This article considers the phenomenon of social stereotypes and whether they can be measured, analysed and interpreted, using the stereotypes adopted for Jews in Poland. The stereotype is presented as complex concept which has many aspects at the structural, functional and operational levels. In all these aspects of particular importance is the differentiation between individual convictions and the collective stereotype which normally partly reflects the rules prevailing in a given community. This differentiation can be observed in the phenomenon of anti-semitism which seems to rather more completely function at the collective/national level, while at the individual level it virtually disappears – which is illustrated in the literature discussed on the subject. This phenomenon is also discussed from a psychological, historic and social point of view.