Germans and Jews – United by Their Past, Divided by Their Present?

The aim of this representative survey was to describe the mutual perceptions of Germans, Israelis, and Jews living in the U.S. In addition to this the intention was to elucidate the respective pictures of Germany and Israel, the relationship between Germans and Israeli and American Jews against the background of National Socialism, anti-Semitic attitudes in Germany today, and opinions towards current political developments in the Middle East.

In addition to the interviews in Germany and Israel, the United States was also included in the survey, since the Jewish population of the U.S., with about five to six million U.S. citizens, is the world’s largest Jewish population group besides Israel. Whereas the interviews in Germany were conducted among the whole of the German-speaking population, in Israel and the U.S. the interviews were restricted to the Jewish population. In Israel the Jewish population comprises 76 % of the total population, and in the U.S. 2 % of the population. All three surveys were representative interviews in the respective target group.