Abstract: This article studies eight European countries, investigating how the level of antisemitism as
registered in national populations relates to the perception of antisemitism by the Jewish
population in the same country. Furthermore, the article empirically identifies distinct aspects
of antisemitism, deconstructing the concept of antisemitism and breaking it up into three
kinds of empirically differently based and composed antisemitisms (Note the plural!): classic
antisemitism, Israel-derived antisemitism and Enlightenment-based antisemitism. The article
also elaborates on some more general implications for the understanding of the character of
antisemitism in contemporary Europe, and based on that, presents some perspectives on the
development of the three distinct antisemitisms in contemporary Europe.
The countries included in the article are Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy,
Latvia, Sweden and the United Kingdom, but a special focus is placed on Sweden because
the situation in Sweden concerning antisemitism and the Jewish population’s reactions to
perceived antisemitism is particularly illustrative of some of the main points we can make
based on our investigations.
Abstract: In this paper we combine and compare the results of two major but differently
focused cross-national surveys on antisemitism.
On the one hand, we have data from the European Union Agency for Fundamental
Rights (FRA) survey of Jewish people’s perceptions and experiences of
antisemitism in eight EU member states – Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary,
Italy, Latvia, Sweden and the United Kingdom (FRA, 2013). This survey was
carried out in the second half of 2012.
On the other hand, we use the results from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
survey of attitudes towards Jews, with representative samples of each countries’
population, carried out at the end of 2013. This study covers 102 countries all over
the world.1 In this article we will focus only on the same eight EU countries that
were included in the FRA study.
By way of conclusion, we will elaborate on some more general implications for the
understanding of the character of antisemitism in contemporary Europe and on
the basis of that, present some perspectives on the development of three distinct
antisemitisms in contemporary Europe.
In this presentation a special focus will be on Sweden. This is partly because it is
in Sweden that we have carried out most of our own empirical studies, but also
because the situation in Sweden concerning antisemitism and the reaction of the
Jewish population to perceived antisemitism are particularly illustrative of some of
the main points we can make based on our investigations
