Jews not emigrating from Germany despite rising anti-Semitism

The president of Germany's Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, has not observed any emigration of Jews from Germany despite the rising number of anti-Semitic incidents in the country.

When asked whether members of the Jewish community were turning their backs on Germany, Schuster told the Rheinische Post newspaper in an interview published on Saturday: "No, I definitely don't see any emigration of Jewish people from Germany."

There are always people who move to Israel for religious reasons, Schuster said, but added he couldn't see that for political reasons "in contrast to France, where there is a clear exodus of Jews."

Since the terrorist attack on Israel by the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas and others on October 7, a sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents has also been reported in Germany, including hostility, verbal abuse, the marking of residential buildings with Stars of David and an attempted arson attack on a Berlin synagogue.

Anti-Israeli slogans have been shouted and posters displayed at demonstrations.

German Commissioner for Anti-Semitism Felix Klein described October 7 as a "turning point, also for the safety of Jews in Germany."

"I find it alarming when Jews consider leaving Germany. And I understand if some do. There is great unrest in the community," Klein told the Saturday editions of the newspapers in the Funke Media Group.

He said that Jews in Germany had not been in as much danger since the Holocaust as they are today.

"In 1972 we had the attack on the Olympic Games in Munich, in 2019 the attack in [the German city of] Halle. Today we are dealing with an active terrorist organization that wants to kill as many Jews as possible - and which is openly supported by parts of the population. We have to fear that Hamas' arm will reach as far as Germany."

Klein was referring to an attack at the Summer Olympics in the southern German city when eight Palestinian terrorists broke into the Olympic village and killed two members of the Israeli team, and another more recently when a shooter killed two people nearby after failing to force his way into the synagogue in the central German city of Halle on the feast of Yom Kippur.