Nationwide Study on the Impact of the Terrorist Attack on the 7th of October 2023 on Jewish and Israeli Communities in Germany

The terrorist attack on civilians in Israel marks a profound turning point for the Jewish and Israeli community in Germany. Jews are faced with the task of coping with the consequences of the attack, the social reactions to the terror and war in Israel and the Gaza Strip and the increased anti-Semitic threat. The study is being carried out at the joint research department of the Competence Centre for Education and Research Critical of Anti-Semitism and the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam. The study is based on a multi-method approach. Using narrative interviews, group discussions and the documentation of self-observations, the perceptions, interpretations and effects of the phase since 7 October 2023 are collected from Jewish perspectives. In doing so, changes in the processing processes over time and in connection with previous and current experiences with terror and war are reconstructed. The interviews will be conducted in German, English, Hebrew and Russian. In addition to interviews with adults of all age groups, the sampling also includes interviews with children and adolescents as well as group discussions with pupils from Jewish schools. The qualitative data is analysed using interpretative and in-depth hermeneutic methods.
The study's research interest concerns the following research questions: 
How have the events since 7 October 2023 affected the physical, psychological and social well-being and everyday life of Jews of different origins and age groups in Germany?
To what extent do Jews in Germany experience discrimination in connection with the public reactions to the terror against Israel since 7 October 2023 and the subsequent war in Israel and the Gaza Strip?
What role do the transgenerational transmission of the Shoah, previous experiences of terror, expulsion and other wars play in the impact and processing of current experiences? 
The study, which is process-orientated in the sense of grounded theory methodology, works with an understanding of anti-Semitic violence and discrimination as a form of collective, group-related violence.The term collective violence describes the use of violence by people who see themselves as members of a group and attack other groups for ideological reasons in order to achieve political, economic or social goals (cf. Wilkinson/Marmot 2003). In this way, collectively directed violence affects entire communities and unfolds a traumatic potential (cf. Auerbach 2022).People who have suffered marginalisation and persecution often experience a wide range of consequences for decades afterwards (cf. Moré 2015). It can be assumed that antisemitism has a lasting effect on the psychological and social well-being of those affected.To date, the effects of anti-Semitic discrimination and violence on the everyday lives, well-being and health of Jews have hardly been investigated in anti-Semitism research in Germany.

Project publications:
Chernivsky, Marina/ Lorenz-Sinai, Friederike (2024): The 7th of October as a turning point for Jewish communities in Germany. In: APuZ - Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte: Antisemitismus. 74 Jg., 25-26 2024. p. 19-24.
Taz interview from 20 April 2024 by taz editor Frederik Eikmanns with Marina Chernivsky and Friederike Lorenz-Sinai: "You encounter emotional coldness"