What counts as an anti-Semitic incident?

Anti-Semitism manifests itself in numerous forms and manifestations. Accordingly, it can be difficult to always recognize antisemitism as such. When classifying antisemitic incidents, the Cologne Reporting Office follows the “IHRA working definition of antisemitism“, which was adapted in 2014 and is used by the Federal Association of Research and Information Centers on Antisemitism:

IHRA working definition (adapted version)

Anti-Semitism describes socially traditional perceptions of a Jewish collective that is constructed as foreign. The effectiveness of these fictions is reflected in the spread of anti-Semitic attitudes, public debates and can be expressed as hatred towards Jews. Anti-Semitism is directed in word or deed against Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, as well as against Jewish community institutions or religious institutions.

In addition, the state of Israel, which is understood as a Jewish collective, can also be the target of such attacks. Anti-Semitic statements often contain the accusation that Jews are running a conspiracy against humanity and are responsible for “things not going right”. Anti-Semitism manifests itself in words, writing and images as well as in other forms of action, it uses negative stereotypes and insinuates negative character traits.

Current examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace and the religious sphere may include, but are not limited to, the following behavior, taking into account the overall context:

Basic features of anti-Semitic manifestations

  • The call to kill or harm Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extreme religious belief.
  • The depiction of Jewish religious practice as an expression of an archaic culture.
  • Foreign construction of a Jewish collective with specific physical and character traits.

Modern anti-Semitism

  • False, demonizing or stereotypical accusations against Jews or secret Jewish power – especially myths about a Jewish world conspiracy or Jewish control of the media, economy, government or other social institutions.
  • Holding Jews as a people responsible for the (actual or assumed) misconduct of individual Jews, individual Jewish groups or non-Jews.

Post-Shoah anti-Semitism

  • The denial of the historical fact, the extent, the mechanisms (e.g. the gas chambers) and the premeditation of the genocide of the Jews by National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during the Second World War (Shoah).
  • The claim that Jews themselves were responsible for the Shoah.
  • The accusation against the Jewish people or the state of Israel of having exaggerated or invented the Shoah.
  • Defense against guilt is expressed in the outrage over and rejection of positions and memorials that commemorate the National Socialist crimes against Jews. They often occur together with mockery of the victims.

Israel-related anti-Semitism

  • The accusation against Jews that they feel more committed to the state of Israel or allegedly existing global Jewish interests than to the interests of their respective home countries.
  • Denying the right of the Jewish people to self-determination, e.g. by claiming that the existence of the state of Israel is a racist/colonial endeavor.
  • Applying double standards by demanding behavior from Israel that is not expected or required of any other democratic state.
  • The use of symbols and images associated with traditional anti-Semitism (e.g. the accusation of Christ’s murder or the ritual murder legend) to describe Israel or the Israelis.
  • Comparisons of current Israeli policy with that of the National Socialists.
  • The endeavor to hold all Jews collectively responsible for the actions of the state of Israel.

Forms of action

Antisemitic acts are criminal offenses if they are defined as such by law (e.g. in some countries the denial of the Holocaust or the distribution of antisemitic materials).

Crimes are antisemitic if the objects of attack, whether people or things – such as buildings, schools, places of worship and cemeteries – are chosen because they are Jewish, are perceived as such or are associated with Jews.

Antisemitic discrimination consists of Jews being denied opportunities or benefits that are available to other people.

In order to determine the existence of denial or trivialization of the Shoah, RIAS uses the working definition adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in October 2013, which in the version published here has merely been adapted to the linguistic conventions of RIAS (gender gap, use of the term “Shoah” instead of “Holocaust”).

Shoah denial

Shoah denial refers to discourse and forms of propaganda that deny the historical reality and extent of the extermination of Jews by the Nazis and their accomplices during the Second World War – known as the Holocaust or Shoah. Shoah denial refers specifically to any attempt to claim that the Shoah did not take place.

Shoah denial is also given when the instruments of extermination (such as gas chambers, mass shootings, starvation and torture, etc.) or the intentionality of the genocide are denied or questioned.

Shoah denial in all its various forms is always an expression of anti-Semitism. Those who deny the genocide of Jews attempt to exonerate National Socialism and anti-Semitism from guilt and responsibility for this genocide of the Jewish people.

Forms of Shoah denial also consist of claiming that Jews exaggerate or invent the Shoah in order to gain a political or financial advantage from it, as if the Shoah itself were the result of a conspiracy by Jews. This ultimately aims to declare Jews guilty and anti-Semitism legitimate again.

Often, Shoah denialism aims to rehabilitate overt anti-Semitism, promoting the very political ideologies and conditions that suit the occurrence of the very type of events it denies.

Falsification of the Shoah is understood to mean, among other things:

  • the deliberate effort to excuse or trivialize the effects of the Shoah or its essential factors that enabled and facilitated it, including the collaborators and allies of Nazi Germany;
  • the gross reduction in the number of victims of the Shoah contradicts the reliable sources;
  • any attempt to accuse the Jews of having caused the genocide perpetrated against them;
  • those statements that turn the Shoah into a positive historical event. Such statements are not Shoah denial per se, but they are closely associated with it as a radical form of anti-Semitism. Such statements could suggest that the Shoah did not go far enough to achieve the goal of a “final solution to the Jewish question”.
  • the attempts to conceal responsibility for the establishment of concentration and extermination camps, as developed and operated by Nazi Germany, by shifting the blame to other nations or ethnic groups.

RIAS uses the definitions of the British Jewish charitable organization Community Security Trust (CST) to categorize the individual types of incidents.

The categories were adapted to the situation in Germany. For example, the category of damage to property was expanded to include incidents at places of remembrance of the Shoah in order to take into account the phenomenon of memory defense, which is much more widespread than in the United Kingdom.

Extreme violence is defined as physical attacks or assaults that can result in loss of life or serious bodily injury. This category also includes cases of kidnapping, knife attacks or shootings.

A physical assault is any physical attack on a person that is not life-threatening and does not result in serious physical injury. This also includes attempted assaults, i.e. cases in which those affected defend themselves or flee. Throwing objects (such as stones, bottles, etc.) is also considered an attempted assault, even if they miss their target.

RIAS counts as damage to property the spraying, painting or smearing of anti-Semitic slogans or symbols, the affixing of anti-Semitic stickers or posters and damage to Jewish property or places commemorating the Shoah.

Any clear and specifically addressed written or verbal threat is considered a threat . The unambiguousness results from the direct or indirect threat of violence against persons, groups of persons or property. Concreteness is given if the threat is directed against a specific person, group of people or institution.

The offensive behavior category includes all incidents in which Jews or Jewish institutions are targeted, maliciously or discriminatorily, regardless of whether the text itself contains anti-Semitic stereotypes or not. This category also includes antisemitic statements directed against non-Jews in writing or verbally, antisemitic graffiti or stickers on non-Jewish property as well as demonstrations or rallies in the open air or publicly accessible events in enclosed spaces if antisemitic content can be identified either at the gatherings themselves (in the form of spoken contributions, shouted slogans, displayed banners or distributed propaganda materials) or in the announcements and calls for the gathering.

RIAS categorizes anti-Semitic texts as mass mailings if they are addressed to at least two recipients or are intended to reach as wide an audience as possible by other means of mass distribution. Texts without explicitly anti-Semitic content are also included as incidents if they are sent to Jewish addressees.