The Huffington Post website reports today (March 22, 2012) that -- just days after a lone gunman murdered a rabbi and three children at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France -- a new study reports widespread anti-Semitism in France and across Europe.
The study -- completed in January and released yesterday by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) -- finds that 24 percent of the French population holds anti-Semitic views, up from 20 percent in 2009.
About half a million Jews live in France -- the largest number of Jews in any western European nation -- which is less than one percent of France's population.
The study found particularly high levels of anti-Semitism in three European nations -- Hungary, Spain, and Poland -- which demand a serious response from political, religious, and civic leaders in those nations, according to Abraham Foxman, ADL national director.
