CBOS poll: 40% of Poles express negative views of Jews, lowest sentiment since 2006

Some four out of ten Poles dislike Jews, according to findings published by Poland’s Centre for Public Opinion Research (CBOS). Only 22% view Jews positively – the lowest level of favorable sentiment recorded in the country since 2006.

The annual poll, conducted since 1993, asked Poles about their views on 21 national and ethnic groups. Russians, Belarusians and Roma ranked among the most disliked groups in Poland.

“Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Poles have been the most negative toward Russians: 74% of respondents express dislike, while only 7% report sympathy,” the CBOS report stated.

“Comparing the results from 2023 and 2026, we notice that the national sympathies of Poles are no longer-lasting and obvious,” the report assessed, adding that “They are increasingly becoming dependent on current political events and narratives present in the public debate.”

Italians, Czechs and Slovaks were the most popular ethnic groups in Poland, with Czechs and Slovaks benefiting in part from close cultural and linguistic ties to Poles.

In 2023, Americans ranked as the most popular group in Poland, reflecting a longstanding view of the United States as a positive counterweight to Soviet Russia. However, the new report found that 18% of Poles now hold negative views of Americans – eight percentage points higher than in 2025.

Poland has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022 and has absorbed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees in recent years. This demographic shift appears to have influenced public perceptions: Some 43% of Poles reported disliking Ukrainians, a five-point increase from 2025.

Jews have lived in Poland for a millennium and contributed greatly to the country’s culture, science and economy. Relations between Poles and Jews have historically been mixed with both peaceful coexistence and periods of antisemitic persecutions. 

Prior to the Second World War, Poland was home to more than three million Jews – around 10% of the country’s population. Approximately 90% of Polish Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their local collaborators during the Holocaust. In the late 1960s, Poland’s communist regime launched an antisemitic campaign that led to the expulsion of most of the country’s remaining Jews. Today, only about 10,000 Jews live in Poland. Antisemitism, however, remains a persistent problem in Polish society.

Relations between Poland and Israel deteriorated after Poland passed a controversial law that criminalizes criticism of Polish conduct during the Holocaust. Poland officially views itself as a victim of Nazi Germany and usually highlights Polish individuals who helped Jews during the war. However, there were also Poles who cooperated with the Nazis in the persecution of their Jewish neighbors. 

Israel and Poland both indicated in early 2023 that they wanted to improve relations and resume trips of young Jews to visit concentration camps in Poland and learn about the Holocaust. The trips of Israeli Jewish high school students were temporarily frozen due to disagreements between the Polish and Israeli governments concerning the content of the education. 

“The Poles wanted to mess with the content of the trips and what can or can’t be said to Israeli children visiting,” then–Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid said at the time, during a period of heightened tensions with Poland. Lapid, whose father survived the Holocaust, has been highly critical of Poland’s efforts to criminalize criticism of Polish complicity in the Holocaust.