Jewish People’s Experiences and Perceptions of Antisemitism

Nearly 80 years after the Holocaust, Jewish communities and Jews across the EU continue to regularly experience antisemitism and face restrictions in their ability to live an openly Jewish life. This is despite the strong legal framework in place and the commitment of the EU and EU countries to fight antisemitism and foster Jewish life, as expressed in their pledges, resolutions, declarations, conclusions, national strategies and action plans and the EU’s own antisemitism strategy. The effective implementation of these initiatives depends on robust and reliable evidence which this survey aims to provide. 

• 84% of respondents consider antisemitism to be a ‘very big’ or ‘fairly big’ problem in their country.
• 80% of respondents think that antisemitism has increased over the past five years in their country of residence.
• 96% have encountered antisemitism in the year before the survey; 64% of respondents who have encountered antisemitism state that they experience it ‘all the time’.
• 91% consider antisemitism on the internet and social media as a ‘very big’ or ‘fairly big’ problem in their country.
• 18% think that their government combats antisemitism effectively.

The survey ended before the Hamas attacks in October 2023 and Israel’s military response in Gaza. However, the report includes some data on antisemitism collected from 12 Jewish umbrella organisations after the attacks. Some organisations report an increase of 400% or more antisemitic incidents since October 2023. 

• 90% of respondents experienced antisemitism online in the year before the survey.
• 25% of respondents who experienced online antisemitism last encountered it when using Facebook. The next most common places were online news and media outlets (20%), and X (formerly Twitter) (19%). These figures reflect where users are online. FRA did not measure levels of antisemitism on the platforms themselves.
• 56% experienced antisemitism offline from people they know (56%), in public (52%), in the media (51%) or at political events (49%) in the year before the survey.

• 37% were harassed because they are Jewish in the year before the survey. Of those, 86% experienced it multiple times.
• 4% were attacked because they are Jewish in the year before the survey.
• Antisemitic harassment and violence mostly take place in streets, parks, or shops.

• 53% continue to worry for their own and 60% for their family’s safety and security.
• 62% think that the Arab-Israeli conflict affects their feeling of safety.
• 75% feel that people in their country hold them responsible for the Israeli government’s actions because they are Jewish.

• 76% hide their Jewish identity at least occasionally and 34% avoid Jewish events or sites because they do not feel safe there.
• 33% and 41% frequently hide their Jewish identity at work and school/university.
• As a reaction to encountering online antisemitism, 24% avoid posting content online that would identify them as Jewish; 23% say that they limited their participation in online discussions, and 16% reduced their use of certain platforms, websites or services.
• 15% indicate that online antisemitism negatively affected their mental health.

• 20% say that they felt discriminated against for being Jewish in the year before the survey, most often when in contact with an educational institution or in the context of work.

• 49% reported incidents of antisemitic violence. 30% reported it to the police; respondents commonly report violence to Jewish authority figures (11%) and Jewish communities (10%).
• 19% who have come across antisemitic content online reported it to the platform. Overall, 26% reported online antisemitism.
• 1% of those who experienced discrimination because of being Jewish, online antisemitism or antisemitic harassment turned to an equality body or national human rights institution. The overall reporting rate of antisemitic discrimination is 11%. 

The report clearly states where there are differences, or not, between the 2018 and 2023 survey results. In some areas, there were some signs of progress with marginal gains. For example, in 2018 88% of Jews said that antisemitism is rising in their country compared with 81% in 2023. But overall the levels of antisemitism remain high.

The survey results do not take into consideration the impact of the worsening conflict in the Middle East. 

• Monitoring and adequately funding antisemitism strategies and actions plans: This involves adopting such strategies or action plans in the 13 EU countries that lack them, appointing national coordinators or special envoys on combating antisemitism, collecting official data like FRA’s annual antisemitism update, and conducting national antisemitism surveys. Countries should provide appropriate human, financial and technical resources to effectively implement their national strategies or action plans.
• Securing the safety and security of Jewish communities: Countries should meet and fund the security and protection needs of Jewish communities, including their schools, synagogues and community centres. They need to work closely with Jewish communities to better meet their security needs. Exchanging information and best practices between countries would also help.
• Tackling antisemitism online: The EU and EU countries should make full use of the Digital Services Act to address and remove antisemitic content online. They also need to enhance their efforts to investigate and prosecute antisemitic hate crimes. Online platforms need to monitor and mitigate the risks from antisemitism actively. The European Commission and responsible national bodies should pay particular attention to how online platforms conduct notice and action procedures, and handle complaints in practice.
• Improving antisemitism reporting: National authorities should step up efforts to raise rights awareness, encourage Jews to report incidents and collect antisemitism data. Greater use of third-party and anonymous reporting could help. 

The survey was open to individuals aged 16 years and over who consider themselves Jewish – based on religion, culture, upbringing, ethnicity, parentage or any other reason – and who lived in the survey countries when the survey was carried out. 

The survey asked respondents about their opinions on trends in antisemitism, antisemitism in everyday life, personal experiences of antisemitic incidents online and offline, and worries about becoming a victim of an antisemitic attack.

The survey also provides data on the extent to which respondents consider antisemitic acts against the Jewish community – such as vandalism of Jewish sites or antisemitic messages in the broadcast media or on the internet – to be a problem in the countries.

The survey collected data on the effects of antisemitism on respondents’ daily behaviour and their feelings of safety, and how they respond to security fears.

There were questions about personal experiences of specific forms of harassment or physical violence, including frequency and characteristics, the number and characteristics of perpetrators, and reporting incidents to organisations or institutions, their satisfaction with how the police and online platforms handled their reporting as well as the reasons for not reporting incidents.

The survey collected data about personal experiences of feeling discriminated against on different grounds and in various areas of everyday life – for example, at work, school, or when using specific services, reporting incidents and the reasons for non-reporting.

