Abstract: The purpose of this publication is to provide a complex analysis of antisemitism in the Western
Balkans. In cooperation with a team of researchers, the International Republican Institute
(IRI) conducted online media monitoring to determine the most common narratives related to
antisemitism and the relationship between Western Balkan societies and the local and international
Jewish community. The publication contains seven country case studies analyzing online media
narratives in the light of each country’s specific historical, legal, and societal background. The aim is
to provide information that can be used to assess resilience against antisemitism and hate speech
and recommend solutions for identified policy gaps.
The seven countries covered in case studies are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, North
Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, and Montenegro. Locally based IRI partners were tasked with
monitoring online media spaces in these countries and analyzing the content of selected online news
sources, Facebook sources, and related readers’ comments sections published between January
2019 and May 2020. Furthermore, these partners hand-coded online media content, which allowed
them to assess how widely spread particular types of antisemitism are.
Researchers examined more than 9,000 online media pieces. Although instances of antisemitic
speech in online media did not exceed 4 percent of examined content, the research indicated several
threats that might affect the increase of antisemitism, as well as susceptibility to other forms of
extremism. The urge to assign responsibility for specific historical events and the establishment
of common regional historical memory is the overarching context into which narratives related to
Jews in the Western Balkans are fed. Antisemitic narratives were not substantially different from
narratives seen in other parts of Europe and mainly contained familiar conspiracy theories about
control of world financial markets, as well as modern conspiracies such as those claiming intentional
development of COVID-19. Besides conspiratorial content, violent and vulgar antisemitic language
was common. What seems to be specific to the Western Balkan region is the use of antisemitism
(and often the use of a certain form of philosemitism) as a tool to sow or intensify regional conflicts.
Holocaust remembrance was often used as a pretext for criticism of crimes of one ethnic group
against another, and Holocaust crimes were used in many online media pieces as a comparison for
crimes committed during the 1990s.
Narratives about wars of Yugoslav succession often link those conflicts with the events of World War
II. As there is no common regional historical memory of the succession wars, the interpretation of
events around World War II is also affected. Purposeful misinterpretation or utilization of historical
events in populist narratives represents a threat to peaceful democratic transition in the region. This
issue is even more serious in relation to insufficient attention to Jewish legacy and antisemitism in
areas such as education or the preservation of historical sites.
Although the research didn’t find an abundance of antisemitic statements in examined sources, it
did confirm the use of antisemitism in local politics and the utilization of international antisemitic
narratives as a tool for amplifying other political narratives. Limitations in legal and law enforcement
frameworks and the accessibility of extremist literature could contribute to the rapid increase of
antisemitism. Public engagement of local Jewish communities is essential for achieving policies
protecting the rights of minorities and cultivating public debate
Abstract: The Fifth Survey of European Jewish Community Leaders and Professionals, 2021 presents the results of an online survey offered in 10 languages and administered to 1054 respondents in 31 countries. Conducted every three years using the same format, the survey seeks to identify trends and their evolution in time.
Even if European Jewish leaders and community professionals rank antisemitism and combatting it among their first concerns and priorities, they are similarly committed to expanding Jewish communities and fostering future sustainability by engaging more young people and unaffiliated Jews.
The survey covers a wide variety of topics including the toll of COVID-19 on European Jewish communities and a widening generational gap around pivotal issues. Conducted every three years since 2008, the study is part of JDC’s wider work in Europe, which includes its partnerships with local Jewish communities and programs aiding needy Jews, fostering Jewish life and leaders, resilience training.
The respondents were comprised of presidents and chairpersons of nationwide “umbrella organizations” or Federations; presidents and executive directors of private Jewish foundations, charities, and other privately funded initiatives; presidents and main representatives of Jewish communities that are organized at a city level; executive directors and programme coordinators, as well as current and former board members of Jewish organizations; among others.
The JDC International Centre for Community Development established the survey as a means to identify the priorities, sensibilities and concerns of Europe’s top Jewish leaders and professionals working in Jewish institutions, taking into account the changes that European Jewry has gone through since 1989, and the current political challenges and uncertainties in the continent. In a landscape with few mechanisms that can truly gauge these phenomena, the European Jewish Community Leaders Survey is an essential tool for analysis and applied research in the field of community development.
Abstract: This detailed and thorough report is rapidly becoming the ‘must-read’ study on European Jews, taking the reader on an extraordinary journey through one thousand years of European Jewish history before arriving at the most comprehensive analysis of European Jewish demography today.
Written by leading Jewish demographers Professor Sergio DellaPergola and Dr Daniel Staetsky, the Chair and Director of JPR’s European Jewish Demography Unit respectively, it explores how the European Jewish population has ebbed and flowed over time. It begins as far back as the twelfth century, travelling through many years of population stability, until the tremendous growth of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, followed by the dramatic decline prompted by a combination of mass migration and the horrors of the Shoah. Extraordinarily, after all this time, the proportion of world Jewry living in Europe today is almost identical to the proportion living in Europe 900 years ago.
Using multiple definitions of Jewishness and a vast array of sources to determine the size of the contemporary population, the study proceeds to measure it in multiple ways, looking at the major blocs of the European Union and the European countries of the Former Soviet Union, as well as providing country-by-country analyses, ranging from major centres such as France, the UK, Germany and Hungary, to tiny territories such as Gibraltar, Monaco and even the Holy See.
The report also contains the most up-to-date analysis we have on the key mechanisms of demographic change in Europe, touching variously on patterns of migration in and out of Europe, fertility, intermarriage, conversion and age compositions. While the report itself is a fascinating and important read, the underlying data are essential tools for the JPR team to utilise as it supports Jewish organisations across the continent to plan for the future.
Abstract: After the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the Jewish community within Yugoslavia was also split up, and now various Jewish communities exist in the seven post-Yugoslav countries. Although all of these communities are relatively small, their size, influence, and activity vary. The political and legal status of Jewish communities, normatively speaking, differs across the former Yugoslav republics. Sometimes Jews or Jewish communities are mentioned in constitutions, signed agreements with governments, or are recognized in laws that regulate religious communities. Despite normative differences, they share most of the same problems – a slow process of return of property, diminishing numbers due to emigration and assimilation, and, although on a much lower scale than in many other countries, creeping anti-Semitism. They also share the same opportunities – a push for more minority rights as part of ‘Europeanization’ and the perception of Jewish communities as a link to influential investors and politicians from the Jewish diaspora and Israel.
