Many thanks to Gary Fouse for translating this article from Deutsche Welle:

Violence and fear — Berlin’s Jews are worried

by Christoph Strack
May 22, 2024

Jewish experts in Berlin again sound the alarm: Anti-Semitism is increasing rapidly, and the fears of the Jewish population are growing. And they warn of worse developments.

Anna Chernyak Segal reports matter-of-factly, yet full of concern: She tells of the attempted arson attempts with two Molotov cocktails at her synagogue in mid-October last year and the attack on a young member of the community a few weeks ago at the Berlin Gesundbrunnen. The young man was “physically attacked and subjected to anti-Semitic insults,” and he suffered “broken bones and massive emotional and mental damage.”

Those are two of the anti-Semitic attacks against the Orthodox Jewish community “Kahal Adass Jisroel” on the Brunnenstrasse in Berlin, which has made it into the news nationwide.

Insults on the Metro

And the community manager Segal describes many other incidents. In her reports she speaks of fearful concerns for safety. There are verbal attacks on the streets or on public transport, such as the insults of “child killer”, hostility on the Internet, anti-Semitic markings on residences and house doors, torn down mezuzahs, the small containers that religious Jews decorate the doors of their homes with. “We are experiencing a greatly heightened threat situation for Jewish life,” she says. “We never could have imagined that.”

Segal is one of those affected who spoke at the presentation of the annual report for 2023 from the Anti-Semitism Research and Information Center in Berlin (RIAS-Berlin). What the statistics list, in sober and yet so terrifying numbers, brings it to life. In 2023, RIAS-Berlin recorded 1270 anti-Semitic incidents in the German capital city. That is the highest number since the founding of the establishment in 2015 and signifies an increase, compared to the previous year, 2022, of almost 50%.

“October 7, 2023 represents a turning point,” says the project manager of RIAS-Berlin, Julia Kopp. Since then, anti-Semitism is “clearly more present” than before in Berlin. From October 7, the first day of the murderous attack by the terror organization, Hamas, to the end of the year, there was an average of about ten anti-Semitic incidents per day. This included both criminal and non-criminal incidents.

Kopp explains the way Jewish life in the city has long since changed. Jews would take care not to be recognized via Jewish symbols. Some would even flee from an especially threatened location to move to another part of the city.

“Traumatized and injured”

Kopp points out the Jewish restaurant, DoDa’s Deli, long-established with a clientele in Berlin-Friedrichshain. Soon after the start of the Hamas terror, the shop sign was destroyed, and then there were more and more threats and warnings not to frequent the deli. “The operators feel themselves forced to leave the district,” she explains. Soon, DoDa’s Deli hopes to try a new start in West Berlin’s Wilmersdorf district. For Sigmount Königsberg, the anti-Semitism officer of the Berlin Jewish Community, the report shows, “how a large part of the Jewish community in Berlin is traumatized and injured.”

The situation in Berlin, the city with the largest Muslim community, and also the largest Palestinian community in Germany, is no exception. That was made clear the same day by the 2023 annual report of the RIAS Center in Hesse. There also, since October 7, the numbers exploded. More than 60% of the 528 documented incidents occurred in the last three months of the year.

And the previous day, experts from the Association of Counseling Centers for Those Affected by Right-wing, Racist, and Anti-Semitic Violence (VBRG) reported to journalists in Berlin. There, the historian Jens-Christian Wagner, leader of the Institute for Memorials of Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora in Thuringia, referred to incidents or anti-Israel remarks, even intimidation of memorial employees. As to the question of whether the perpetrators in such cases are also from pro-Palestinian, Muslim circles, he says as a rule, they are “native German” — Germans without any migration background. Jews and Israeli citizens are concerned for their safety and physical integrity in all parts of Germany. Especially in Berlin.

Doubt and frustration

At any rate, most feel protected and looked after by the police. In addition, there is no criticism of the conduct of security forces at anti-Israel demonstrations. And yet the doubts and frustration as described by Segal come through, how rocks shattered the window panes of a Jewish family from her community. The rocks were reportedly thrown by children from a Muslim family in the neighborhood.

The advice from police officials is reportedly: “Get out of this area. We cannot do a thing.” According to the managing director, such news would have a devastating effect on members of the community. Those responsible would “ask and beg” that those affected would be prepared to report such incidents. But not everyone does this.

Thus far there have been many individual incidents, including “chance encounters in everyday life,” as Julia Kopp says. Because they happen by chance, for those affected it is “so hard to protect themselves from them.” But given the great militancy of the words and actors, experts fear an increase in attacks and an escalation of violence. The contact person for the State of Berlin on anti-Semitism, Samuel Salzborn, points to the vehemence of individual protest events and fears further aggression. He even speaks of a “development that potentially takes on pre-terrorist characteristics.”