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Antisemitism is a growing problem in 21st-century Germany. [1]
In May 2016, a new definition of antisemitism (the Working Definition of Antisemitism) was agreed upon at the Berlin-based International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Conference, stating that "holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel" is antisemitic. [2]
In 1998, Ignatz Bubis, a leader of the German Jewish community, pointed to a "spreading intellectual nationalism" that made him fear a revival of German antisemitism. [3] Others point to Germany's growing Muslim population, both the Turkish "guest workers" who began to arrive in the 1950s, and the large wave of migrants from Muslim countries who arrived during the European migrant crisis that began in 2015. [4] [5] In 2002, the historian Julius Schoeps said that "resolutions by the German parliament to reject antisemitism are drivel of the worst kind" and "all those ineffective actions are presented to the world as a strong defense against the charge of antisemitism. The truth is: no one is really interested in these matters. No one really cares." [6]
A 2012 poll showed that 18% of the Turks in Germany think of Jews as inferior human beings. [7] [8] A similar study found that most of Germany's native born Muslim youth and children of immigrants have antisemitic views. [9]
In 2014, antisemitic activities in Germany prompted the German Chancellor Angela Merkel to lead a rally in Berlin against antisemitism in Germany. [10] In that same year, about 3,500 people rallied in front of the Frankfurt City Hall to protest against a wave of antisemitic incidents in Germany. A few hundred of the protesters were from the Kurdish-Israeli Friendship Association. According to the JTA, "Merkel expressed her support for the event in a letter." [11]
The number of crimes against Jews and Jewish institutions continued to increase in 2018. [12] In a 2018 survey conducted by the European Union, 85% of Jewish respondents in Germany said that antisemitism was a "very big" or "fairly big" issue, and 89% said that antisemitism had become a worse problem in the last five years. [1] In February 2019, crime data released by the government for 2018 and published in Der Tagesspiegel showed a yearly increase of 10%, with 1,646 crimes linked to a hatred of Jews in 2018, with the totals not finalised as yet. There was a 60% rise in physical attacks (62 violent incidents, vs 37 in 2017). Germany also reported a new record of cases linked to hatred of Jews in 2020, with 2,275 crimes with an antisemitic background until the end of January 2021. [13]
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A June 2024 survey found that antisemitism in Germany was very high, citing an enormity of "extreme violence", with as much as an 83% spike in antisemitic incidents when compared to the preceding year. In 2023 alone, 5,164 antisemitic offenses were recorded by the Federal Police. [15] [16] Furthermore, according to RIAS reporting and support network, since 7 October 2023, there has been an average of 32 antisemetic incidents per day in Germany, up from an average of seven in 2022. [17]
As per German police statistics, over 90 percent of antisemitic incidents are committed by "followers of the far right". However, government officials and Jewish community leaders doubt the figure, because cases with unknown perpetrators and some kinds of attacks get automatically classified as "far right". [18]
A 2017 study on Jewish perspectives on antisemitism in Germany by Bielefeld University found that individuals and groups belonging to the extreme right and extreme left were equally represented as perpetrators of antisemitic harassment and assault, while the largest part of the attacks were committed by Muslim assailants. The study also found that 70% of the participants feared a rise in antisemitism due to immigration, citing the antisemitic views of some of the refugees. [19] A study among Jews, published by the European Union in 2018, has also listed Muslims as the biggest perpetrators of antisemitic incidents in Germany. 41% of such attacks were committed by extremist Muslims, 20% by far-right and 16% by far-left extremists. [20] In its 2017 summary, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) concluded that antisemitic rhetoric spread by Islamist organizations posed a significant challenge to the contemporary peaceful and tolerant society of Germany. [21]
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In January 2017, a German court in Wuppertal upheld the 2015 decision of a lower court which deemed an attempt by three Muslim attackers to burn down a synagogue in 2014 on the anniversary of the Kristallnacht "a means of drawing attention to the Gaza conflict with Israel". [2] The offenders were not sent to prison. [2] The German regional court ruled that the actions of the three perpetrators were "governed by anti-Israelism and not antisemitism". The attackers subsequently received suspended sentences. [2] Green Party MP Volker Beck protested the ruling, saying: "This is a decision as far as the motives of the perpetrators are concerned. What do Jews in Germany have to do with the Middle East conflict? Every bit as much as Christians, non-religious people or Muslims in Germany, namely, absolutely nothing. The ignorance of the judiciary toward antisemitism is for many Jews in Germany especially alarming." [2]
Dr. Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, said: [2]
It is unbelievable that attempts to burn a synagogue have been equated with displeasure of Israeli government policies...This has now given a carte blanche to antisemites across Germany to attack Jews because a German court has given them a ready justification.
