German Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses a rally against anti-Semitism entitled ‘Stand Up! Jew Hatred – Never Again!’ in Berlin on September 14, 2014. Image by JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images

(JTA) — The number of anti-Semitic incidents reported in Germany in 2017 remained about the same as the previous year.

Published Monday in the Berlin daily newspaper Tagesspiegel, the report — based on police statistics delivered to Bundestag Vice President Petra Pau of the Left Party — indicated there were 1,453 incidents reported in 2017 — about the same as in 2016, which had a total of 1,468. Right-wing-oriented perpetrators committed about 95 percent of the crimes, the report said.

Most of the incidents were so-called “propaganda” crimes involving verbal or written incitement to hate. There were 32 violent crimes and 160 cases of property damage in 2017.

Antisemitism Notebook

Your weekly guide through the news and the noise of how rising antisemitism and disputes over how to address it are shaping American Jewish life.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Pau told Tagesspiegel that she suspected the real numbers were higher, since many incidents go unreported. The lawmaker has submitted official queries on anti-Semitic crimes nationwide for several years.

Concern about anti-Semitism is high in Germany, with some Jewish community leaders and politicians warning that anti-Jewish and extreme anti-Zionist attitudes among more than a million new refugees from the Middle East and North Africa are a ticking time bomb.

In January, the German Bundestag voted to establish a commissioner to deal with anti-Semitism in the country, motivated in part by such concerns. Pau’s Left Party had abstained from the vote, saying the proposal overemphasized immigrants as a source of the problem.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount