Contested Belonging in Contemporary Austria: Jewish Perspectives on Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and the Politics of Hate
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Abstract
This paper presents a summary of findings from an interview project on contemporary antisemitism in Austria that ran from 2023 to 2024. It begins with a stocktaking of the recent development of public discourse on antisemitism in Austria. It proceeds to summarize the design and execution of the interview project as well as its reception by Jewish Austrians, before analyzing the key findings from the interviews as they pertain to contemporary antisemitism and related public discourse. Toward the end of the paper, special attention is paid to the interviewees' assessment of the current discourse as applied specifically to Muslim refugees and immigrants in Austria. It closes with the finding that antisemitism is represented across all social milieus in contemporary Austria. Thus, the attempt to assign blame collectively to Muslims is not only disingenuous but also dangerous, as this exacerbates social tensions in Austria's increasingly diverse society, playing off one minoritized population group against the other with a cynical "divide and conquer" mentality.
Topics
Antisemitism: Discourse Jewish Perceptions of Antisemitism Jewish - Muslim Relations Main Topic: Antisemitism Immigration Interviews
Genre
Geographic Coverage
Original Language
Volume/Issue
58(2)
Page Number / Article Number
35-75
DOI
Bibliographic Information
Contested Belonging in Contemporary Austria: Jewish Perspectives on Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and the Politics of Hate. 2025: 35-75. https://archive.jpr.org.uk/10.1353/oas.2025.a969041
