Anti-Semitic incidents up

Germany recorded a record 8,725 anti-Semitic incidents in 2025, up from 8,627 in 2024, according to the Berlin-based Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism. The figure was more than triple the 2,480 incidents recorded in 2022.

The 2025 total included 178 assaults and 257 cases involving threats. Jew-hatred related to Israel accounted for 68% of all incidents.

Security needed

Merz addressed Oct. 7, describing the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on the Nova music festival and southern Israeli communities as barbaric. He condemned the need for Jewish institutions in Germany to rely on extensive security measures, including high walls, bulletproof glass and armed guards.

“An institution with police officers standing outside may be secure—yes, probably. But it is also a horrifying sight,” he said.

“High walls, bulletproof glass, armed security personnel outside Jewish institutions: These are constant reminders that normal, open, visible Jewish life in Germany is still not possible,” Merz said.

Jew-hatred in Germany surged after Oct. 7, and the Berlin association documented 2,787 anti-Semitic incidents between Oct. 7 and the end of 2023—an average of about 33 daily, compared with just over seven daily before the attacks.

Merz questioned if Germany had done enough to understand and combat the causes of Jew-hatred. He urged Germans to speak out against anti-Semitism, “listen” when Jews report it and take “an interest in Israel’s fate.”

Historical upheaval?

“We know from historical research that anti-Semitism, hatred of Jews, has flared up particularly in times of crisis, in times of upheaval,” he said. “The long history of Jewish life in Munich has also been marked by cycles of expulsion, persecution and violence.”

“We are living in a time of renewed historical upheaval,” he said. “That is why we are now facing a test of the ‘never again’ that we proclaim so often and on so many occasions.”

“As a federal government, we are doing—and we will continue to do—everything within our power to protect Jewish life in our country and throughout the world,” Merz said.

Germany stands “unwaveringly alongside Israel,” he said.

“The fact that there is a country in the world, a state in which Jewish women and men are not a vulnerable minority in need of protection, where they can find refuge if barbarism once again prevails in their countries of origin—that, too, is part of our historical responsibility,” he said.

Originally published at: https://www.jns.org/news/world/horrifying-germany-still-not-safe-for-jews-chancellor-says-on-kristallnacht-anniversary