There are no violent manifestations of anti-Semitism in Russia - REK head
MOSCOW. Oct 29 (Interfax) - The level of anti-Semitism in Russia is among the lowest in the post-Soviet space, and violence associated with it is almost non-existent there, Yury Kanner, the head of the Russian Jewish Congress, said.
"Our studies show that we have almost no violent manifestations of anti-Semitism," Kanner told reporters at the 2nd Moscow International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism, Racism, and Xenophobia.
The most blatant manifestation of anti-Semitism in Russia over the past year took place in the village of Lubavichi, a former shtetl, where the words "Get out of Here!" were written on a brick wall at a Jewish cemetery, he said. There are currently no Jews in the village, he said.
"That was one of the most blatant manifestations. And according to the latest ADL survey [the Anti-Defamation League, a U.S. human rights organization], we received a score of 23. They ask respondents questions about the most widespread anti-Semitic myths, and if they answer affirmatively more than five times, say that they believe in them, they are deemed to be anti-Semitic," Kanner said.
The score is the percentage of respondents who give affirmative answers to six or more questions, he said.
The highest level of anti-Semitism in the former USSR is in Armenia (60). It is somewhat lower in Protestant Christian countries, specifically Estonia and Finland, than in Russia, somewhat higher in Catholic countries, and the highest score in "old" Europe is in Orthodox Greece (about 60), Kanner said.