Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany (file)
Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany (file)Flash 90

Elias Paz, the emissary for Bnei Akiva and the Jewish Agency in Germany, told Arutz Sheva about a report recently published by the German government, which details that last year there was a whopping 1,000% rise in anti-Israeli crimes and violent assaults, and a 25% rise in anti-Semitic crimes and attacks.

The latter figure includes physical assaults on Jews, as well as vandalistic attacks on synagogues and Jewish cemeteries, in addition to incitement at protests.

According to Paz, the German anti-Semites have found a way to cover their hatred of Jews in an increasingly internationally acceptable camouflage of antagonism against Israel.

"They know that they risk losing their jobs for anti-Semitic statements, so they speak in anti-Israeli terms," he reports. "You meet Germans who speak with you about the conflict with the Palestinians and then you realize that they don't really understand what's happening in the Middle East, but it's more politically correct to speak against Israel."

Paz estimates that the Israelis living in Berlin are deluding themselves into thinking things will be okay.

"They're hanging on to the thought that this is anti-Israeli and not anti-Semitism. But there's no way of knowing what it will develop into," he warned.

He explained how Bnei Akiva delegates in Germany provide services for the small Jewish communities, saying, "we work with children and youth, there are a lot of communities of Jews who Germany absorbed from the Soviet Union and offered good conditions to, with a goal of reviving the communities that became extinct after the Holocaust."

"But the Germans divided them into dozens of small communities, they arrived without an understanding of Judaism and they deal with many difficulties like obtaining kosher food; we help them," said Paz.