Poll of European Jewish leaders shows little desire to emigrate to Israel despite concerns of antisemitism

In historic reversal, security concerns higher for Jews in Western Europe than in the eastern part of continent

Despite increasing concerns over rising antisemitism, the large majority of Jewish leaders in Europe are not considering emigrating from the continent, according to a new poll.

The study, conducted by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s International Center for Community Development (JDC-ICCD), demonstrated that despite anxiety over antisemitism and terrorism, the large majority of European Jewish leaders believe that the countries they live in are safe. They also hold that internal communal issues such as engagement in Jewish life and demographic concerns present a more serious threat to Jewish life than security issues.

This is the fourth such poll conducted by the JDC-ICCD in April and May of this year, with others performed in 2008, 2011 and 2015.

The JDC-ICCD poll had 893 respondents from 29 countries, who were polled in 10 languages with a margin of error of under 5%.

The study was included Jewish leaders from across Europe, including heads of Jewish organizations; rabbis, principals of Jewish schools and Jewish educational professionals; young activists; community media, intellectuals, academics, and significant donors to these communities.

Of those polled, 83% said they felt safe or rather safe and 17% said rather or not at all safe. Although still high, these figures represent a decline from the first poll held in 2008 where 92% of those polled said they felt safe.

And this general sense of security was borne out of perceived threats to Jewish life on the continent, with respondents placing alienation from Jewish life, demographic decline, a lack of engagement of community members, weakness of Jewish organizations, and declining knowledge of Judaism over the threats of antisemitism, terrorism and violence against Jews.

Despite this, Jewish leaders polled said that while strengthening Jewish education remains their top priority, for the first time combating antisemitism ranked third in their priorities.

By comparison, concern regarding intermarriage has steeply declined from 2008 when 64% of respondents said it was a serious problem compared to just 40% in 2018.

And although the threat of antisemitism was only the sixth highest on their list of threats to Jewish life, the number of respondents who rated it as a serious threat jumped from just 40% in 2015 to 56% in the current poll.

However, there was a significant regional split in perceptions of security and safety between Jewish leaders in West and East Europe. In the West 63% ranked antisemitism as a serious threat, compared to 38% in the East, and 47% of those in the West ranked terrorism and violence against Jews as a serious threat, compared to just 22% in the East.

Indeed, whereas 96% of those in the East felt safe in their city, only 76% of those in the West did. Almost one in four from Western Europe (24%) felt unsafe in their city in contrast to only 4% of those in the East.

“One hundred years ago Western Europe was considered a safe haven, and now it’s the opposite,” noted project director Marcelo Dimenstein, tying these concerns to “a change in the demographics of Western Europe and the rise of radical Islam.”

Eastern European countries have tiny Muslim populations, and the EU has refused to accept any of the large numbers of Muslims who have flocked to the continent since 2014.

Despite these concerns, three out of four respondents thought their government did respond to security needs while 26% thought otherwise.

And this is perhaps seen in the results regarding possible emigration, where the vast majority, 76%, of Jewish leaders who participated in the survey said they have not considered emigrating, although 3% are making preparations to leave their countries and 19% have considered doing so.

Of those considering emigration, 67% said they would move to Israel, 15% said North America, and another 15% preferred to relocate to another European country.

Dimenstein said that despite rising concerns over antisemitism in Europe – especially Western Europe – it is not state-sponsored and governments have publicly committed to fighting the phenomenon.

“People believe they can live a full Jewish life in Europe, so far they see no reason to emigrate,” he said.

The study demonstrated widespread support for Israel, with 83% of respondents agreeing that “all Jews have a responsibility to support Israel”, this is the highest figure since the first poll in 2008, while 84% added that Israel is critical in order to sustain Jewish life in Europe.

Some 69% of respondents even agreed with the statement that “I support Israel fully, regardless of [how] its government behaves,” although 30% disagreed with this position.