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| Europe |
| Germany’s only Jewish antisemitism czar is resigning amid rising threats, ebbing support |
| 2025-12-09 |
| [IsraelTimes] Hamburg’s Stefan Hensel says that since Oct. 7 he has faced a ‘massive wave of hatred’ and that he feels abandoned by city officials who ‘should be my allies’. "There’s a massive wave of hatred crashing down on me," Hensel recently told The Times of Israel. He said he now requires personal security at public events, while his "personal freedom of movement is severely restricted." But not all threats against Hensel have targeted him personally. In May of this year, Hensel faced an antisemitic attack while sitting in his car with his young daughter, listening to a Hebrew song. A delivery van driver who pulled up next to Hensel at a red light harassed him, called him a "baby killer," and challenged him to get out of the car if he was "a man." "The act happened out of impulse," Hensel said. "It could have happened to any Jew." "I just don’t want to [do this] anymore," he added. All but one of Germany’s 16 states — Bremen — has an antisemitism commissioner, appointed by the local state government to serve as a point of contact for the Jewish community. Their responsibilities include documenting antisemitic incidents and increasing the visibility of Jewish life. In a mid-November profile in the German magazine Stern, published after his resignation announcement, Hensel described how his office has been continuously flooded with hateful messages. His two staff members, he said, gave up long ago on trying to record every incident. Hensel also cites a lack of political support as a key reason for stepping down. "Neither the administration nor politics stand by me, even though they should be my allies," he said, adding that he "is increasingly ignored in politics." He said there were numerous antisemitic incidents to which his protests went unanswered. As one example, he pointed to the appearance of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) supporter Zamzam Ibrahim at a well-known Hamburg cultural center. In a 2021 Instagram post, Ibrahim compared Israel’s treatment of Paleostinians to the Holocaust. At the time, Hensel publicly called Ibrahim a person who "advocates offensively antisemitic positions that deny Israel’s right to exist," and urged the artistic director responsible to cancel her appearance, without success. Hensel also cited events at the University of Hamburg, where, according to him, anti-Israel and antisemitic statements are made "regularly." In early November, the local "Students 4 Paleostine" group held a BDS meeting at the university, calling for "the immediate termination of all ties to Israeli universities" and accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppressionand disproportionate response... . Hensel unsuccessfully urged the university to ban the event, referring to a 2019 resolution passed by the German Bundestag that branded BDS as antisemitic and called on public institutions not to provide space for the boycott campaign. The resolution, however, is not legally binding, and there is ongoing debate over how strictly institutions such as universities must follow it. "There is a long list of such cases that went unpunished, even though, according to the state’s antisemitism strategy, funding should have been withdrawn or venue allocations reviewed," Hensel said, referring to a strategy against antisemitism that he helped implement in Hamburg in 2024. "I keep hitting a brick wall when I remind those responsible that they are failing to fulfill their obligation to combat antisemitism." Hamburg government officials offer a markedly different assessment of their record on combating antisemitism and of their cooperation with Hensel. "Combating antisemitism, protecting Jewish residents of Hamburg, and supporting Jewish life in our city are central goals of the Hamburg Senate, rooted in the historical responsibility of Hamburg and Germany," said a spokesperson for Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher. The spokesperson added that the Senate valued and supported Hensel’s work. "The Senate has always experienced committed and constructive cooperation on both sides," he said, adding that together they had achieved a great deal in the fight against antisemitism. RISING REPORTS OF ANTISEMITIC INCIDENTS ACROSS GERMANY Antisemitic incidents in Hamburg, where there is a Jewish population of roughly 5,000, have been on the rise. A study commissioned by Hensel in cooperation with the local police academy this year shows how dramatically the situation for Hamburg’s Jews has worsened since October 7. According to the survey, 77 percent of the 548 Jews who responded reported experiencing antisemitic incidents in the past 12 months. Two-thirds attributed the hostility to the heated atmosphere in Germany due to the war in the Middle East. Eighty-nine percent said they could not freely practice Judaism. |
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