Antisemitism may be expressed or manifested in countless different forms. This can make it difficult to recognize an antisemitic incident as such.The purpose of this page is to clarify which incidents the reporting office records. The following descriptions are just a few examples of particularly common forms of antisemitic acts. They are intended to help you decide whether your experience would be classed as an antisemitic incident as defined by our reporting office.
We would, for instance, class the following as antisemitic incidents:
- … cases in which a person is discriminated against, verbally abused, threatened, spat on or physically abused because they have been identified or perceived as Jewish.
- …the targeted defacing or damaging of Jewish institutions, synagogues, monuments, memorials, etc.
- … the portrayal of individual Jews or of the Jewish community in general as alien to or set apart from a defined group.
- … the assertion that all Jews are pursuing a common purpose of their own.
- … the assertion that Jews wield a disproportionately high degree of power in political, economic or media spheres.
- … generalized assertions that all Jews are “only truly loyal” to the state of Israel.
- … trivialization or relativization of the shoah, for instance by equating the policies of the State of Israel to those of the Third Reich.
The examples demonstrate that the reporting office not only reports antisemitically motivated offenses such as physical assault, verbal abuse or damage to property, but also antisemitic incidents which are not classed as criminal offenses. No distinction is made between incidents which have occurred in face-to-face contact or which are perpetrated on social media, by phone, email or via other channels.
As mentioned above, the points listed are only a limited selection of examples showing the forms which antisemitism may take. If you are not sure whether we would class your experience as an antisemitic incident, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Are you aware of an antisemitic incident in Cologne? Please contact us to help us combat antisemitism in our city.