Jewish Mother Removes Son From German School Due To Classroom Anti-Semitism

Image by George Tan/Flickr
A Jewish mother in Germany is taking her son out of a public high school because of frequent anti-Semitic comments in the classroom.
Though her son was not personally targeted by the comments, the atmosphere at the school in the city of Offenbach, near Frankfurt, led Alina R. to make the move.
She told the German news media that teachers and administrators had failed to react to the anti-Semitic comments thrown casually around the classroom. Comments such as “It’s as hot and humid as Auschwitz in here” or “you Jew” are common, she said, noting that her son’s Jewish identity is not public.
The 16-year-old will transfer to a private school where, Alina R. said, such problems are less common since the private school takes greater care to call out and punish such behavior.
According to German news reports, Alina R. had encouraged her son to speak with a teacher about the problem and the teacher did not take any action.
Meanwhile, the Federal Ministry of Justice will increase the punishment for crimes with anti-Semitic motivation.
Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht announced her planned amendment to the law on Thursday, saying that she was “ashamed of the fact that Jews in Germany no longer feel safe, that even many think about leaving the country.” She expects the parliament to pass the change by the end of the year.
Josef Schuster, head of the the Central Council of Jews in Germany, called it an “important step.”
“Anti-Semitic motivations must be considered separately and as aggravating circumstances in the sentencing,” he said.
Schuster had argued for the inclusion of “anti-Semitism” in the list of motivations drawing a harsher punishment. The list currently includes racist and xenophobic motivations, among others.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Books The White House Seder started in a Pennsylvania basement. Its legacy lives on.
-
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
-
Fast Forward Yarden Bibas says ‘I am here because of Trump’ and pleads with him to stop the Gaza war
-
Fast Forward Trump’s plan to enlist Elon Musk began at Lubavitcher Rebbe’s grave
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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.