Different Antisemitisms: On Three Distinct Forms of Antisemitism in C | Page 2

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 Sweden2 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.

The two survey studies
In this article, we combine and compare results from two major, but differently focused crossnational surveys on antisemitism. On the one hand, we have data from the European Union
Agency For Fundamental Rights’ (FRA) survey of Jews’ perceptions and experiences of
antisemitism in eight EU-member states – Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia,
Sweden and United Kingdom.3 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 country's population, carried
out at the end of 2013. This study covers 102 countries all over the world.4 In this article we
will focus only on the same eight EU-countries that were included in the FRA study.5
In July 2013 – February 2014, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) carried out a survey of
attitudes toward Jews with representative samples in 102 countries around the world. The
respondents were presented with the following eleven propositions about Jews and asked to
indicate whether they find the suggested proposition “probably true” or “probably false.”

1. Jews are more loyal to Israel than to [the country they live in].
2. Jews have too much power in the business world.
3. Jews have too much power in international financial markets
4. Jews don’t care about what happens to anyone but their own kind
5. Jews have too much control over global affairs.
6. People hate Jews because of the way Jews behave.
7. Jews think they are better than other people.
2

Both of the present authors are Swedes. Lars Dencik was part of the international research team that designed
and carried out the FRA-survey, and also responsible for the study in Sweden.
3
FRA – European Union for Fundamental Rights. (2013). Discrimination and hate crime against Jews in EU
Member States: experiences and perceptions of antisemitism. Vienna: FRA.
4
ADL – Anti-Defamation League. (2014). ADL Global 100. An Index Anti-Semitism. http://global100.adl.org.
5
The countries were selected by FRA among EU member states. Originally 9 countries were selected for a webbased survey among Jewish residents in the respective countries. Romania however had to be excluded from the
analysis because data from there were too weak for statistical analysis.

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