"Latent anti-Semitism" lower than 20 years ago

Survey - "Latent anti-Semitism" lower than 20 years ago

Prejudices about Jews are expressed much less frequently in Germany today than they were 20 years ago. The proportion of people with "latent anti-Semitism" has fallen from 23 percent in 2003 to currently 7 percent, according to the Forsa Institute, which was commissioned by Stern magazine. However, AfD supporters are twice as likely to mention negative attitudes towards Jews as other citizens. The Central Council of Jews declared that the figures "cannot reassure us in any way".

At the end of November, Stern magazine repeated a survey that had already been conducted in 1998 and 2003. This time, German-speaking citizens aged 14 and over were surveyed in 2018, around 1,000 each in East and West Germany. They were asked eight specific questions that researchers use to detect anti-Jewish attitudes. In all eight categories, agreement with negative prejudices declined.

Allegedly "peculiar"

For example, the statement "Many Jews are trying to take advantage of the Nazi past today and make the Germans pay for it" was still fully or mostly agreed with by 24% in 2023 - compared to 38% in 2003. 14% now agreed with the statement "Jews have too much influence in the world", compared to 28% 20 years ago.

The phrase "Due to their behavior, Jews are not entirely innocent of their persecution" is now affirmed by 9 percent, compared to 19 percent back then. "Jews simply have something special and peculiar about them and therefore don't really fit in with us" is now agreed by 7 percent, compared to 17 percent then. The trend was similar for the other questions. The figure for "latent anti-Semitism" was calculated from answers to six of the eight questions. The 7 percent corresponds roughly to other recent surveys, for example the Leipzig Authoritarianism Study from 2022.

Answers from AfD supporters much more negative

AfD supporters paint a different picture to the average. One in two AfD supporters agreed with the assertion that Jews allegedly benefit from the Nazi past (49% compared to 24% overall); 26% of AfD supporters agreed that the influence of Jews in the world is too great; 17% of AfD supporters thought that Jews are peculiar. In all categories, they were more negative than the average of the other respondents.

Although the respondents themselves expressed fewer prejudices than in 2003, they consider the mood in the country towards Jews to be worse: 53% say that attitudes towards Jews have become more negative - compared to 30% in 2003. Among their own circle of acquaintances, respondents also suspect negative attitudes towards Jews slightly more often than the participants 20 years ago.

Central Council of Jews sees "distortion effect"

The President of the Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, expressed doubts about the validity of the results. "The trend in anti-Semitic incidents points in exactly the opposite direction, even before October 7," explained Schuster in Berlin. "In recent years, Jews have experienced a disinhibited anti-Semitism that is also becoming more violent and aggressive."

Since the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, there has also been hatred of Jews and indifference in schools, universities and cultural institutions. This contradicts the result of a decline in latent anti-Semitism. Schuster suspects a "distortion effect of the results for reasons of social desirability". This means that people respond to surveys in a way that they consider socially acceptable and do not express their actual opinion.

Many Jews have recently been expressing more fears of hostility and are worried about their safety in Germany. Since October 7, the number of reported anti-Semitic incidents has risen sharply. Since then, the Research and Information Center on Anti-Semitism Rias has recorded an average of 29 anti-Semitic incidents per day.