Ron Dekel, president of the Union of Jewish Students in Germany, says he was targeted in two separate antisemitic incidents within a single week in Berlin, amid growing concerns over rising hostility toward Jews in Germany.
In an interview with the German Jewish newspaper Juedische Allgemeine, Dekel recounted a series of confrontations that began last Thursday after he left a Bundestag discussion on antisemitism.
According to Dekel, a car blasting loud music approached him and another union member near the government district and slowly followed them. Two young women were inside the vehicle, and the driver allegedly shouted “Free Palestine" and “To hell with Israel" while making an obscene gesture.
Dekel recorded the encounter on video and later uploaded it online, where it drew hundreds of thousands of views before being removed from social media platforms.
He said that after posting the clip on Instagram, he received insults and threats demanding that he take it down. The video was eventually removed after multiple reports were filed against it. A friend later submitted a police complaint regarding the incident.
Two days later, Dekel said he encountered the same woman again outside a synagogue following an event at a Jewish community center.
According to his account, the woman approached him and shouted at him to delete the video. Dekel later concluded she was likely the same driver involved in the earlier confrontation.
He said the woman arrived with several young people who waited nearby in a car outside the synagogue. Friends who later returned to the area told him the woman remained seated at a café across from the synagogue entrance, apparently observing those entering and leaving.
Dekel added that the woman later attempted to enter the building and tried convincing security guards to let her inside before a rabbi at the scene intervened and asked her to leave.
“I still do not know how she knew where I was," Dekel said. “It makes me uncomfortable."
He noted that he frequently visits the area wearing clothing identifying him with the Jewish student union, along with a kippah, and speculated that someone familiar with him may have recognized him there previously.
Dekel said he reported the second incident to police and acknowledged that he no longer feels safe.
He also described a broader pattern of harassment since he began openly wearing a kippah earlier this year.
“Something happens all the time," he said. “Even this Saturday, after the synagogue incident, people shouted antisemitic insults at us as we walked. Usually it happens so quickly that I cannot even record it."
According to Dekel, the original video gained widespread attention because it captured a type of harassment that many Jews experience regularly but rarely document.
“Because the car followed us for about a minute, I managed to film it," he said. “I also did it to protect myself. Since I started wearing a kippah, I feel like I’m constantly in a basic self-defense mode."
Despite the incidents, Dekel said he intends to continue openly wearing Jewish symbols.
“It has religious meaning for me," he explained. “But it also hurt my sense of justice that Jews in Germany in 2026 are being advised not to appear visibly Jewish. I do not want to hide, and more young Jews today feel the same way."