“These are very good results.” This is how Professor Dina Porat, director of Tel Aviv University’s Centre for the Study of Anti-Semitism greeted the results of last week’s Jewish Chronicle poll on British attitudes to Jews. Many will not share her enthusiasm. Among those, perhaps, are the archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster who have jointly written to The Times today along with the Chief Rabbi.

Professor Porat was expressing pleasure that large majorities felt no animus towards Jews and that Britain is, as another expert, Professor Robert Wistrich, put it: “in the median table of anti-Semitic attitudes”. While both these facts are, indeed, reassuring, they do not entirely offset the rest of the poll’s findings. Eighteen per cent of respondents said that they believed that Jews have too much influence in this country, while less than half the sample firmly disagreed. Eighteen per cent also felt that having a Jewish Prime Minister would not be as acceptable as having one from another faith. Fifteen per cent believe that the scale of the Holocaust has been exaggerated. To discover that millions of Britons harbour such attitudes is deeply depressing.

The reason for the apparently odd cheerfulness of the experts is important to understand. It is not that they minimise the findings — given the nature of their work, this is unlikely. It is that many Jews in Britain and elsewhere feared that the situation was worse. That the publication of such poll results should find so many Jews unsurprised is perhaps the most concerning aspect.

Although figures are still being collated, early evidence suggests that attacks on Jewish property and people have been rising in the past 12 months. Since September 11, 2001, fear of attack has risen even more sharply. Security has been tightened outside Jewish buildings and it is impossible to attend most synagogue services or bring a child to a Jewish school without first having to pass through several layers of protection.

The profile of anti-Semitism has changed since the Second World War. While upper-class dislike of Jews was shamefully common, now it is the least well-off who are most likely to agree to an anti-Semitic proposition. Those areas where the most Jews reside seem most positive towards them and, unsurprisingly, it is older residents who harbour the most anti-Semitic sentiments.

The nature of the prejudice has changed, too. Old-fashioned fear of anything different and mulish dislike of other groups remain, of course. This attitude has been joined by a hatred of the Israel that leads some who should know better to behave disgracefully. The New Statesman’s cover story in which a gold Star of David adorned an article investigating the existence of a Kosher conspiracy” is an unpleasant example.

Criticising the Government of Israel is not anti-Semitic. Indeed, many Jews are critical of Ariel Sharon’s administration. However, attacks on Israel should not be used to throw a cloak of respectability over antiSemitic feelings. Replacing the word “Jew” with the word “Zionist” should not protect someone from being accused of prejudice if he goes on to advance wild conspiracy theories or to express indifference over the murder of innocent Jews.

In the long, cruel history of hatred against Jews, the record of the leadership of various Christian churches has not always been a glorious one. The archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster are therefore to be congratulated for the prompt manner in which they have joined with the Chief Rabbi and sent a clear condemnation of anti-Semitism. Jews make a distinguished contribution to Britain. They deserve the support of its most distinguished institutions.