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Anti-Semitism in Poland: survey results and a qualitative study of Catholic communities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Marek Kucia ,
Marta Duch-Dyngosz  and
Mateusz Magierowski
Marek Kucia*
Affiliation:
Institute of Sociology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
Marta Duch-Dyngosz
Affiliation:
Institute of Sociology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
Mateusz Magierowski
Affiliation:
Institute of Sociology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
*
* Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

After first outlining the notion of anti-Semitism, the predominant survey method used for researching it, and the history of the presence and the current (near) absence of Jews in Poland, this article gives the results of different surveys of various kinds of anti-Semitism in this country, including the authors’ own, and discusses the findings of their qualitative study – focus group interviews with members of three different Catholic communities from three different cities. The qualitative study confirmed the hypothesis that imagined and stereotypical rather than real Jews are the objects of modern anti-Semitism in Poland, while real historical and stereotypically perceived Jews are the objects of its religious and post-Holocaust variants. The roots of religious anti-Semitism lie in the not entirely absorbed teachings of the Catholic Church on the Jewish deicide charge. Religious anti-Semitism supports modern and post-Holocaust kinds of anti-Semitism. Modern anti-Semitism is rooted in poor education, lack of interest in the Jewish history of Poland, lack of inter-group contact, and persisting stereotypes of Jews. Among the various Catholic communities of Poles, there are considerable differences in attitudes to Jews. The qualitative study also revealed a methodological deficiency in the standard survey questions intended to measure anti-Semitism, which are sometimes understood as questions about facts rather than about opinions.

Keywords

anti-SemitismJewsPolandCatholic Churchsurveysgroup interviews
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , January 2014 , pp. 8 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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