A study released on Tuesday found a 40% increase in Jew-hatred in Germany in 2021, a rise the German government’s commissioner to combat antisemitism referred to as “frightening.”
The Department for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS), a German organization that monitors antisemitism in Germany, published the study, which revealed an outbreak of 2,738 incidents of antisemitism in Germany in 2021, averaging over seven per day in the country. Of these incidents, 63 were reportedly cases of “extreme violence.”
In contrast, 2020 saw 1,957 cases of Jew-hatred reported marking a 40% increase within the span of a single year.
One particular flare-up of antisemitic instances occurred in May of 2021. That month, German Muslims used Israeli self-defense against Hamas terrorists, who fired over 4,000 rockets at Israeli cities, to call for genocide against Jews and the obliteration of the Jewish State of Israel.
The Influence of Antisemitic Propaganda
The organization stated in the report that one main driver of the Jew-hatred was Palestinian propaganda against Israel.
Indeed, much of the modern antisemitism we witness today is cloaked in pro-Palestinian activism. As former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asserted in 2021, the widespread claim that the Jewish State is an occupier of the land of Israel is the “antisemitic canard of the present generation.”
The terror organization Hamas, which carries the support of much of the Palestinian population, espouses within its charter numerous antisemitic conspiracies that were popular within Nazi Germany, revealing that these two forms of Jew-hatred are far less distinct than many may believe.
The RIAS report found that 17% of those who perpetrated the antisemitic incidents were neo-nazi extremists, commonly referred to as the far-right in Germany.
Additionally, many of the attacks resulted from conspiracy theories linking Jews to the COVID-19 Pandemic, a false accusation that brazenly echos antisemitic lies told during the Black Plague in the 1300s.
In the middle-ages, many falsely pointed the finger at the Jewish population, claiming that they had spiked water wells causing the illness. Similar to what took place in Nazi Germany, Jews were then evicted from countries, forced into ghettos, and massacred.
Unfortunately, the media, politicians, Hollywood, and social media today help spread the antisemitism they claim to condemn through pro-Palestinian sentiment and their refusal to denounce anti-Jewish and anti-Israel rhetoric.
This is particularly disturbing since societies are often swift to eat up anti-semitic propaganda.
In the early 1900s, the German population was fed a myriad of conspiracies against the Jewish people. These falsehoods, at first, were subtly spread through various means, including the cinemas.
One example of this is found in 1922 Germany, where the silent film “Nosferatu” was released. This picture remains a so-called “cult classic” to this day, including in America, and was an adaptation of the “Dracula” novel, published in 1897. Many, however, are unaware that the film is profoundly anti-semitic and helped influence pre-holocaust Germans to believe malicious and false accusations against the Jewish population.
As described by the Jewish online Magazine Tablet, the film “Nosferatu” depicted a “tremendously powerful creature, a sort of humanoid rodent given an imposing hooked nose, who communicates with his minions in a mysterious code, which includes several Hebrew letters as well as the Star of David, and, contaminating every space he occupies, arrives out of the East with a swarm of plague-bearing rats to feast on the blood of naïve Aryans…”
“The vampire recalls two monstrous slanders against European Jews,” Tablet explained, “evoking both the blood libel and the accusation of poisoning wells to spread disease that resulted in widespread pogroms and the near-extermination of Jews throughout the Rhineland in the mid-14th century.”
Furthermore, the “Count Orlok” vampire character also sought to buy German property, stirring false anti-semitic rumors and desensitizing the Germans to future Nazi laws that would strip the Jews of their rights and property.
Looking Biblically at Antisemitism
The irrationality with which many have despised the Jews is often puzzling to those who may be unfamiliar with God’s Word. Why has antisemitism flourished throughout history? Why are unsubstantiated and wicked accusations about Israel and the Jewish people often quickly accepted?
This madness can only be understood through the lens of Scripture.
Through the Jewish people, God brought the law, giving His creation an understanding of sin, and subsequently, through the Jewish people, God provided humanity a Savior from that sin, Jesus Christ (Romans 9:4-5, 7:7, 10:4, 3:1-2, Matt. 5:17).
The Jewish people and the nation of Israel are interwoven within God’s plan for all mankind, beginning to end. They are, by God’s mercy, the chosen people used to bring about His perfect will and salvation (Luke 2:25-32). It is for this reason that a battle, which is spiritual in nature, is constantly being waged against Israel and the Jews (Eph. 6:12). Satan detests the people through whom God provided His Son, Jesus Christ, who will ultimately defeat him and his followers (Revelation 20:10).
