Anti-Semitic incidents rise in Berlin, despite COVID lockdowns

The number of anti-Semitic incidents documented in Berlin last year increased by 13%, despite the city’s multiple COVID-19 lockdowns that have kept people at home.

Berlin’s Research and Information Center Antisemitism, or RIAS, recorded 1,004 anti-Semitic incidents in the German capital last year, 118 more than there were in 2019, RIAS writes in a report published this week.

RIAS was able to ascertain a motive in 49% of the cases it recorded in 2020. Of that portion, 27% was attributable to the far right. Almost 9% of the incidents were classified as connected to a conspiracy theory. Israel-related anti-Semitism and Islamist incidents accounted for more than 7% of the cases and another 3% was “political,” RIAS wrote.

Of the incidents RIAS recorded, 17 were physical assaults, compared to the 33 incidents of that category recorded in 2019. But the number of cases of anti-Semitic vandalism increased from 28 in 2019 to 43 last year.