Abstract: This chapter explains contemporary manifestations of antisemitism in Southeast European football by analysing football fan cultures of three post-Yugoslav states: Croatia, Serbia, and especially Bosnia and Herzegovina, where several antisemitic incidents have occurred during the last decade. The geographic scope is determined by the cultural proximity of these fan cultures, allowing for a comparative analysis of region’s forms of antisemitism, as well as socialist (dis-)continuities of political antisemitism. Whilst international football governing bodies and international media readily condemned the incidents in Bosnia-Herzegovina, social media discussions amongst their football fans proved to be diametrically opposed, especially in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The chapter examines the nature of anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and antisemitic fan (and non-fan) practices and narratives, to extrapolate their inherent political nuances and to illustrate their transformations over the last two decades. By evaluating their significance for the wider public discourse, the chapter provides a more nuanced reflection of the issues at stake, within football and beyond.
Abstract: his chapter primarily focuses on antisemitism in French football since the turn of the new millennium, which has seen an intensification of debates about nationality, diversity, and identity in France, as well as a rise in antisemitism. France has historically had few high-profile Jewish players and lacks a major club that is seen as being ‘Jewish’. However, antisemitism has been a very real issue within professional and amateur levels of men’s football in recent decades, with abuse directed at players, team officials, and fans who are – or are perceived to be – Jewish, taking a variety of forms. The chapter examines the broader history of antisemitism in France and how this has influenced the French state’s relationship with religion today and is linked to both contemporary domestic issues and international matters, such as Israeli–Palestinian tensions. In addition, the chapter argues that French football has struggled to tackle, or sought to minimise, several forms of discrimination.
Abstract: Racism and more specifically prejudice against the Jewish community have been consistent throughout Italy’s complex socio-political history, underpinned by the Catholic Church’s marginalisation and fascist persecution of ‘Jewishness’. While Italian antisemitism is mainly ‘low intensity’, it is pervasive and enduring in the way it normalises prejudices and conspiracy theories that portray Jews as avaricious, controlling, and powerful, which prevail in contemporary political discourse. The localised nature of Italian fandom, which encourages the abuse of others based on traits deemed feminine, foreign, or weak – has historically reproduced and arguably reinforced dominant ideas on race and antisemitic prejudices that prevail in Italian society, as this chapter will explain. Despite many prominent antisemitic instances involving owners, administrators and especially fans, the Italian Football Federation has been slow to tackle the issue. Drawing upon empirical research on Italian ultras – a fan culture centred around neo-fascist and neo-Nazi symbols and ideologies – this chapter situates Jewish communities within Italy and explains the nature of antisemitism within Italian football, as well as failures to combat it and other forms of discrimination.
Abstract: Despite efforts by clubs, fans, and officials to combat discrimination and hate speech, antisemitism in German football and fan cultures still persists today. Antisemitism is expressed by supporters, players, coaches, club and league officials, security personal, and others. In most cases, no Jews need to be present to stimulate antisemitic behaviour. This chapter argues that contemporary antisemitism in and around German football is manifest in five different forms, which are explained with illustrative examples: far-right antisemitism; classical antisemitism; secondary antisemitism; antisemitism against Jewish Makkabi clubs; and antisemitic ressentiment-communication. This chapter also questions who does what against antisemitism in German football. By looking at each actor individually – football’s governing bodies; professional clubs; social pedagogical fan projects; stadium security and police; third sector organisations; and fans – it is evident that neither a common nor a long-term strategy exists, although a broad range of activities and actions take place, often initiated by, or implemented after, the pressure of fan groups.
Abstract: Today, Hungary’s Jewish population, that was decimated by the Holocaust, totals about 47,200, the largest in East Central Europe. This chapter provides an historical overview of the complex political and socio-cultural conditions, key events, and regime changes since the end of the 19th century to explain the Jewish community’s experience and how antisemitism has manifested in Hungarian society and how this, in turn, is reflected in Hungary’s football culture. Antisemitism has found expression in contemporary Hungary in extreme right-wing nationalist ideology through enduring stereotypes and allegations of Jewish conspiracy, wealth, and power, epitomised by the treatment of the Hungarian-born, Jewish-American philanthropist George Soros. The chapter explains how football has been used by successive Hungarian regimes for political purposes, including by the current long-serving leader Viktor Orbán, who has dismissed accusations of antisemitism and enjoys cordial relations with Israel. It considers the pre-1945 anti-Jewish legislation of the state and Hungarian Football Federation (MLSZ), as well as the verbal and physical atrocities suffered by Jews, mostly notably MTK Budapest by rivals Ferencváros Torna Club (FTC or Fradi), because of their Jewishness. Finally, the chapter looks at attempts to challenge antisemitism in Hungarian football.
Abstract: This chapter outlines the character, causes and extent of antisemitism within English football. This has included several high-profile incidents within English men’s football involving professional players, coaches, officials, and especially supporters. The chapter begins with a short historical background to the presence of Jews and antisemitism in England before moving onto the current situation and then considering how antisemitism is manifest within English football. The chapter expounds why Tottenham historically developed a quasi-Jewish identity that serves as a catalyst for antisemitic abuse from rival supporters. In doing so, the chapter examines the different subcultural meanings and intentions behind the controversial uses of the word ‘Yid’ within the context of English football supporter culture, which has been re-appropriated by Tottenham fans. Finally, the chapter critically reviews the responses to antisemitism in English football by governing bodies within the sport, Jewish community organisations, campaign groups, the criminal justice system, and professional football clubs.
Abstract: Since the unification of the two German states in 1990, antisemitic attitudes have been repeatedly polled in cross-sectional or longitudinal national surveys (e.g., the long-term GFE surveys). So far, comparative studies analyzing the development of antisemitism in East and West Germany over a longer time period are scarce. The study covers a time span of 30 years to investigate two forms of antisemitism (classical and secondary), especially with respect to inner-German differences. Applying model-based age-period-cohort analyses (APC) with a total of 19 available representative surveys (maximal period: 1991–2021), theory-driven hypotheses are tested. The statistical approach and respective findings are discussed with emphasis on several challenges accompanying the utilized heterogenous data and different survey modes. Findings reveal that life-cycle effects play a decisive role in the attitudinal development and distribution of antisemitic attitudes. Moreover, approval of antisemitism is to some extent cohort related in both East and West Germany, while disentangling period effects empirically poses challenges due to data limitations. Furthermore, the observed APC structures differ for classical and secondary antisemitism. The chapter concludes with a critical discussion of the results, limitations, and some further thoughts on the open science philosophy in applied social science research.
Topics: Antisemitism: Monitoring, Antisemitism: Online, Elections, European Union, Hate, Internet, Islamophobia, Main Topic: Antisemitism, Social Media, Racism, Ukraine-Russia war (since 2014)
Abstract: W wyniku przeprowadzonego drugiego etapu pilotażowego monitoringu, mającego zbadać zjawisko narastającej liczby treści o charakterze nienawistnym w internecie w okresie kampanii wyborczej, dokonano wielu istotnych obserwacji.
Kampania do Parlamentu Europejskiego, będąca kolejną z serii kampanii wyborczych odbywających się w krótkim odstępie czasu od poprzednich, miała miejsce w okresie okołowakacyjnym, co wiązało się z mniejszym zaangażowaniem zarówno ze strony partii politycznych, jak i użytkowników internetu. Mimo tego obniżonego poziomu zaangażowania wzrost treści o charakterze nienawistnym był już zauważalny przed formalnym rozpoczęciem kampanii, co sugeruje, że polityczny i społeczny klimat pozostawał spolaryzowany na skutek poprzednich wyborów do Sejmu i Senatu, które odbyły się 9 października 2023 roku.
Wraz z formalnym rozpoczęciem kampanii wyborczej zaobserwowano stały wzrost aktywności w serwisach internetowych oraz ciągłą tendencję wzrostową treści o charakterze nienawistnym. Po zakończeniu kampanii doszło do istotnego zmniejszenia liczby tego typu treści.
Analiza zachowań użytkowników internetu podczas monitoringu ujawniła, że wzrost treści nienawistnych rozprzestrzeniał się między różnymi grupami, co świadczy o dynamicznym i płynnym charakterze tego zjawiska. Zauważono, że nienawistne treści skierowane do jednej grupy mniejszościowej często prowadziły do generowania nienawiści wobec innych grup mniejszościowych. Szczególnie interesującym aspektem jest fakt, że wzrost treści antysemickich korelował z nasileniem treści antyukraińskich i antyuchodczych, co sugeruje związek między różnymi formami nienawiści w dyskursie społecznym.
Zapraszamy do zapoznania się z raportem
Spis treści:
Wstęp
Metodologia
Badanie – wyniki
Analiza zmian
Treści o charakterze antysemickim
Treści o charakterze antyuchodźczym i antymuzułmańskim
Treści o charakterze antyukraińskim
Treści o charakterze anty-LGBT+
Wnioski końcowe
Publikacja powstała w ramach projektu „Kompleksowa strategia przeciwdziałania antysemickiej mowie nienawiści w przestrzeni publicznej”, finansowanego przez Fundację Pamięć, Odpowiedzialność i Przyszłość, realizowanego przez Żydowskie Stowarzyszenie Czulent przy wsparciu merytorycznym Centrum Badań nad Uprzedzeniami.
Niniejsza publikacja nie prezentuje stanowiska i opinii Fundacji Pamięć, Odpowiedzialność i Przyszłość (EVZ).
Abstract: In Germany, pro-Palestine protests in the form of camps and institute occupations have occurred and continue to take place at universities. Antisemitic incidents have been reported at many of these protests. Following the initial data collection in December 2023, this report provides a new, focused, up-to-date assessment of the opinion climate in the context of the Middle East conflict and antisemitic attitudes at German universities. Exactly one year after the first report, the results of two recent surveys by the Higher Education Research Unit (AG Hochschulforschung) are summarized here. First, based on a large online survey conducted in December 2024 with over 1,800 students, we report on these students’ assessments of the conflict and antisemitic tendencies among them. This follows
on directly from the previous study mentioned earlier (Hinz et al., 2024), enabling us to describe possible changes compared to last year. In some places, we also examine the assessments and attitudes of students compared to a sample from the general population. Second, we present the results of a simultaneous survey of university rectorates on antisemitic incidents and the universities' reactions to these incidents. At the invitation of the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK), a total of 94 university management teams took part in this separate online survey.
The results indicate that universities have been strongly affected by antisemitic incidents and that antisemitic resentment remains at a constant level. A high level of vigilance is still required, particularly
with regards to Israel-related antisemitism
Abstract: What drives antisemitic hostility in the 21st century? Competing theoretical frameworks provide different answers: the generalist framework views antisemitism as a manifestation of general outgroup hostility common to various
forms of prejudice, while the particularist framework posits that antisemitism today is distinctively linked to antizionist sentiment—enmity toward Zionism, Israel, and its supporters. This study evaluates these frameworks through a comparative, longitudinal case study of antisemitic hostility in Germany, Sweden, and Russia (1990–2020), using a mixed-methods approach to integrate incident counts, victimization surveys, media analysis, and expert interviews. Findings suggest that the particularist framework better explains observed patterns of variation in antisemitic hostility, with flare-ups in the Middle East conflict generating or catalyzing antisemitic hostility in other societies depending on the strength of local antizionist sentiment. The results support new directions
in prejudice research that differentiate between generalized and group-specific forms of hostility, where the latter are highly context-dependent.
Abstract: Introduction: Amid escalating global antisemitism, particularly following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, this study addresses critical gaps in understanding the psychosocial impact of antisemitism on Jewish communities worldwide.
Methods: Focusing on the Jewish community in Germany, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of 420 Jewish individuals (mean age = 40.71 years, SD = 15.90; 57% female). Participants completed measures assessing four distinct forms of perceived and experienced antisemitism: everyday discrimination, microaggressions (subtle antisemitism and collective experiences such as encountering antisemitic comments on social media), vigilance against antisemitism, and perceived prevalence of antisemitism. Psychosocial outcomes—including depression, anxiety, subjective well-being, and social participation—were also measured. Data were analyzed using correlation analyses and multiple linear regressions, and Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) identified distinct groups based on shared perceptions and experiences of antisemitism and levels of Jewish identification.
Results: Results indicate that experiences of antisemitism, particularly everyday discriminatory acts, were significantly associated with poorer mental health outcomes and reduced social participation. The LPA revealed three distinct groups, with the high-identity, high-antisemitism group (53% of the sample) reporting significantly higher anxiety levels than those with average identification and more rare experience with antisemitism.
Discussion: These findings underscore the pervasive nature of antisemitism and its detrimental effects on the well-being of Jewish individuals. The study highlights the need for targeted interventions to promote resilience within Jewish communities and calls for broader societal efforts to combat antisemitism.
Abstract: The article engages with institutionalized German anti-anti-Semitism in recent debates about the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. To elucidate Germany's raison d’état, current silencing of political dissent and drawing on Stuart Hall's notion of “conjuncture,” the first step is to sketch the dynamics of memory politics after the Holocaust: the silence of the postwar period, the student movement's struggle against bystanders and perpetrators, subsequent debates of representation, memorialization, trauma and finally the provincialization and nascent globalized memory (Conjunctures and the Politics of Memory). Articulating the aporias of current German (memory) politics between history and event, historical antecedents and singularity, particularity and universalism, in a second step the tensions between German raison d'état, anti-anti-Semitism and postcolonial perspectives are addressed that delimit the frameworks of negotiating anti-Semitism in the public sphere (Conjunctures and Aporias). In this sense, the remarks contribute to the critical debate on anti-anti-Semitism.
Abstract: On October 7, 2023, a Hamas-led terrorist attack in Israel killed 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped about 250 others. The almost immediate spread of news and images of the attack produced heavy emotional reactions in public opinion in many countries. The article analyzes data from a representative survey on the attitudes toward Jews and Muslims of Italian undergraduates conducted between late September and late October 2023, encompassing both those dramatic events and the war that followed. Four main findings emerge. First, Italian students tend to organize attitudes towards Jews around three main dimensions, those toward Muslims around one. Second, attitudes towards the two groups vary according to cultural values of reference, commitment to study, and political orientation. Third, negative attitudes towards Muslims are more prevalent than those toward Jews, but this difference narrows between center-left and left-leaning students and, in some cases, reverses. Finally, the analysis shows that one of the dimensions organizing unfavourable attitudes towards Jews experienced very substantial growth on the days immediately following October 7, that is, the date of the Hamas terrorist attack inside Israeli territory.
