Anti -Semitism: Jews in Germany under pressure: Rias reports 8,600 incidents

Jews in Germany see themselves massively under pressure and in danger both because of the Middle East conflict and through hostility from the right. “Never before in a calendar year more against Jews became known to us than in the past year,” said Managing Director Benjamin Steinitz on the annual report of the Federal Association of Research and Information Center Anti-Semitism (RIAS). It recorded 8,627 anti -Semitic incidents, 77 percent more than 2023.

According to Rias, this includes eight cases of extreme violence, 186 attacks, 443 targeted property damage and 300 cases of threat. The most common “hurtful behavior” was reported: According to Rias, 7,514 incidents fell into this category, including 1,802 meetings – the latter are recorded as an anti -Semitic incident, for example, if anti -Semitic statements are documented in call or in speeches. A right -wing extremist background was registered for 544 incidents, the highest number since the beginning of the nationwide comparison 2020.

5,857 cases were classified as “Israel -related anti -Semitism”, more than twice as many as in 2023. This means that Rias understands, among other things, if Jews in Germany are liable for actions by the Israeli government when the state is demonized and its right to exist. However, criticism of the Israeli government remains possible, said Steinitz.

Rias registered 450 anti -Semitic incidents at universities last year. There were 284 at schools, including 19 attacks. Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel in 2023 was a turning point, said Steinitz. “The risk of being hostile to Germany as a Jew and Jewish has objectively increased since October 7th.”

As cases of extreme violence, Rias not only recognized the attack of a Berlin student on a Jewish fellow student in front of a bar in early 2024. In the category, the network of a suspected supporter of the terrorist militia is also in the city festival in Solingen and the attack of a suspected Islamist on the Israeli Consulate of General and a Nazi documentary center in Munich.

Among the 186 registered attacks was one in Oldenburg: According to the Rias report, two men held a Jewish student on the way to school and insulted them as a “dirty Jew”. In a Leipzig park, 10 to 15 right -wing extremists attacked three men who had talked about anti -Semitism. In Saxon Switzerland, a man insulted and pushed a woman as “Nazi” who had a bag with the inscription “Feminist Zionist”.

According to Rias, 50 cases were under the 443 property damage in the living environment: In March, for example, unknown people lubricated two swastika next to the front door of a Jewish couple, in April a Davidstern marked the house of a Jewish person. This includes the threatening message for those affected: they know where they lived.

Since October 7, 2023, the increase has also been shown in official statistics. The special thing about the RIAS numbers: They record incidents that affected people or witnesses themselves present at the association’s reporting points. So how many people become active.

A just published report by German-Israeli journalist Itay Mashiach in the name of the “Diaspora Alliance” accuses Rias “of opaque methods” and criticizes “overemphasis on” Israel-related anti-Semitism “. Steinitz rejected this. The Federal Government’s anti -Semitism representative, Felix Klein, said: “I trust Rias’s work very much”.

Klein spoke of shocking numbers and emphasized that the fight against anti -Semitism “had to be” even more focused, more intense and successful “. The interaction with countries, municipalities, associations, associations and individuals is necessary, “so that we can see as soon as possible falls falling of anti -Semitic incidents”.

If the Gaza War ends at some point, from the point of view of the Jewish student union, the situation in Germany and the conflicts of the universities would calm down: “Yes, I assume that the situation could possibly relax,” said association president Ron Dekel on a question. However, it is the case that “Israel -related anti -Semitism has long been the main problem of Jews at universities and will unfortunately remain in my view.”