BERLIN (AP) — A group that tracks anti-Semitism in Germany said Tuesday that it recorded an overall increase of more than 80% in incidents last year, with more than half of the total coming after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel in early October .
The RIAS group says it has registered 4,782 anti-Semitic incidents in 2023, ranging from anti-Jewish comments to attacks. That compared to 2,616 in 2022.
The group said that 2,787 of last year’s recorded incidents – more than the previous year’s total – occurred after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which sparked the ongoing war in Gaza. These incidents included an attack in mid-October on a synagogue in Berlin, which caused widespread alarm.
The incidents documented by RIAS last year included seven cases classified as ‘extreme violence’, which endangered or could endanger lives or lead to serious injury, 121 assaults, 329 cases of targeted damage to property, 183 threats and 4,060 incidents of offensive behavior.
“An open… but above all carefree Jewish life has become even less possible in Germany since October 7,” said Benjamin Steinitz, the director of RIAS, the Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Anti-Semitism.
Of last year’s incidents, 1,583 incidents took place on the street, more than double last year’s figure, and 999 on the internet – an increase compared to 853 in 2022. RIAS registered 471 incidents at educational institutions and 311 on public transport , both more than double. the previous year.
A senior official of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, Daniel Botmann, said that “we are currently not seeing the effect of an emigration of Jews from Germany,” contrasting this with the movement seen from neighboring France in recent years.
