Previous sociological research on ethnic, cultural and religious relations in the Republic
of Macedonia has paid very little attention on the relations of the citizens of the
Republic of Macedonia with the Jewish community. Therefore, this paper is focused on the
social distance of the citizens of the Republic of Macedonia toward Jews. The importance of
this issue is even greater given the fact that this year marks the 70th tragic anniversary of the
deportation of over 7,200 Macedonian Jews in Treblinka by the Fascist Bulgaria (March 1943)
during the Second World War.
Our paper is based on the analyses of the data obtained from the survey which had
been realized in 2008 as a part of the international research project - European Values Study.
The analysis of the social distance is conducted according to the degree of religiosity of people,
their religious affiliation, level of education, age and sex of the participants in the survey.
The second major part of the analysis is related to the comparison of the social distance of
citizens of the Republic of Macedonia to other social groups, on the one hand, and Jews, on
the other. It is of great relevance for the context of the analysis to have in mind the contemporary
and traditional socio-cultural conditions that influence the differences in attitudes of
Macedonian citizens toward certain social groups, in terms of their number, role, impact and
involvement in the recent and historical processes in Macedonian society, the existence of
stereotypes and prejudices and so on. Our research has shown certain differentiated attitudes
of the Macedonian citizens (participants in the survey) toward Jews as well as toward other
social groups that were analyzed according to their socio-demographic characteristics.