German police arrest man suspected of trying to torch synagogue

German police arrested a 32-year-old man suspected of trying to burn down a synagogue in what is believed to be an antisemitic attack, local media reported on Wednesday.

Security camera footage outside the Beith-Jaakov synagogue in the city of Giessen showed a man wearing a black backpack raising his arm in what appears to be a Nazi salute on Tuesday, according to reports. He then lit a pile of cardboard boxes stacked against the building and walked away.

The fire caused damage to the synagogue’s entrance but did not spread further. No one was injured.

Police told German media that the suspect appeared to have acted alone and that his motive remains under investigation.

The suspect is being held in a psychiatric hospital.

The incident is part of a growing trend exemplified by the arson attack on a Mississippi temple in the US on Saturday, said Rabbi Menachem Margolin, chairman of the European Jewish Association.

Was ist mit Dir los, Deutschland?

Ein Brandanschlag auf eine Synagoge lässt Dich kalt? Kein Aufschrei, keine Omas gegen sonst was, kein Statement eines Verfassungsorgans, nicht mal die @BILD springt darauf an?

Ich weine Heinetränen … ⤵️#Gießen pic.twitter.com/aaqlbQvCHX

— Exil de Nous SommesTous Israël????♂????????(told/you/so) (@Gidon_David) January 14, 2026

“There is no doubt that this was an antisemitic attack, following the same pattern of synagogue attacks we have seen over the past two years,” Margolin wrote on social media. “In the last two years, 21 synagogues have been set on fire, and an alarming number of synagogues have been targeted.”

Margolin called on leaders to increase the security measures to ensure that Jewish institutions remain safe.

Last week, the property of a German state commissioner for countering antisemitism was torched, and a Hamas symbol was painted nearby.

Antisemitism in Germany spiked in the wake of the Hamas-led massacre on October 7, 2023, that ignited the Gaza war, and has continued over the past two years.

There were a record 6,236 antisemitic crimes in Germany in 2024, compared with just 2,641 in 2022, according to figures from the federal domestic intelligence agency (BfV).

In September, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned that criticism of Israel was increasingly being used in Germany as a pretext for stoking hatred against Jews, noting that antisemitism had “become louder, more open, more brazen, more violent almost every day” since the war in Gaza began.