German Jews call for action after report shows antisemitic attacks rising

Tagesspiegel newspaper reports that 1,646 antisemitic crimes were registered in 2018, up from 1,504 in 2017

Germany’s Central Council of Jews is calling for action following a report showing a rise in antisemitic attacks in the country.

The Tagesspiegel newspaper reported that preliminary government figures provided at the request of the Left Party to parliament showed 1,646 antisemitic crimes registered in 2018, up from 1,504 in 2017.

Violent crimes rose to 62 from 37.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer said the government’s position “is fully clear – that antisemitism has no place in Germany”.

But Central Council of Jews president Josef Schuster called for a “stronger commitment” from police, politicians and the judiciary.

“The latest numbers are not yet official but they reflect a trend, and that’s alarming,” he said.

“What Jews had already felt subjectively has been confirmed by the statistics.”

European Jewish Congress president, Dr. Moshe Kantor: “Unfortunately, this is another example that, at the beginning of the Twenty-First Century, hate is just intensifying against Jews in Europe. This worrying trend has to be combated at all levels and no one should accept this ‘new normal’, but all leaders should use this as a wake-up call to return safety and security to the Jews on Germany specifically and the Jews of Europe in general. It can not be and it should not be that in the very streets where Jews were rounded up and murdered en masse a couple of generations ago remain hostile to a public Jewish presence.”