that are openly anti-Semitic falls, members of Russia’s Public Chamber and human rights activists have proposed that a list be compiled of extremist and anti-Semitic literature should receive a formal ban in Russia.

Genry Reznik, a well-known Russian lawyer and member of the Public Chamber was one of the main architects of the potential law.

‘The nucleus’ of literature aimed at fanning up ethnic hatred has been around for decades and the dissemination of such books is banned in many countries, Reznik said. Among such books he cited Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a nineteenth century anti-Semitic and forged Russian book.

No official from the Russian Jewish community was available for comment regarding the poll or the potential law.