Anti-Semitic prejudices are strongest in the EU's eastern member states and in Greece, a survey published Tuesday for the European Jewish Association's annual conference in Brussels said.
More than a third of respondents in Greece and Poland and nearly a third in Hungary believe that Jews "will never be able to fully integrate into society," according to the survey ordered by the EJA's partner organization, the Action and Protection League.
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People gather in front of the 'Westin Hotel' in Leipzig, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021 to show solidarity with Jewish musician Gil Ofarim
(Photo: AP)
The belief that "a secret Jewish network that influences political and economic affairs in the world" was held by 58 percent of respondents in Greece, 39 percent in Hungary and 34 percent in Slovakia.
The survey questioned 16,000 people in 16 countries, and initial results were first published in 2020.
The EJA called the results "disturbing".
While European institutions had stepped up to tackle anti-Semitism, "there is much more to be done at a continental political level," its chairman, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, said in a statement.
According to the survey, around one respondent in three in Greece and around one in four in Hungary and Poland said they viewed Jews negatively.
That contrasted with Germany, where 11 percent expressed that view. In France it was eight percent, in Britain three percent, and in the Netherlands it was two percent.
Overall, a quarter of those polled "agreed with the statement that Israel's policies make them understand why some people hate Jews".
The survey was carried out in cooperation with France's Ipsos polling institute between December 2019 and January 2020 with 1,000 respondents questioned in 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Britain, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, and Sweden.