Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

400 Accounts Of Anti-Semitic Crimes In Germany Seen Halfway Through 2018

(JTA) — The number of anti-Semitic crimes in Germany during the first half of 2018 increased 10 percent over the same period last year.

There were 401 anti-Semitic crimes in Germany from January through June, according to government data reported Wednesday by Politico. The vast majority, 87 percent, came from the far-right. One-fifth were committed in Berlin.

The figures included 12 violent crimes.

In July, a Jewish man was assaulted in a Berlin park by a group of young adults and teens after they noticed he was wearing a Star of David. Days earlier, a Syrian man, 19, was found guilty of an April attack against an Israeli man who was wearing a kippah on a Berlin street. Later that month, a Jewish professor visiting Germany was assaulted in a Bonn park — first by a Palestinian and then by police who slammed him to the ground and punched him repeatedly in the face, mistaking him for the attacker.

Amid those incidents, the German government increased state benefits for the Central Council of Jews in Germany for the first time since 2011, noting “the rise in anti-Semitism in our society.” Days later, 40 Jewish organizations in Germany signed an open letter calling on the government to confront anti-Semitism.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Explore

Most Popular

In Case You Missed It

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.