Shocking Statistics
confirm 80 anti-Semitic felonies in Berlin during first half of 2018 August 8, 2018 The Simon
Wiesenthal Center expressed outrage and deep concern over the release of statistics
confirming that 20% of offenses in Berlin targeted Jews. Deutsche Welle, quoting the Berlin-based Tagesspiegel,
reported that 1/5 of 401 reported anti-Semitic attacks in Germany took place in
Berlin, the nation’s capital city. Berlin, which
is both Germany's capital and one of its 16 federal states, registered almost
twice as many anti-Semitic offenses as Bavaria, second in the national
statistics with 43 offenses. However, Bavaria has 12.5 million residents,
in comparison to Berlin's 3.5 million.
“We raised these concerns directly
with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier when he visited the Wiesenthal
Center’s Museum of Tolerance in June,” said Rabbi
Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action of the
Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading international Jewish human rights NGO. “Other than dutifully counting the reported
case, the reality is that Germany is not taking anti-Semitism seriously,” he
charged. “The chants of ‘Death to Jews’ have
been heard on the streets of Germany and by radical Islamists. Jewish students
have been bullied in class. Jews are told by their communal leaders to hide
their Jewishness in public. And there is no coherent plan by authorities to
counter extreme anti-Jewish views brought to Germany by migrants from the Arab
and Muslim worlds,” Cooper
added.
“Where is the outcry from fellow
German citizens, from the media, from the pundits against anti-Semitism whether
from neo-Nazis or Islamist extremists? The release of these shocking hate
crimes statistics must serve as a wake-up call. Anti-Semitism represents a
stark challenge to the values underpinning democratic Germany’s society,” Rabbi Cooper also said.
“If such trends continue—increased
anti-Semitism and apathy from their neighbors, the viability of the future of
Jewish life in Germany could be imperiled,” he concluded.
For more
information, please contact the Center's Communications Department,
310-553-9036. Join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter,
or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish
human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United
States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations,
UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American
Parliament (Parlatino).
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