Islamophobia Studies Journal, 2012

I believe we can learn a lot from the history of the Jews of Europe. In many ways they are the first, the oldest Europeans. We, the new Europeans, are just starting to learn the complex art of living with multiple allegiances… The Jews have been forced to master this art since antiquity. They were both Jewish and Italian, or Jewish and French, Jewish and Spanish, Jewish and Polish, Jewish and German. Proud of their ties with Jewish communities throughout the continent, and equally proud of their bonds with their own country.-Romano Prodi ISJ 1:1(2012) former President of the European Commission, made during his tenure and elaborated above perhaps exemplify "the ways in which leaders today champion the preservation…of Europe's Jewish communities" (Bunzl, 2005: 502). And it comes as some relief to learn that "no European party of any significance and this includes the various extreme right-wing movements on the continent, currently champions a specifically anti-Semitic agenda" (ibid.). 2 An optimistic interpretation of this state of affairs would be to emphasise the existence of something like a mainstream consensus on the current unacceptability of public articulations of anti-Semitism (Benbassa, 2007). Of course, this should not be read as a suggestion that European societies are free from all the guises that anti-Semitism can assume (Chanes, 2004). Even in Britain, where extreme right-wing and anti-semitic political parties have never flourished in the sorts of ways familiar on the continent partly due to an electoral system that squeezes out smaller parties, survey evidence complied by Field (2006) reports that hostility to British Jews continues to exist and often stems from the view that "the loyalty of British Jews to Israel transcends their allegiance to Britain" (Field, 2007: 465). Such findings may be added to others in support of the view that Britain is experiencing a resurgence of anti-Semitism. 3 This is a concern that has resulted in a high-profile All Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism (2006), which has also been taken up in public and media discussion in a way that has incorporated the concerns of leading Jewish spokespeople and intellectuals. 4 What appears to have gone unnoticed, however, is that a number of surveys 5 have consistently found that:

De Gruyter eBooks, 2023

Antisemitic violence is alwaysareminder of the fragile balance between Jewish life and society.I thappens even in the most thriving communities.Jews are experiencing an increasingfear of violence, afeeling almost ingrained in their identity by thememoryofthe Holocaust.When reviewing antisemitic incidents around the world, it becomes clear that hatredofJews results in growingviolence or worries about the future of Jewish life in Europe. The comparison of current antisemitism in EU memberstatesr evealss everal peculiarities which are almost paradoxical. I have argued in ap revious publicationt hatt he number of violent incidents is not necessarilyi ndicativeo ft he intensity of antisemitic sentiments in the country wherethishappens.Undoubtedly, it is anecessary condition for defining antisemitism, but it is not sufficient.¹ Perceptions drivenbythe hatredofthe Jews-i. e. antisemitism-werecollected and encapsulated in the "Working Definitiono fA ntisemitism" published in 2004 by the European MonitoringC entre on Racism and Xenophobia. Although not legallyb inding,t he definition was meant to provide apractical guide to identifying incidents, collecting data and supporting future antisemitism-related legislation.² Few governments have accepted and used the definition,e veni fo nlyf or the purposeo ft raining lawe nforcement organisations-the United Kingdom de

Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe : a shared story? Edited by J. Renton and B. Gidley, 2017

The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:

European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, 2018

Hungarian Conservative, 2022