In 2018, an Arab Israeli who wore a kippah was assaulted. The incident was recorded and the video went viral. [22] [23] [24]
In 2018, the Echo Music Prize was awarded to rappers who featured antisemitic clichés in their lyrics. As a result of protests from artists and the press, the award was discontinued. [25]
On 9 October 2019, a lone gunman attacked a synagogue in Halle during the Yom Kippur, while two doors of the synagogue were damaged when improvised explosives set off. The attacker shot dead a man and a woman near a Turkish kebab shop. [26]
In September 2021, German police averted a possible Islamic attack on a synagogue in Hagen during Yom Kippur services, arresting four people including a 16-year-old Syrian youth. [27]
During an April 2023 pro-Palestine protest, observers recorded numerous antisemitic chants, including "Death to the Jews". [28] [29] The Berlin Police have confirmed they are investigating charges of Volksverhetzung ; [28] two pro-Palestine rallies planned for the following weekend were cancelled. [30]
On 18 October 2023, 11 days after the Hamas-led October 7 massacres that killed over 1,200, a Berlin synagogue was firebombed with molotovs following the 2023 Israel–Hamas war by two masked men. [31] [32] [33] Since the escalation of the Israel–Hamas war in October 2023, there has been a surge in antisemitic incidents on a scale unseen in years. [34]
On 2 February 2024, a pro-Palestinian college student in Berlin assaulted a Jewish classmate to the point of hospitalization following an altercation over the Israel-Hamas war. According to the German police, the Jewish student was punched repeatedly in the face until he fell to the ground after which was he was kicked while lying on the floor. The attackers subsequently fled the scene. The victim suffered facial fractures, while the attacker was located and arrested. The victim is reportedly the grandson of Amitzur Shapira, an Israeli athletics coach murdered by the Black September terrorists in the 1972 Munich massacre. [35] [36]
On 5 April 2024, an unknown individual threw an incendiary device at the door of a synagogue in the northern city of Oldenburg, causing a small blaze and minor damage. German police have offered a cash reward for information about the arson attack. [37]
According to a Jewish Independent article on 21 May 2024, Jewish parents living in Berlin's suburbs started enrolling their kids at Jewish schools in Mitte, Berlin due to fears of rising antisemitism. The children of the parents concerned are enrolled at the schools closest to where they live, but they passed up the automatic registration for their children's local high school in favour of sending them to a school far from their place of residence for the alleged reason that it was protected by an Israeli guard, German policemen and an enclosed wall, while there are usually no guards at Berlin schools. [38]
In late June 2024, an Israeli couple in their early 20s was assaulted in Berlin's Potsdamer Platz after being heard speaking Hebrew by an Arabic speaking assailant. The assailant shouted abuses at them, threw a bottle and a chair at the woman, followed by punches on the man who rose in her defense. The assailant fled the scene afterwards. [39]
On 5 September 2024, the 52nd anniversary of the 1972 Munich massacre, a suspected terrorist opened fire at the Israeli consulate and adjacent Nazi Documentation Centre in Munich before being shot dead by police. [40]
In August 2024, German Senator Joseph Chialo was attacked by pro-Palestinian protesters following his initiative to stop funding organizations working to present antisemitic content in the country. [41] Following this attack, Dr. Felix Klein, Germany's Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Antisemitism, expressed concern about the "tsunami" of hostility toward Jews since October 7, the worst it has been since 1945. [42]
On 7 October 2024, 10 memorial stones engraved with details of certain Holocaust victims, were torn from their spots. The day was also the first anniversary of the Hamas-led October 7 massacre. Authorities suspected the vandalism to have been carried out by immigrants from Muslim-majority countries. [43]
In October 2024, Felix Klein, Germany's Commissioner for Jewish Life and the Fight against Antisemitism, said that "open and aggressive antisemitism", which is a "poison for social cohesion", was "stronger than at any time since 1945". [44] Also in October 2024, Thomas Strobl, Interior Minister of Baden-Württemberg, reassured the Jewish community that they will be protected amid rising antisemitism. [45]
Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against, Jews. This sentiment is a form of racism, and a person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Primarily, antisemitic tendencies may be motivated by negative sentiment towards Jews as a people or by negative sentiment towards Jews with regard to Judaism. In the former case, usually presented as racial antisemitism, a person's hostility is driven by the belief that Jews constitute a distinct race with inherent traits or characteristics that are repulsive or inferior to the preferred traits or characteristics within that person's society. In the latter case, known as religious antisemitism, a person's hostility is driven by their religion's perception of Jews and Judaism, typically encompassing doctrines of supersession that expect or demand Jews to turn away from Judaism and submit to the religion presenting itself as Judaism's successor faith—this is a common theme within the other Abrahamic religions. The development of racial and religious antisemitism has historically been encouraged by the concept of anti-Judaism, which is distinct from antisemitism itself.
Scholars have studied and debated Muslim attitudes towards Jews, as well as the treatment of Jews in Islamic thought and societies throughout the history of Islam. Parts of the Islamic literary sources give mention to certain Jewish groups present in the past or present, which has led to debates. Some of this overlaps with Islamic remarks on non-Muslim religious groups in general.
The Community Security Trust (CST) is a British charity whose stated mission is to provide safety, security, and advice to the Jewish community in the UK. It provides advice, training, representation and research.
The history of Jews in Denmark goes back to the 1600s. Although there were very likely Jewish merchants, sailors, and among others, who entered Denmark during the Middle Ages, back in around the year 1000, when Denmark became the first Christian Kingdom until 1536, though no efforts were made to establish a Jewish community. At present, Jewish community of Denmark constitutes a small minority of about 6,000 persons within Danish society.
The history of Jews in Sweden can be traced from the 17th century, when their presence is verified in the baptism records of the Stockholm Cathedral. Several Jewish families were baptised into the Lutheran Church, a requirement for permission to settle in Sweden. In 1681, for example, 28 members of the families of Israel Mandel and Moses Jacob were baptised in the Stockholm German Church in the presence of King Charles XI of Sweden, the dowager queen Hedvig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, and several other high state officials.
Antisemitism at universities has been reported and supported since the medieval period and, more recently, resisted and studied. Antisemitism has been manifested in various policies and practices, such as restricting the admission of Jewish students by a Jewish quota, or ostracism, intimidation, or violence against Jewish students, as well as in the hiring, retention and treatment of Jewish faculty and staff. In some instances, universities have been accused of condoning the development of antisemitic cultures on campus.
Historians continue to study and debate the extent of antisemitism in American history and how American antisemitism has similarities and distinctions with its European counterpart. Following World War II and the Holocaust, antisemitic sentiment declined in the United States, though typically sixty-percent of incidents categorized as hate crimes by the FBI target Jews.
Antisemitism, the prejudice or discrimination against Jews, has had a long history since the ancient times. While antisemitism had already been prevalent in the ancient Greece and Roman Empire, its institutionalization in European Christianity after the destruction of the ancient Jewish cultural center Jerusalem caused two millennia of segregation, expulsions, persecutions, pogroms, genocides of Jews, which culminated in the 20th-century Holocaust in Nazi German-occupied European states, where 67% European Jews were murdered.
Antisemitism has long existed in the United States. Most Jewish community relations agencies in the United States draw distinctions between antisemitism, which is measured in terms of attitudes and behaviors, and the security and status of American Jews, which are both measured by the occurrence of specific incidents. FBI data shows that in every year since 1991, Jews were the most frequent victims of religiously motivated hate crimes. The number of hate crimes against Jews may be underreported, as in the case for many other targeted groups.
