Two weeks after October 7, 2023, the darkest day for the Jewish community since the end of National Socialism, a so-called Bengalo flies at the house of a Jewish family in the Ruhr area. The pyrotechnic device does not cause a fire. The family suspects that football ultras had chosen their garden by chance.
Then the next night comes. And again Bengal lights fly, setting garden utensils on fire. The family puts out the fire and calls the police. The next day, the officers find extensive graffiti on the house. “Money rules the world,” it says on the wall, “Fuck Israel” and “Free Palestine.” It is now clear to the family: they have become the targeted victims of an anti-Semitic arson attack.
The incident is probably the most extreme case cited by the Federal Association of the Research and Information Center on Anti-Semitism (Rias) in its report on anti-Semitic incidents in 2023. “It is hard to imagine what it means for a Jewish family’s sense of security to be exposed to such attacks in their own home,” it says. The annual report was presented on Tuesday and was made available to WELT in advance.
The Rias reporting centers documented a total of 4,782 anti-Semitic incidents last year, almost 60 percent of which occurred after the major Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. “The experiences that Jews living here have had for many years have increased enormously since then and have become an omnipresent and daily burden,” the report states. As a result, many Jews no longer enter certain rooms or are constantly worried about being confronted with hostile positions.
The monitoring facility classifies seven incidents such as the one mentioned above from the Ruhr area as “cases of extreme violence”. In addition, 121 attacks, 183 threats, 329 cases of targeted property damage, 82 anti-Semitic mass mailings and 4,060 cases of “hurtful behavior” were counted, including insults and anti-Semitic statements below the criminal threshold and 833 meetings at which anti-Semitic content was found. 46 percent of the incidents occurred in public spaces, around one in five on the Internet.
An incident in Cologne, for example, was considered offensive behavior when a Jewish woman was asked about her Star of David necklace by a work colleague. According to the report, the colleague asked her whether she did not talk to him “for that reason” and whether she hated “all Germans” because of the Jewish “victim complex.” Rias considers the sentence “I’ll rip your little hat off your head” directed at a kippah wearer in Göttingen to be a threat.
The report is based on reports from those affected, witnesses and other organizations. In some federal states, a comparison was made with police statistics. Almost a third of the incidents affected Jewish and Israeli individuals and institutions. Other incidents were directed against people who were addressed as Jewish or Israeli, as well as against memorial sites and political parties. More than half of the incidents had a connection to Israel.
The political and ideological background remained unknown in more than 60 percent of the recorded incidents. Twelve percent were classified as “anti-Israel activism,” nine percent as “right-wing extremist and right-wing populist,” seven percent as “conspiracy ideology,” and only three percent as “Islamic/Islamist.”
Rias only records incidents in the latter category if the perpetrators “make positive references to Islamic beliefs or symbols and where no other political or ideological background dominates.” The perpetrators can therefore also be Muslim in other categories. In a survey of Jews living in Germany conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights in 2018, 41 percent said “extremist Muslims” were the suspected perpetrators of the most serious anti-Semitic incident they had experienced, and 20 percent said “right-wing and right-wing extremists.”
WELT has researched public prosecutors and criminal courts regarding the possible prosecution of several cases.
The report cites an incident in Dresden in November as an example of a right-wing extremist background. According to a police report, a man in a tram initially complained about “Jewish beasts”. A man who complained was threatened with death and was hit with a glass bottle after getting off the tram. “The suspect raised his arm in a Hitler salute,” says a report from the Dresden police department. The police arrested the 54-year-old German. According to the Dresden public prosecutor’s office, the investigation is not yet complete.
In July, a 15-year-old German national in Munich was reportedly caught shouting anti-Semitic remarks. A 20-year-old who allegedly asked him to stop was threatened with a knife and hit in the face by the youth. According to the Munich District Court, the youth lay judges’ court will hear the incitement case next week – together with other charges against the accused.
In Berlin-Marzahn, a man who was sitting on a park bench in front of his house was initially subjected to anti-Semitic harassment in May 2023. One of two attackers then allegedly tried to hit and kick him. “The investigation into the charge of attempted bodily harm is ongoing,” said the Berlin public prosecutor’s office. “So far, a suspect, 23 years old, German national, has been identified.”
In August, “a tourist was physically attacked in Kreuzberg,” according to a report from the Berlin police. A 19-year-old Israeli had stated that he had been speaking on the phone in Hebrew. Suddenly, three men got out of a car. “Suddenly, one of the trio hit the tourist, causing the 19-year-old to fall to the ground. The three men then continued to hit and kick the young man lying on the ground,” the police said. Minor injuries were treated in hospital.
At the time, the police were looking for witnesses to the incident, describing the suspects as 20 to 30 years old, about 180 centimeters tall and “possibly of Arab descent.” A spokeswoman for the public prosecutor’s office told WELT: “The proceedings for dangerous bodily harm were discontinued in March 2024 due to a lack of identification of a suspect.”