Abstract: CST recorded 3,528 antisemitic incidents in the UK in 2024, the second-highest total ever reported to CST in a single calendar year. This is a decrease of 18% from the 4,296 anti-Jewish hate incidents recorded by CST in 2023, which remains the record annual total ever reported, and was fuelled by responses to the 7 October terror attack by Hamas on Israel that year. CST recorded 1,662 antisemitic incidents in 2022, 2,261 in 2021, and 1,684 in 2020.
Although the 3,528 anti-Jewish hate incidents recorded in 2024 is a fall from the all-time high of 2023, it remains an unusually large total: 56% higher than the third-highest annual figure of 2,261 incidents reported in 2021. It is a reflection of the sustained levels of antisemitism that have been recorded across the UK since the Hamas terror attack in Israel on 7 October 2023. CST’s Antisemitic Incidents Report 2023 charted the immediacy and scope of the rise in anti-Jewish hate following that attack, before Israel had set in motion any extensive military response in Gaza. The subsequent ongoing war, and the public attention that it continues to hold, impacted both the volume and content of antisemitism in 2024.
Abstract: The findings of this report demonstrate a concerning rise in antisemitism and anti-Zionism in Europe since October 7, 2023, drawing on extensive data analysis of incidents, trends, online sentiments, and influential figures utilizing Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) methodologies.
Dramatic Increase in Sentiment: There has been a significant and consistent surge in both antisemitic and anti-Zionist sentiments across Europe, among both far-right and far-left groups. This more than 400% increase in hateful content is primarily linked to heightened anti-Israel sentiments following the country s response to the October 7
attacks.
Traditional Antisemitism: While the surge in sentiment correlates with growing anti-Israel sentiment, it has increasingly become intertwined with long-standing antisemitic stereotypes. Narratives suggesting that Jews exert disproportionate control, equating Jews with Nazis, or accusing them of genocidal intentions have
become more prevalent.
Geographical Concentration: The most concerning developments have been observed in the UK, France, and Germany—countries with substantial Jewish populations. This trend underscores the heightened risks faced by these communities, both online and in physical spaces.
Influencers and Content Generators: The primary drivers of antisemitic and anti-Zionist content have been pro-Palestinian advocates (both politicians, groups, and influencers) who o en employ antisemitic rhetoric to advance an anti-Israel agenda. This rhetoric seeks to delegitimize the state of Israel and its right to self-defense in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks.
This report serves as a critical resource for understanding the contemporary landscape of antisemitism and anti-Zionism in Europe, highlighting the urgent need for awareness and action in combating these dangerous trends.
Abstract: W ramach półrocznego badania podjęliśmy działania mające na celu sprawdzenie, czy i kiedy nienawistne treści o charakterze antysemickim są usuwane przez międzynarodowe i polskie serwisy IT po otrzymaniu zgłoszenia od użytkowniczek i użytkowników o konieczności ich usunięcia. Chcieliśmy także sprawdzić, czy istnieje różnica w usuwaniu nienawistnych treści zgłaszanych przez zwykłych użytkowników a tzw. zaufane podmioty sygnalizujące.
W tym celu przeprowadziliśmy Badanie usuwania treści nielegalnych w internecie (zwane także MRE — Monitoring and Reporting Exercise), testując międzynarodowe platformy internetowe: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, platforma X (dawniej Twitter) oraz dostawców polskich usług pośrednich: Agora, wp.pl, onet.pl, natemat.pl, dorzeczy.pl i wykop.pl pod kątem stosowania krajowych i unijnych przepisów nakazujących usunięcie lub uniemożliwienie dostępu do treści nielegalnych, w tym mowy nienawiści. Badanie zostało przeprowadzone w momencie wchodzenia w życie nowej unijnej regulacji dotyczącej poprawy bezpieczeństwa w przestrzeni cyfrowej, znanej jako Rozporządzenie 2022/2065 lub Akt o usługach cyfrowych.
Spis treści:
Wstęp
Słowniczek
Ramy prawne
Metodologia
Etapy MRE
Kluczowe dane
Wskaźniki usuwalności zgłoszeń
Wnioski i rekomendacje
Publikacja powstała w ramach projektu Zabezpieczenie naszej społeczności, ochrona naszej demokracji: zwalczanie antysemityzmu poprzez zintegrowane podejście do rzecznictwa i bezpieczeństwa (projekt PROTEUS), współfinansowanego przez Unię Europejską.
