Since the Hamas terror attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the climate for Jews in Germany has changed dramatically. Many report that they no longer feel safe, neither on the streets nor in educational institutions.
Jewish families in Germany are telling their children not to reveal their identity at school. Students hide Star of David necklaces before stepping onto campus. Worshippers take detours on their way to synagogue. What were once isolated anecdotes have become part of a grim reality: antisemitism is seeping back into everyday life.
Jo–Achim Hamburger, chairman of the Jewish community in Nuremberg, knows it well. As early as 2014, during the third Gaza war, hundreds of demonstrators stormed McDonald’s and Burger King at the railway station, claiming the convenience food vendors were “Jewish,” and shouting “Child murderer Israel” and “Allahu akbar.”
Hamburger notes that the city’s new Jewish kindergarten has just been completed with bulletproof windows, a requirement of the State Criminal Police Office, adding sadly
It is the only kindergarten in Nuremberg that needs such a thing.
Universities, once viewed as safe spaces for debate, have become flashpoints. Professors allow one–sided narratives on the Middle East, where “apartheid Israel” is mentioned without challenge and terror attacks are brushed off or praised as “resistance.” The line between legitimate criticism and antisemitism is dissolving—and Jewish students increasingly feel unsafe.
The trend is well reflected in the numbers. The Research and Information Center on Antisemitism recorded around 24 incidents per day in 2024—an attack or insult every single hour. Synagogues are defaced, Stolpersteine destroyed, and institutions rely on heavy police presence. A particularly shocking example was the attack at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin in February 2025, when a Jewish visitor was injured with a knife.
The situation is extremely tense. Pro–Palestinian demonstrations in major cities often turn into antisemitic agitation. Slogans such as “From the river to the sea” or “Intifada until victory” are chanted openly on the streets, without intervention by authorities. Many Jews feel that their safety is subordinated to the desire for freedom of demonstration. According to Elio Adler, Chairman of the Berlin–based Werte Initiative
We Jews will only have a future in Germany if the majority of society understands that these demos are not about Jews, but about a fight against our values, against peaceful coexistence.
Confidence has been further shaken by German leaders themselves. Chancellor Friedrich Merz recently accused Israel of violating international law in Gaza and announced a halt to certain arms exports–—a move many Jews saw as a break with decades of solidarity.
