Amadeu Antonio Foundation: According to the foundation, anti-Semitism is part of everyday life for many students

According to the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, anti-Semitism is part of everyday life for many students in Germany. A situation report from the foundation (PDF) states that 85 percent of Jewish students have already hidden their identity. 20 percent said they knew fellow students who had been physically attacked.

The numbers are based on a survey by the US Anti-Defamation League, which says it campaigns against discrimination against Jews. The evaluation for Germany included the answers from 205 Jewish students who stated that they were studying at a German university. The survey is not representative and the data is more than a year old.

The board member of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, Tahera Ameer, said that the “situation” at the universities had not “calmed down.” Even if the protest camps and occupations of buildings and lecture halls reached their peak in spring 2024, nothing has changed in the everyday experiences of hatred, threats and exclusion that Jewish students are exposed to.

The Jewish Student Union assumes that the number of unreported cases is high

The president of the Jewish Student Union of Germany, Ron Dekel, said that since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, it has been "not possible to study at German universities without experiencing anti-Semitism." Many anti-Semitic incidents at universities are never made public for fear that this would make the situation even worse.

According to the Anti-Semitism Research and Information Center, the number of anti-Semitic incidents at German universities rose from 23 to 458 from 2022 to 2024. Last year, 424 incidents were registered. Most cases (85 percent) in the past three years have been about Israel-related anti-Semitism.