Antisemitic incidents escalated worldwide in frequency and intensity during the Gaza War, and were widely considered to be a wave of reprisal attacks in response to the conflict.
Antisemitism in Canada is the manifestation of hostility, prejudice or discrimination against the Canadian Jewish people or Judaism as a religious, ethnic or racial group. This form of racism has affected Jews since Canada's Jewish community was established in the 18th century.
The Jewish community in Sweden has been prevalent since the 18th century. Today Sweden has a Jewish community of around 20,000, which makes it the 7th largest in the European Union. Antisemitism in historical Sweden primarily manifested as the confiscation of property, restrictions on movement and employment, and forced conversion to Christianity. Antisemitism in present-day Sweden is mainly perpetrated by far-right politicians, neo-Nazis, and Islamists.
Antisemitism in France has become heightened since the late 20th century and into the 21st century. In the early 21st century, most Jews in France, like most Muslims in France, are of North African origin. France has the largest population of Jews in the diaspora after the United States—an estimated 500,000–600,000 persons. Paris has the highest population, followed by Marseilles, which has 70,000 Jews. Expressions of antisemitism were seen to rise during the Six-Day War of 1967 and the French anti-Zionist campaign of the 1970s and 1980s. Following the electoral successes achieved by the extreme right-wing National Front and an increasing denial of the Holocaust among some persons in the 1990s, surveys showed an increase in stereotypical antisemitic beliefs among the general French population.
Racism in Poland has been a subject of extensive studies. Ethnic minorities historically made up a substantial proportion of Poland's population, from the founding of the Polish state through the Second Polish Republic, than they did after World War II when government statistics showed that at least 94% of the population self-reported as ethnic Poles.
British Jews have experienced antisemitism - discrimination and persecution as Jews - since a Jewish community was first established in England in 1070. They experienced a series of massacres in the Medieval period, which culminated in their expulsion from England in 1290.
Antisemitism in Australia is the manifestation of hostility, prejudice or discrimination against the Australian Jewish people or Judaism as a religious, ethnic or racial group. This form of racism has affected Jews since Australia's Jewish community was established in the 18th century. There are a number of organisations that track antisemitic activities, including the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, that publish an annual list of all reported antisemitic activities. According to the Anti-Defamation League's 2014 Global100 survey, an estimated 14% of Australians harbour antisemitic views. Antisemitism in Australia is perpetrated by a variety of groups, and it has manifested in the publication of antisemitic publications, in efforts to prevent Jewish immigration, and in attacks on Australian Jews and their religious and communal institutions.
Belgium is a European country with a Jewish population of approximately 35,000 out of a total population of about 11.4 million. It is among the countries experiencing an increase in both antisemitic attitudes and in physical attacks on Jews.
The 2018 Berlin antisemitic attack was an attack on a street in the German capital of Berlin. Two young men wearing Jewish skullcaps were insulted by Arabic-speaking passers-by. One of the two, an Arab Israeli citizen, was beaten with a belt by a Syrian attacker. Video footage led to public outrage.
Anti-antisemitism is opposition to antisemitism or prejudice against Jews, and just like the history of antisemitism, the history of anti-antisemitism is long and multifaceted. According to historian Omer Bartov, political controversies around antisemitism involve "those who see the world through an antisemitic prism, for whom everything that has gone wrong with the world, or with their personal lives, is the fault of the Jews; and those who see the world through an anti-antisemitic prism, for whom every critical observation of Jews as individuals or as a community, or, most crucially, of the state of Israel, is inherently antisemitic". It is disputed whether or not anti-antisemitism is synonymous with philosemitism, but anti-antisemitism often includes the "imaginary and symbolic idealization of ‘the Jew’" which is similar to philosemitism.
Following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war, there has been a surge of antisemitism around the world. Israeli Immigration Minister Ofir Sofer has stated that Israel is bracing to expect a large wave of Jews migrating to Israel due to the rising antisemitism around the world.
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