JEWS LIKE OWN COUNTRY AND THE EU – NEW POLL

Analysts at the London-based Institute of Jewish Policy Research (JPR) explored data behind the antisemitic trope that Jews do not truly “belong” or have “divided loyalties” between their home countries and Israel, and found a divergent picture.

Across Europe, the study found “a lower proportion of Jews feel ‘very strongly attached’ to their home countries than the general population, but a higher proportion of Jews feel ‘very strongly attached’ to the EU”. Answers from more than 16,300 Jews in 12 EU member states over several years show that views di er greatly from country to country, with researchers also testing European Jews’ attachment to the European project.

In some cases, there is greater attachment to Israel; in others, Jews feel far more inclined toward where they live. Danish and Polish Jews, for instance, feel almost twice as much attachment to Denmark and Poland than to Israel, whereas Jews in Germany feel almost twice as attached to the Jewish state.

Jews’ attachment toward the EU is higher in all 12 states than among total populations, which the study said made Jews “stand out”.

This pro-EU stance was “particularly strong” in central and eastern European states such as Hungary and Austria.

In the UK, 42 percent of Jews felt “very strongly attached” to the country, compared with 54 percent of the total population that felt the same, the report noted.

On the EU, the di erence was much smaller, with 14 percent feeling “very strongly attached” to Brussels compared with only 12 percent of Brits who echoed the sentiment.

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