A new report found that anti-Semitism in Berlin increased significantly in the first six months of 2021, with three reported anti-Semitic incidents occurring on average per day.
The report released on Thursday by RIAS, a German institute that monitors anti-Semitism, recorded 522 cases of anti-Semitism from January to June 2021, an increase of 17 percent from the previous year.
With nearly half the incidents occurring during May when the fighting took place between Israel and Hamas, the total was the highest since 2018.
The study recorded 22 cases of property damage; 12 physical attacks; 47 instances of verbal abuse and harassment from 35 anti-Semitic meetings and protests; and 26 anti-Semitic letters that were mailed.
Nearly half of the incidents had a connection to anti-Semitism involving Israel, with 43 percent involving “post-Shoah” anti-Semitism – meaning, anti-Semitism involving denying the Holocaust.
One fifth of the incidents involved anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Jews controlling the world through political or economic power.
However, over half of the incidents were not connected to the May fighting or conspiracy theories.
The report explained: “This, too, shows how widespread anti-Semitic attitudes are across all political spectra and how much anti-Semitism as a kind of background noise accompanies the everyday life of Berlin’s Jews.”