In European Union-wide survey on anti-Semitism

Danes downplay seriousness of physical assaults on Jews

4 years after a jihadist killed a Jewish guard outside a Copenhagen synagogue, survey finds 42 percent of Danes say attacks on Jews are a problem

By Cnaan Liphshiz 23 January 2019, 4:32 am

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Cnaan Liphshiz was a Jewish World reporter at The Times of Israel

The Dean of Copenhagen Cathedral Anders Gadegaard (second from the right) and his congregation offer prayers for the shooting victims outside the synagogue Krystalgade in Copenhagen, on February 15, 2015 after two fatal attacks in the Danish capital, at a cultural center during a debate on Islam and free speech and a second outside the city's main synagogue. (AFP/Odd Andersen)

JTA — Four years after a jihadist killed a Jewish guard outside a Danish synagogue, only 42 percent of Danes said in a survey that physical attacks on Jews were “a problem.”

Respondents in Hungary, which has not had a fatal attack on a Jew for decades, displayed greater concern about attacks on Jews, with 44 percent of respondents saying physical attacks there were a problem.

In the survey, published Tuesday, the European Union asked non-Jewish adults in 28 EU countries about their perceptions on anti-Semitism.

The highest level of awareness was in France, the only country where a majority of respondents, 54 percent, said physical attacks on Jews were “a very important problem.”

Asked whether physical attacks on Jews were a problem in Denmark, 19 percent said “not at all” and another 31 percent said “not really a problem.” Eight percent said they didn’t know. Forty-two percent of the 1,004 Danish respondents said the issue was a problem: 17 percent said it was a “very important problem” and 25 percent said it was a “fairly important problem.”

Denmark, which has about 8,000 Jews, has several dozen anti-Semitic incidents annually. In 2014, a Jewish school in Copenhagen warned male students not to wear a kippah in public or hide it for fear of attacks.

Copenhagen Jewish community guard Dan Uzan, killed in a February 15, 2015 terrorist attack (screen capture: Channel 2)

Dan Uzan, a guard at the main synagogue of Copenhagen’s Jewish community, was killed in February 2015 in a terrorist attack outside the building.

Of the poll’s 27,643 respondents across Europe, half said physical attacks on Jews were not a problem and 42 percent said they were. The remaining 8 percent said they did not know.