50-Nation Study Finds Anti-Semitism to Be Flourishing

LONDON — Anti-Semitism is flourishing in the 1990s, fed by rising nationalism in the former Eastern Bloc and growing popularity of far-right parties in the West, according to a 50-nation study released Wednesday.

The study by the London-based Institute of Jewish Affairs noted that Russia has “probably the most dynamic anti-Semitic movement anywhere in the world.”

Russia’s ultranationalist organizations, which “maintain a facade of respectability” under the guise of patriotism, are a greater threat than the blatantly anti-Semitic group Pamyat, the report said.

In the West, the report pointed to “a new breed of electorally successful far-right leaders” with anti-Semitic leanings, among them France’s Jean-Marie Le Pen and America’s David Duke.

Such parties have made “dramatic electoral gains” in France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Sweden and Switzerland,” the institute said.

And it noted “an increasing number of violent attacks on Jewish targets” in some countries.

The 144-page “Anti-Semitism World Report 1992” will be submitted to next week’s World Jewish Congress conference in Brussels.