ANTISEMITISM – Stereotypes and ignorance, Eurispes’s survey on Italy and the Jewish world
Almost four in ten Italians believe that Jewish people “only think about accumulating money.” More than half consider them to be “a closed community.” One in five thinks that the number of Jewish people in Italy is ten times higher than it really is. And one out of two young people believes that “Jews in Palestine took others’ territories”. These are just some of the findings of the latest survey on antisemitism, remembrance and the perception of the Jewish community realized by Eurispes, a private Italian research institute specializing in political, economic, and social studies.
The report depicts Italy as a country marked by prejudices, misinformation, and ambiguous categories, where the line between political criticism and hostility towards Jews is increasingly blurred.
Conducted in an atmosphere marked by the war in Gaza and growing political protests, the survey involved a representative sample of the Italian population, explained Eurispes. This initiative is part of the agreement signed last April by the Coordinator for the Fight Against Antisemitism, Pasquale Angelosanto, and the Eurispes, with the objective of continuously monitoring the level of anti-Jewish prejudice in Italy.
Some questions asked do raise some concern, though. In particular, the repetitive use of the expression “Jews in Palestine” may be difficult for interviewees to comprehend, given the difference between the Roman definition of Palestine, Mandate Palestine, and the Palestinian people’s aspiration for a state in Palestine.
Less than we think
Only 41.8% of interviewees knew that there are around 30,000 Jews residing in Italy. The rest of the sample gave incorrect estimates: 23.3% thought there were 500,000, while 16.5% estimated there were 2 million. The data reflect scarce knowledge and an altered perception, which are often synonymous with deeper stereotypes, the Eurispes researchers explained. Examples include the idea that Jews are a “closed” group (held by 58.2% of the sample) or that they are excessively attached to money (37.9%).
Young people and ideological narratives
On the controversial statement “Jewish people took someone else’s territory in Palestine”, Italians’ opinions differ. 55.8% reject the statement, while 44.2% agree with it. This figure is especially high among young people aged 18–24. Within this group, 50.85% agree with the statement, indicating an increasingly radical narrative that conflates judgements on the Israel–Palestine conflict with generic and historically confused representations of the Jewish presence in the region. Politically, agreement with the statement varies, but remains consistent across the board: It stands at 50% among centre-left voters and remains above 35% among centre-right and right-wing voters.
The Shoah and distorted numbers
Regarding the commemoration of the Holocaust, the responses to the questionnaire are mixed: 60.4% of interviewees know the correct number of victims of the genocide: 6 million. 25.5% responded with the incorrect figure of 2 million, while others provided much lower numbers. Consequently, according to Eurispes, four out of ten Italians have a vague or incorrect idea of the scale of the genocide carried out by the Nazis and fascists. This figure has not changed in recent years, indicating that the educational and cultural problem remains.
A comparison with data from the antisemitism Observatory
According to Eurispes, 54% of Italians consider antisemitic incidents “isolated” and not representative of a wider structural phenomenon. However, the data tell a different story. The 2024 report by the Antisemitism Observatory of the CDEC Foundation in Milan documented 877 such episodes in a single year, 277 of which happened offline. This represents a significant growth compared to 2023, characterised by an increase in physical violence, vandalism, and online hatred, often justified by anti-Zionist narratives.
The CDEC report highlights a qualitative transformation of antisemitism: It is no longer restricted to far-right wing or residual ideological groups, but is increasingly spreading among young people, at universities and on social media.
Translated by Rebecca Luna Escobar and revised by Chiara Tona, students at the Advanced School for Interpreters and Translators of the University of Trieste, trainee in the newsroom of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities — Pagine Ebraiche.