According to a new study, openly expressed antisemitism has decreased in Baden-Württemberg in the past year. At the same time, however, the number of antisemitic crimes has risen.
In 2020, just over two percent of Baden-Württemberg residents agreed with classic antisemitic views, as the special assessment of the study “Antisemitism in the Times of Cubid-19” published on Thursday shows. In 2019 more than five percent of the population agreed with classical antisemitic views.
According to the government’s antisemitism commissioner, Michael Bloom, the drop in numbers is not a reason to think that everything is fine. According to the Stuttgart Interior Ministry, the number of antisemitic crimes increased by 25 percent between 2019 and 2020. Antisemitic incidents have already been reported in 2021 more than in 2020 as a whole.
Baden-Württemberg residents are also open to conspiratorial thinking: According to the study, 35 percent are convinced that there are secretive organizations that have a great deal of influence over political decisions. Nearly 39 percent of people share the view that they are talking about the Corona crisis so that few can enjoy it.
Conspiracy Myths According to Oliver Decker, director of the Center for Right-wing Extremism and Democracy Research at the University of Leipzig, it has been empirically proven that almost every second person who is a fan of a conspiracy mentality is also open to anti-Semitism. Therefore, when fighting anti-Semitism, conspiracy must always be taken into account. According to the expert, Cubid 19 serves as an accelerator for anti-Semitism: “The widespread conspiracy mentality also makes overt antisemitic resentment acceptable again.”
The representative study of the University of Leipzig among 300 people in the southwest was prepared by the Ministry of State and covers the year 2020.
Source: juedische-allgemeine
