{"id":10817,"date":"2019-03-13T07:01:32","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T12:01:32","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2024-05-28T15:42:59","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T19:42:59","slug":"negative-stereotypes-about-jews-are-largely-rejected-in-france","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2019\/03\/13\/negative-stereotypes-about-jews-are-largely-rejected-in-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Negative stereotypes about Jews are largely rejected in France"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
President Emmanuel Macron, center, visits a vandalized Jewish cemetery in Quatzenheim, France, on Feb. 19, a day of nationwide marches against a rise in anti-Semitic attacks. (Frederick Florin\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In France, home to Europe\u2019s largest Jewish population, reports of anti-Semitic incidents rose dramatically in 2018. There were 541 cases<\/a> reported last year \u2013 not as high as in some previous years, but a 74% increase from 2017, according to the country\u2019s Minist\u00e8re de l\u2019Int\u00e9rieur. And already in 2019, there have been several new high-profile anti-Semitic incidents, including swastikas being spray-painted on graves in a Jewish cemetery<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Reported<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Prominent though these incidents may be, they run counter to public opinion in France. A 2017 Pew Research Center survey<\/a> found that a majority of French adults reject negative Jewish stereotypes and express an accepting attitude toward Jews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the survey, conducted in France and 14 other Western European countries, the Center asked whether people agreed or disagreed with two strongly worded negative statements: \u201cJews always pursue their own interests and not the interest of the country they live in,\u201d and \u201cJews always overstate how much they have suffered.\u201d Roughly seven-in-ten or more French respondents either completely or mostly disagreed with these statements, while about one-in-five completely or mostly agreed with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To gauge the extent of anti-Jewish sentiment in another way, the survey also asked Western European adults if they would be willing to accept Jews as neighbors or members of their family. Nine-in-ten French adults said they would be willing to accept Jews as neighbors, while roughly three-quarters (76%) said they would accept Jews as members of their family. These figures are at or near the median for the 15 countries where both questions were asked. (In Germany and the United Kingdom, where reported anti-Semitic incidents rose nearly 10% and 16% last year, respectively, the shares of adults saying they would accept Jews as neighbors and relatives were somewhat similar to those in France.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Roughly<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Nine-in-ten<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On balance, French adults who identify as Christian are slightly more likely than people who identify as religiously unaffiliated (that is, atheist, agnostic or having no particular religion) to agree with anti-Jewish stereotypes, and they are slightly less likely to say they would accept Jews as relatives and neighbors. For example, 88% of Christians in France say they would accept Jews as neighbors, while 94% of the religiously unaffiliated in France say this. Respondents identifying with right-wing political ideology are considerably<\/em> more likely to agree with the negative statements about Jews. The survey did not reach enough Muslims \u2013 who constitute France\u2019s third-largest religious group, after Christians and the religiously unaffiliated \u2013 to allow for a nationally representative sample of their views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It may seem counterintuitive that survey results would show widespread French acceptance of Jews less than a year before anti-Semitic incidents would rise. But general population survey data and statistics concerning anti-Semitic acts measure two different things. The former reflect a snapshot at a specific time of the attitudes of a nationally representative sample of adults, while the latter record reported events over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of Jews in France \u2013 as well as in the rest of Europe \u2013 has been declining<\/a> since World War II. Some of this decline is due to emigration: In some recent years, France has been the largest origin country for immigrants to Israel \u2013 with 7,238 French emigrating there in 2014 and 7,328 doing so in 2015, according to the Jewish Agency for Israel<\/a>. While estimates of France\u2019s Jewish population vary, the number of Jews is France is believed to be as high as 500,000<\/a>, or a little less than 1% of the country\u2019s overall population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The low share of Jews in France may help explain their relatively low profile across the country. A little over half of French adults (55%) say they know someone who is Jewish \u2013 lower than the 81% of French respondents who say they know an atheist and the 79% who say they know a Muslim. And just 33% of French respondents say they know \u201ca great deal\u201d or \u201csome\u201d about the Jewish religion, lower than the 42% who say they know \u201ca great deal\u201d or \u201csome\u201d about Islam and the 77% who say that about Christianity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing someone Jewish or knowing \u201ca great deal\u201d or \u201csome\u201d about Judaism are associated with somewhat higher levels of willingness to accept Jews as relatives, according to the Center\u2019s survey. For example, 83% of French adults who say they know someone Jewish also say they would accept Jews as members of their family, while 67% of French adults who do not<\/em> know anyone Jewish say this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reports of anti-Semitic incidents in France rose dramatically in 2018. 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