“The German state wants to protect Jewish life, but it appears to be failing,” a spokesman for the Central Council of Jews in Germany told the Düsseldorf-based Rheinische Post.
The Central Council’s remarks followed the release of a survey last week by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, which surveyed 8,000 Jews across 13 EU countries. The survey found that 80 percent of respondents believe antisemitism in Europe has increased over the past five years.
In Germany, this figure is the highest among the surveyed countries, at 86 percent. Additionally, 43 percent of respondents in Germany reported having been victims of antisemitic harassment in the past year, exceeding the EU average of 37 percent.
“This bitter realisation must not paralyse us. We need to address Muslim antisemitism, which has been rising due to migration, without blinders, and we must also pay increased attention to the severe threat posed by right-wing extremist antisemitism,” the Central Council spokesman stressed.
The Federal Anti-Semitism Commissioner, Felix Klein, echoed these concerns. He told the newspaper that the survey results were alarming. “What is particularly serious is that 86 percent of those surveyed believe antisemitism has increased in Germany over the past five years, and this was reported even before the terrible terrorist attack on October 7 and its aftermath.”
