A new comprehensive study, supported by the EAJC, has been presented in Oxford

At the Oxford Summer Institute 2019, hosted by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), Prof. Zeev Khanin, Chairman of the Academic Council of the Institute for Euro-Asian Jewish Studies, presented the preliminary findings of a major new study entitled "A Portrait of the Jewish Population in the Post-Soviet Space."

The survey, conducted with the support of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, involved personal interviews with over 2,000 respondents meeting the criteria of the Israeli Law of Return, including more than 900 in Russia, 890 in Ukraine, 250 in Belarus, and 350 in Moldova.

According to the findings, the most prominent categories of antisemitism observed in the former USSR region are crimes motivated by Judeophobia, incitement of hostility toward Jews, media-driven public antisemitism, and antisemitic stereotypes.

While sociological data indicates a rejection of overt declarations of ethnic inequality and hatred, this does not necessarily preclude latent xenophobia and sentiments of ethnic or racial superiority within a significant portion of society. Consequently, the threshold for violating the taboo on public antisemitism and ethnic discrimination by various social institutions remains low.

Although 19% of Ukrainian Jews and 7% of Russian and Belarusian Jews report a significant rise in antisemitism in recent years, there is a notable disparity between the perceived dynamics of antisemitism in small towns on the one hand, and in capitals and major cities, such as Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kyiv, Odesa, and Minsk, on the other.

While 31% of respondents in the former Soviet provincial areas reported a significant increase in antisemitism in recent years, only 6–17% of respondents in capitals and major cities expressed concern regarding this trend.

A similar pattern is observed regarding antisemitic attacks: while 15–26% of respondents in capitals and major cities reported directly encountering antisemitic attacks, this figure rises to 47% for smaller communities.

The study highlights the return of long-standing anti-Jewish stereotypes to the public consciousness, notably the accusation of dual loyalty. According to public polls, approximately half of Russian citizens believe that Jews are primarily loyal to their own interests rather than to the interests of the country they reside in. Concurrently, the IEAJS study demonstrates that 70–85% of surveyed Jews from the former USSR regard the countries of their current residence as "their own"; 37–53% fully agree that Jews should be patriots of their country of residence; and 33–50% perceive no contradiction between this patriotism and solidarity with the State of Israel.

"The departure from Soviet-era state-sponsored antisemitism and the decline in violence motivated by antisemitic views do not imply that antisemitism as a cultural phenomenon has been eradicated. The majority of xenophobic groups in the society of the former USSR are characterized by 'latent' or 'dormant' antisemitism," stated Prof. Zeev Khanin.

"The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress systematically monitors antisemitic incidents and discourse in the former USSR region. We are convinced that antisemitism remains one of the most acute and critical challenges of the modern world, and we call upon state and public leaders in the former Soviet Union to confront this heinous and highly dangerous phenomenon in their respective countries," declared EAJC President Mikhail Mirilashvili.