Introduction

 

This report is the 7th update of the report Manifestations of anti-Semitism in

 

the EU published in 2004 by the predecessor of the Fundamental Rights

 

Agency of the European Union (FRA), the European Union Monitoring

 

Centre on Racism and Xenophobia. It contains the latest available

 

governmental and non-governmental statistical data covering the years

 

2001 to 2009, and, in addition, selected incidents identified through nongovernmental

 

organisations (NGOs) and media reports.

 

The Agency’s data collection work over recent years shows that few

 

European Union (EU) Member States have official data and statistics on

 

anti-Semitic incidents. Even where data exist, they are not comparable,

 

since they are collected using different definitions and methodologies.

 

Furthermore, in many EU Member States Jewish organisations or other

 

civil society organisations do not collect data on anti-Semitic incidents in a

 

systematic way, as there is no complaints mechanism in place to receive

 

and investigate allegations. Where such data exists, usually as lists of

 

cases, they are collected ad hoc by civil society organisations or are

 

based on media reports with varying degrees of validity and reliability.

 

Across most EU Member States, as the FRA has repeatedly noted, there

 

is a serious problem of underreporting, particularly in reference to official

 

systems of data collection that are based on police records and criminal

 

justice data, because not all officially registered anti-Semitic incidents are

 

categorised under the heading ‘anti-Semitism’, and/or because not all anti-

 

Semitic incidents are reported to an official body by victims or witnesses.

 

In unofficial data collection or when the methodology applied is

 

insufficiently robust the same incident may be recorded twice under

 

different categories, for example, under both ‘defamation’ and under

 

‘property damage’.

 

In view of the lack of robust and comparable data showing the extent to

 

which Jews in the EU are subject to discrimination, hate crime and hate

 

speech, the FRA decided in 2011 to launch a major survey on the Jewish

 

population in EU Member States. The issues to be covered will include

 

experiences and perceptions of discrimination (direct, indirect and

 

harassment) in key areas of social life, such as education, housing, health

 

and employment, as well as experiences and perceptions of hate crime

 

and hate speech, and, in addition, awareness of available legal remedies.1

 

The survey design will be developed in close consultation with key

 

stakeholders, including representatives of Jewish communities in the

 

European Union.