The survey also explored the level of rights awareness regarding antidiscrimination legislation, victim support organisations and knowledge of any legislation concerning the trivialisation or denial of the Holocaust. 

The survey was carried out across 13 EU Member States: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain and Sweden. These Member States are home to around 96% of the EU’s estimated Jewish population.

FRA conducted the survey online from January to June 2023. The survey took place before the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023. 

It takes considerable time and budget to carry out such large-scale complex surveys. As a result, it was not possible to relaunch another one immediately after the Hamas attacks. 

In January and February 2024, FRA consulted the largest national Jewish community organisations across the countries surveyed to understand the impact of the attacks on these communities.

In total, 11 out of 13 national umbrella organisations and one European umbrella organisation provided FRA with insights on the experiences of their communities following these attacks. The inputs were anonymous and therefore the report provides only generic findings. 

The survey builds strongly on the experience and methodology developed for previous FRA surveys on discrimination and hate crime against Jews in 2012 and 2018 and on stakeholder consultations carried out in 2022.

The survey collected data through an open online survey.

A consortium of Verian (formerly Kantar Public) and the European Union for Progressive Judaism Foundation managed the survey data collection under the supervision of FRA staff. FRA analysed the data in the report. 

FRA used online surveying due to the absence of comprehensive sampling frames for Jewish populations in the selected EU Member States and its experience with previous surveys. It allowed respondents to complete the survey when and where it was most convenient for them, at their own pace, and in their national language. The online survey also allowed respondents to find out about FRA, the organisations managing the data collection and how the collected data would be used.

As respondents only needed an internet connection, they could participate in the survey when and where it was most convenient for them (including via smartphone), limiting non-response due to inconvenient timing of interviews.

Potentially all interested self-identified Jewish people in the selected EU Member States could take part and share their experiences. It was also the method which FRA could most easily use to survey respondents from all the selected Member States under equal conditions.

This online survey guaranteed anonymity and confidentiality. 

In close cooperation with the contractor’s project team and FRA, over 300 international, national and regional Jewish organisations across all Jewish affiliations were asked to send out multiple emails, newsletters, instant messages and social media advertisements to invite their constituents to participate in the survey. In most Member States, the response rates were in line with expectations given the relative size of the Jewish population in each country. Additionally, the awareness-raising campaign included personal referrals, newspaper advertisements and community leaders, rabbis, social media influencers, and active members of Jewish communities. 

In total 7,992 people who identified themselves as ‘Jewish’ completed the survey.

In terms of socio-demographic characteristics the respondents can be brokendown as:

In terms of Jewish identity, 50% at least occasionally wear or display symbols or clothes that make them recognisable as Jewish in public. Almost all respondents observe some Jewish practices (94%).

Around 26% of respondents consider themselves ‘just Jewish’ without further defining their affiliation. 22% identify themselves as secular, 21% as reform/progressive/liberal, 17% as conservative, 6% as Orthodox Jews and around 1% as strictly Orthodox. 3% indicated they identify as ‘mixed’ (Jewish and another religion) and 3% as none of these.

Most respondents consider the strength of their Jewish identity to be high (65%). Most base their Jewish identity on parentage or culture. Around half indicate religion or upbringing as (at least part of) the basis of their Jewishness. 

The average time for survey completion was 33 minutes. 

The online survey methodology allowed all interested self-identified Jews in the survey countries to take part. However, it did not deliver a random probability sample fulfilling the statistical criteria for representativeness. Although the results cannot be considered as representative of all Jewish people in the EU, they constitute by far the largest collection of empirical evidence on discrimination, hate crime and antisemitism against Jews in Europe. 

The data are weighted based on available population data and based on a model that takes into account characteristics such as the size of each country’s Jewish population, age, sex/gender, geographical origin (living in the capital or outside the capital) and affiliation with a Jewish community organisation. This aims to balance out biases that could have occurred through the opt-in, open nature of the survey design – for example, the under-representation of particular groups due to limited outreach, making the results more robust. 

FRA used several measures to guarantee data security, privacy and confidentiality of the survey respondents. All data collected were stored securely and kept confidential, according to European data protection guidelines.

Throughout the survey respondents had access to detailed information on how the data provided by them will be stored and processed, including information on possibilities to delete 'cookies' or to prevent their use by adjusting the browser settings on respondent’s computer.

No respondent can be identified in the survey results. The answers were combined with those of others who took part in the survey and only anonymous data are used for the report. The data collection and the analysis process were performed without reference to any personal or sensitive data capable of identifying people. This guaranteed full confidentiality of the information provided. 

The survey included questions and methodologies to ensure only Jewish people could take part in it.

The survey aimed to identify what self-identified Jewish people themselves think and experience. Therefore, the survey started with a self-identification question that allowed only those identifying themselves as Jewish to continue. A number of survey questions were also used to filter and secure the participation of Jewish people.

Before data analysis, FRA checked the responses for consistency. If there were specific contradictions/inconsistencies, the cases were removed from the data set. 

The survey builds strongly on the Agency’s previous surveys. The 2018 and 2023 surveys covered 11 of the same Member States, with Czechia and Romania added in 2023 and the United Kingdom removed. Only Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Sweden remained the same from 2012 to 2023. This is why the report’s overall comparison is between 2018 and 2023 for the 11 countries that both surveys cover.

However, due to the nature of an open online survey, the comparison should be read with caution as it is affected by several factors, such as country coverage; sample sizes and their quality; as well as the changes in the questionnaire (e.g. adding new items or slightly changing the wording to address problems in question comprehension or to ensure comparability with other surveys). For the comparative analysis, FRA used the same weighting approach for the 2023 and 2018 data. 

FRA aims to make the complete dataset publicly available in 2025.