A new report commissioned by the Swiss Jewish Community Federation (SIG) and the Foundation against Racism and Anti-Semitism (GRA) found that anti-Semitic attitudes persist in Switzerland.According to the study, anti-Semitic attitudes are encountered in 10 to 25 percent of the country's German-speaking population.
In 2016, several serious anti-Semitic incidents were recorded from the spectrum of the extreme-right: In October 2016, in Toggenburg, a concert was held featuring some notorious neo-Nazi bands. According to media reports, around 5,000 people attended the event. A number of the bands appearing there included songs with anti-Semitic content in their repertoire, and photos of the event show concertgoers giving the Hitler salute.
In October 2016, members of a neo-Nazi band made death threats against SIG President Herbert Winter and members of the SIG management team. They also warned of bomb attacks at Jewish institutions in Zurich.
In July the SIG received an e-mail containing threats which held Jews as responsible for all the world’s misfortunes. The unknown sender demanded a large amount of money from the SIG, and failing that threatened that “Jewish people in Switzerland will bear the consequences”.
Two incidents of physical violence occurred in Zurich: At a soccer ground, two Jewish youngsters asked other footballers if they could join in. The answer was: “You’re Jews. There’s nothing here for Jews." The two Jewish youngsters were then spat at. As they left, they were followed by jeers of “Heil Hitler”.
Again in Zurich, in April 2016, a Jewish boy became the victim of anti-Semitic diatribes in the street and was spat at as he was riding on his bicycle past three young people.
In the report, its author - the historian Daniel Rickenbacher - looks at the 'cross-front' phenomenon in Switzerland. Cross-front is the term coined to describe associations which are formed between groups who are at opposite ends of the political spectrum. Rickenbacher shows that in Switzerland informal interaction exists between groups on the far-left, the extreme-right, and radical Islamists.
According to Rickenbacher, the embedding of anti-Semitism in a range of different political spectra provides the basis for groups who would otherwise be deemed to be incompatible with each other to find a common enemy: the Jews.
The report can be accessed at www.antisemitismus.ch.
