Antisemitism Is (Again) Part of Germany

It is no longer only about criticising Israel. Resentment and violence are once again directed against Jews. Their misfortune is that they form only a tiny minority, unlike Muslims.

Recently something unprecedented occurred in Germany. The left-wing weekly newspaper TAZ told the chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Joseph Schuster, what he should do: ‘Simply shut up.’ What had happened? Schuster had commented on the war by the United States and Israel against the Iranian regime and pointed out that it also concerned the security of the Jewish state against the nuclear ambitions of the mullahs.

TAZ did not respond with substantive arguments. Instead it declared that he should refrain from speaking about Iran altogether. The commentary stated, in a tone normally heard only in school reports: ‘It is also not the first time that the president of the Central Council of Jews has leaned too far out of the window.’

In fact, Schuster had taken the liberty of pointing to the effectively unlimited asylum migration from Islamic countries and the accompanying rise in antisemitism. He also criticised the German government’s temporary halt on weapons exports to Israel in 2025. Deciphered, the TAZ commentary meant no less than this: Jew, watch yourself. Do not be so outspoken.

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Classic Antisemitic Stereotypes

To this day politicians and many media outlets in Germany attempt to play down existing antisemitism by describing it as ‘criticism of Israel’. The implication is that resentment is directed only against the Netanyahu government and a country on the eastern Mediterranean, but not against Jews in Germany. That is no longer the case.

Jews in Germany are once again becoming targets, both implicitly and directly. At least in large cities such as Berlin, many now live with fear again. Hostile remarks directed at Jews have occurred repeatedly in recent times, not only in the example cited above involving TAZ. They have led, at most, to muted public outrage.

The entertainer Stefan Raab recently suggested in his programme on the private television channel RTL that the Jewish singer Gil Ofarim had inherited a ‘cheater gene’ from ‘his uncle Samuel’. There is much to criticise about Ofarim. In 2021 he falsely accused a hotel employee in Leipzig of insulting him antisemitically. He later admitted the accusation was false and apologised. His false statement seriously damaged efforts to combat real antisemitism in Germany.

Following accusations of antisemitism, hundreds of people gathered in front of the Westin Hotel Leipzig in 2021 to show solidarity with musician Gil Ofarim and Jews in Germany. Ofarim had claimed to be the victim of an antisemitic incident at the hotel. However, it later emerged that this was not true and damaged the credibility of many true victims. Photo: Dirk Knofe/picture alliance via Getty Images

Although the RTL broadcast was not about that episode. Instead, a segment showed an oriental-looking man described as Ofarim’s supposed ‘uncle Samuel’, who does not exist, stealing apples in a supermarket. A narrator explains: ‘Despite the major scandal he remains an exceptional talent who continues to produce hit after hit, particularly within the Jewish community.’ Ultra-orthodox Jews dance in the segment.

The broadcaster aired the programme on 27 January, International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Raab’s programme was a clear example of antisemitism. Nevertheless, public reaction in a country that otherwise loudly condemns antisemitism from the political right remained muted. After protests the broadcaster removed the video from the internet to avoid reputational damage.

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Jews Under Attack in Berlin

In 2025 scenes unfolded in Berlin that many believed could never occur in present day Germany. They were directed not at a target called Israel but at Jews in Germany themselves, regardless of their views on the world’s only Jewish state. Not in the predominantly Muslim district of Neukölln but at Gendarmenmarkt, the city’s most prestigious square, an antisemitic mob prevented the opening of the Jewish restaurant ‘Gila & Nancy’.

In Kreuzberg employees of a left-wing Berlin café expelled a guest because he wore a T-shirt with Hebrew and also Arabic lettering. The garment actually promoted Israeli-Arab peace. The Hebrew letters alone were enough for staff to refuse service to the man and his companion. A bartender described the pair as ‘Zionists’, accused them of supporting genocide and declared Hebrew to be the ‘language of the oppressor’. She refused to serve them and issued a ban from the premises. The man later said that this must have been how Jews in Berlin felt around 1930.

According to the Research and Information Centre on Antisemitism (Rias), there were 2,521 antisemitic incidents in Berlin alone in 2024, including 99 cases of property damage, 46 threats and 53 physical attacks. In two cases the violence was classified as extreme. These acts were directed not against Israel but against Jewish people.

Jews who openly identify themselves as such face pressure from two directions. On one side postcolonial activists portray them as suspects because they might sympathise with Israel. But even seemingly apolitical commentators and journalists now sometimes link Jews with old malicious stereotypes.

On the other side there are young Muslims who ensure that no one enters certain districts wearing a Star of David or a kippah. Jewish parents either send their children to Jewish schools or instruct them not to reveal their Jewish identity at state schools. In Berlin the police president warned not only homosexuals but also Jews about entering certain districts. The city now effectively has areas where Jews are advised not to go because police cannot guarantee their safety.

Participants in a silent protest organised by an initiative for the safety of Jewish students have gathered in front of Mensa II at Freie Universität Berlin. A Jewish student was hospitalised with broken bones in his face after a pro-Palestinian fellow student allegedly punched and kicked him in Berlin-Mitte. Photo: Christoph Soeder/picture alliance via Getty Images

The Problem of Left-Wing Antisemitism

This does not mean that violence occurs only in neighbourhoods with large Muslim populations or that antisemitism at universities remains limited to words. In 2024 Mustafa A., a student of Arab origin at the Free University of Berlin, beat his fellow student Lahav Shapira so severely that he required hospital treatment. Shapira had openly identified as Jewish and had campaigned against rising antisemitism at the university. The city’s science senator initially described the assault merely as a ‘political dispute’, as though beating someone nearly to death because of their views or background had become part of the culture of debate.

At the end of 2025 a Jewish restaurant in central Berlin was unable to open as planned because of an antisemitic mob. Jewish students in the city report that they now go to university with a sense of fear. According to a recent study by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), openly antisemitic attitudes have increased. One example is growing agreement with the statement: ‘Jews cannot be trusted.’ Solidarity with Jews in Germany remains limited. Not a single talk show on public broadcasting has yet devoted an episode to the issue.

Mayor of Berlin Kai Wegner speaks at an event to light a giant menorah of Chabad Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate on December 17, 2025 in Berlin, Germany. Despite numerous reassurances from politicians, many Jews do not feel safe in the capital anymore. Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Both phenomena, academic ‘criticism of Israel’ and the revival of older antisemitic hostility, are linked. One acts as a catalyst for the other. As part of the Monitoring System and Transfer Platform on Radicalisation of the Federal Criminal Police Office, researchers conducted extensive surveys of political attitudes between 2021 and 2025, including antisemitism.

According to the 2025 survey, 27.2 per cent of Muslims displayed ‘manifest antisemitic attitudes’. Four years earlier the figure had been 12.5 per cent. In 2025 slightly more than seven per cent of respondents agreed with the statement: ‘Jews cannot be trusted.’ Fortunately this remains a minority position. Yet it shows that the issue is no longer primarily about the Middle East but about ancient resentments revived in disturbing ways.

How has politics responded? In Berlin, where the resurgence of antisemitism is particularly visible, the city government decided to introduce a day of action against Islamophobia. Between five and six million Muslims live in Germany, hundreds of thousands of them in the capital. They represent a significant electoral constituency. Outnumbered, the fewer than 100,000 Jews in Germany look set to become politically marginalised once again.