Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA)

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The Controversy on the Lost Jewish Accounts in Swiss Banks and Its Aftermath

October 1, 2010 | Dr. Simon Erlanger

The affair of the dormant, or lost, Jewish accounts in Swiss banks is still seen today by a large part of the Swiss population not as an attempt to achieve historic justice, but as an outright attack not only on Swiss banking but on Swiss identity and on Switzerland as a whole. The notion of "Jewish blackmail" is still rampant.

Real, Imaginary, and Symbolic Roles of Jews in Swiss Society

April 27, 2010 | Dr. Simon Erlanger

Numbering just under eighteen thousand, Jews constitute a tiny fragment of Switzerland's population of 7.7 million. Nevertheless, Swiss public discourse is preoccupied with things Jewish. This goes back at least as far as the first centralized Swiss state. The Helvetic Republic, founded in 1798, fell apart largely over the issue of Jewish emancipation. This issue remained at the very center of the Swiss political discourse up to 1868 when, under U.S. and French pressure, Switzerland granted equ

Muslims and Jews in Switzerland

September 21, 2008 | Dr. Simon Erlanger

There has so far been no openly anti-Jewish mass movement among Muslims. Kurds, Turks, and Bosnians tend to be more secular and friendlier toward Jews than Arabs from North Africa and the Middle East. Certain Muslim groups want to learn from the established Jewish community how to gain legal, political, and social acceptance in Switzerland. Muslims have not been the driving force behind the Swiss version of the new Europe-wide anti-Semitism. However, there is a growing radicalization of disaffec

The Politics of “Transmigration”: Why Jewish Refugees had to Leave Switzerland from 1944 to 1954

March 21, 2006 | Dr. Simon Erlanger

Switzerland and the Unfinished Business of World War II

March 1, 1998