Information Visualization of Anti-Semitism in Europe

by phil on Saturday Sep 3, 2005 6:47 PM
infographics, personal projects

I've constructed a visualization of the spread of anti-Semitism in Europe. The map compares different countries' responses to anti-Semitic statements such as, "Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust."

Click "Continue Reading" below for some background information on how I came up with this project. Click here to view the project.

My curiosity about anti-Semitism was sparked by a mention on Instapundit of anti-Semitism at Berkeley (May 19th, 2005):

Weinberg graduates this month as a student whose days at Cal were marked by what he calls "pinnacles of horror," in the pinched tone of a man betrayed. He remembers pro-Palestinian protesters insisting that Israeli border crossings are as bad as Nazi death camps. He remembers the glass front door of Berkeley's Hillel building -- where he attends Friday night services -- shattered by a cinderblock, with the message FUCK JEWS scrawled nearby. He remembers the spray-painted swastikas discovered one Monday morning last September on the walls of four lecture rooms in LeConte Hall accompanied by the chilling bilingual message, "Die, Juden. " . . .

Such anti-Semitism has always seemed the sinister province of fascists and neo-Nazis, Spanish Inquisitors and tattooed skinheads. How topsy-turvy, then, to discover that some of the most virulent anti-Semitism in America today seethes amid the multicultural ferment of American college campuses. And at UC Berkeley, which owes as much of its allure to radical rhetoric as to academic excellence, it thrives.

Who would've thought that Berkeley, that bastion of "Peace, Love, and Understanding" could breed such hate? I was shocked. Then I also begun hearing about a revival of anti-Semitism in Europe. Shocked again.

To give some perspective on the situation, I've constructed a visualization of the spread of anti-Semitism in Europe. The map compares different countries' responses to anti-Semitic statements such as, "Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust." The data comes from a survey by the Anti-Defamation League.

Comments

weltatem said on October 13, 2005 5:29 PM:

Thank you for your work here, Philip. It's a remarkable and chilling reminder of how prevalent these attitudes are, even in a place some Americans idealize for its liberal tolerance. It's also a reminder that anti-semitism usually co-exists with other kind of hatred, ignorance, and intolerance - these questions merely peel back one layer from an ugly, barely-healed wound. It's almost frightening to see how you can represent these energies with such Cartesian rationality.