A recent extensive survey carried out by the FRA European Union's Agency for Basic Rights shows that about a quarter of European Jews are afraid to appear in public with marked Jewish identification signs. The first results of this study were presented this week to a committee against anti-Semitism which met in Kiev, capital of the Ukraine. The study included 5,100 Jews in nine countries of the EU: France, England, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Hungary, Romania and Latvia. It will be publicized in its entirety in a similar gathering to take place soon in Vilna, the capital of Lithuania.
According to the survey, 80% of Jews from Sweden; 40% of French Jews and 36% of Belgian Jews refrain from appearing publicly with a kippa so as not to be identified as Jews. Similarly, they keep away from events and places which are openly Jewish.
A large percent of those interviewed agreed with the statement that there has been a dramatic rise of anti-Semitism in their countries in the past five years: 91% in Hungary; 88% in France, 87% in Belgium; 80% in Sweden and 60% in Germany, Britain and Italy.
An additional interesting fact is that 37% of Romanian Jews, 35% of Hungarian Jews, 31% of Belgian Jews and 21% of British and Swedish Jews personally experienced anti-Semitic incidents of one kind or another in this past year. Most of these were attributed to Moslems (27%), 22% were perpetrated by extreme Leftists and 19% by extreme Rightists.
76% of those questioned did not report those incidents to the police. 47% of them simply remarked that "it won't help in any case."
