The German government announced on Wednesday that as part of its plan to tackle rising Jew hatred it will give 35 million euros ($41.5 million) to research and education programs studying and combating anti-Semitism, reported the Associated Press.
German police said that cases of anti-Semitism rose 15 percent in 2020.
In July, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany Josef Schuster commended the German government for its creation of an anti-Semitism commissioner, while also calling for the continuation of the current proactive stance against anti-Semitism when the new federal government takes over after September 2021 Bundestag elections.
Referring to the increase in anti-Semitism, German Education and Research Minister Anja Karliczek said at a press conference: “This is the highest number in the last couple of years. There’s reason for worry that this is only the tip of the iceberg and that the unreported number of daily attacks on Jews is substantially higher.”
She aded that the money would be distributed to universities to study the different aspects of Jew hatred in order to develop the best ways to combat it. Various projects will focus on anti-Semitism in schools, the legal system, the internet and social media.
Money will also be used to educate non-Jews about Jewish life, customers and religious practice.
Academics will also be given the job of creating “practical guidelines” based on the project’s finding for teachers and others to fight anti-Semitism.
Rising anti-Semitism has spread to different sectors of German society in recent years.
In June, 30 German soldiers on a NATO mission were sent home from Lithuania after allegations of anti-Semitic and racist remarks and an assault.
The previous month, during the fighting between Israel and Hamas, there were multiple incidents targeting the Jewish community, including 200 anti-Israel protesters waving Palestinian flags marching to a synagogue in Gelsenkirchen, where they had to be restrained by police. The incident followed the shattering of a synagogue window in Mannheim, near Frankfurt.