Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic (FJC) recorded 1128 antisemitic incidents. In keeping with the trends of recent years, there has been a constant rise – in fact, 254 incidents more than in 2020 (increase of 29 %) when 874 incidents were recorded.
Cases of openly antisemitically motivated violence are still rare in the Czech Republic – in 2021, the FJC recorded one case of physical assault. Although the recorded number of violent acts against Jews was low in the last four monitored periods, the real number of such cases is usually higher. The victims and witnesses of antisemitically motivated prejudicial hatred often decide to not report such incidents to the relevant bodies or for various reasons do not wish to communicate the details of their negative experience.
The category of desecration of Jewish property included three such recorded incidents in 2021; a further five incidents fell under the category of threat of a violent act, harassment or insult of a concrete individual because of their real or presumed Jewishness. In both categories the number of incidents has been comparable with previous years.
Overwhelming majority of all recorded antisemitic incidents (almost 98 %) emanated from the internet (articles, posts on social networks, anonymous commentaries and discussion contributions). The increase is related to the general public atmosphere significantly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In May 2021, not only in the online environment, a significantly greater number of reactions and commentaries with a content corresponding with manifestations of “new antisemitism” were observed in connection to the flare-up of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during Operation Guardian of the Walls.
The analysis of the 2021 data has pointed to a disturbing trend of rising numbers of recorded manifestations of threatening, approving, justifying or calling for physical aggression. Although the number of such incidents continues to remain within the order of lower double figures, the year-on-year increase has been almost double.
Similarly to other countries, in the Czech Republic, too, a significantly larger number of antisemitic attacks were committed by followers of the extreme right. The year 2021 is the first monitored period when the number of recorded incidents from the milieu of the far right was higher than the category covering incidents without a clear ideological background.
Virtual environment and social networks in particular continue to be the dominant platform on which the publication and dissemination of manifestations of antisemitism occurs almost daily. Manifestations of hate in the virtual environment should not be underrated. Analyses of recorded manifestations of antisemitism of a threatening nature abroad show that these incidents were preceded by radicalization and hate manifestations on Internet.
In spite of the gravity of some of the findings, it must be stated once again that the Czech Republic is a safe country for the Jewish community, especially compared to other countries of central and Western Europe.
The Annual Report is published on website of FJC (www.fzo.cz) in Czech and English.
Incidents with antisemitic context can be reported via dedicated form on the FJC website.
The Annual Report on Manifestations of Antisemitism in the Czech Republic in 2021 was published by FJC as of the results of the MANTIC project which is co-financed by the European Union via CERV programme.
Annual Report on Manifestations of Antisemitism in the Czech Republic 2021
Prague, June 15, 2022
