Different Antisemitisms: On Three Distinct Forms of Antisemitism in C | Page 25

Whether or not this kind of anti-Jewish position, voiced from the standpoint of
Enlightenment, attacking customs like brit mila and/or shechita should, in fact, be considered
another kind of antisemitism, remains to be discussed. In relation to this, it might be relevant
to reflect on possible differences in the driving forces behind the critique of traditional Jewish
customs and classic antisemitic attitudes. And, for that matter, whether attacks on Jews in
European countries, based on perceptions of the policies and actions of the state of Israel,
have different driving forces than the other two sets of attitudes noted here. There might also
be interesting and perhaps significant differences with respect to what kind of persons,
socially, politically, intellectually and culturally, hold these different kinds of anti-Jewish
sentiments. We will return to this question in the conclusion.

Perpetrators of antisemitic comments/attacks
What we have identified as classic antisemitic prejudices are, as shown in Figure 24 below,
heard more frequently by Jews in Hungary than by Jews anywhere else in Europe. Statements
of this kind are relatively rarely heard in the UK, less than in the other investigated countries.
Jews in Sweden are confronted by such ideas to a slightly lesser degree than Jews in general
in continental Europe.
Figure 24:

We asked our Jewish respondents how they would describe the person or group that made the
antisemitic comments/attacks they had been witnessing. In this connection, it should be
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