New Center for Research on Anti-Semitism

ORF, January 26, 2023

German original: https://science.orf.at/stories/3217343/

Stars of David at anti-COVID demonstrations, ideas of secret world elites and disproportionate criticism of Israel: anti-Semitism changes its form, but its content remains the same. A new center of excellence at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) is to research hatred of Jews, especially in the present day.

"Anti-Semitism is articulated differently today than in the past, because history never repeats itself one-to-one, but puts on different costumes, so to speak," ÖAW President Heinz Faßmann told science.ORF.at at the presentation of the new research center.

Not a historical phenomenon

The occasion is tomorrow's Holocaust Memorial Day. It commemorates January 27, 1945, the day on which soldiers of the Red Army liberated the Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz. Six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis. However, anti-Semitism is anything but a mere historical phenomenon; it is still widespread.

In 2020, a study commissioned by Parliament investigated the prevalence of anti-Semitic attitudes in Austria. 28 percent of respondents considered the statement "A powerful elite (e.g. Soros, Rothschild, Zuckerberg ...) is using the Corona pandemic to further expand its wealth and political influence" to be very or rather true. This year, updated figures on this are to be published. The Academy intends to participate in the study in the future and, if necessary, conduct it itself - every two years, changes in attitudes will then be compared.

Stocktaking and networking

Participation in the study is one of four focal points to which the new "Center of Excellence" will devote itself. First and foremost is a stocktaking: Under the direction of contemporary historian Helga Embacher from the University of Salzburg, an overview of the state of anti-Semitism research is to be compiled.