Anti-Semitism in Greece Today

In a recent survey by ADL, Greece was found to be the most anti-Semitic country across all Western Europe reaching a 69% with France being second with a 37%. Given the very low number of Jewish people living in Greece, 69% of Greeks holding such attitudes is puzzling.

The current study presents the results of two opinion surveys conducted in Greece, in June 2014 and January 2015, on the issue of antisemitism in the country. After a brief discussion on the meaning and origins of the phenomenon of antisemitism, the study presents a brief overview of its manifestations in the Greek society, in particular politics, the Church and the media. A detailed analysis of the findings of the two surveys follows, measuring anti-Semitic attitudes in the Greek society and correlating them with factors such as gender, age, political opinion, education, church affiliation but also trust, cosmopolitanism, belief in conspiracy theories and victimisation. The results confirm previous studies and assumptions that antisemitism in Greece is very high (around 70%), the highest percentage in Europe. The report concludes with recommendations on how the government and the Greek society as a whole should act systematically against this scourge.

Authors of the report:

Antoniou Georgios, Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Elias Dinas, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Oxford and Tutorial Fellow at Brasenose College.

Spyros Kosmidis, Lecturer of Quantitave Methods and Political Science, University of Oxford

Leon Saltiel, Dr. in Modern Greek History particularly on the Holocaust of Jews of Thessaloniki, University of Macedonia

The printed version of the publication is available free of charge, not including postal costs, following a request at info[@]gr.boell.org