Agency Report –
Berlin – The president of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, has said that, while he would study in Germany again nowadays, he might not choose Berlin due to reports of an anti-Jewish atmosphere on university campuses in the capital.
“Yes, I would study in Germany again, but not at all universities,” Schuster told the Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel in an article published on Saturday.
When asked about Berlin, the qualified doctor responded: “Probably not there. What one hears from Berlin universities is especially alarming. Jewish students apparently don’t even dare to go to the toilet alone any more. That crosses a line.”
Following the terrorist attack by the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in 1,200 deaths, and the Israeli counteroffensive in the Gaza Strip, there have been repeated pro-Palestinian demonstrations at German universities.
“Berlin is often in the headlines and certainly a negative example, but we hear similar accounts from other universities across the country,” Schuster said.
Last year, pro-Palestinian protesters temporarily shut down teaching at Berlin’s Humboldt University when they occupied rooms there, but they were eventually removed by police. Others attempted to do the same at the city’s Free University, where a protest camp was also cleared by police.
Regarding Berlin, Schuster emphasized: “I have the impression that action was delayed in Berlin until too late. A state university in a state building can and must not tolerate the occupation of lecture halls at all.”
Lecture halls are not demonstration spaces but places for teaching, potentially also for discussion, he said.
Schuster once studied medicine in the southern German city of Würzburg.
Schuster advocated for the nationwide training of teachers in handling anti-Semitism. After this was included in teacher training in Bavaria, other federal states are now also showing interest, he said.
He considers such a module in teacher training essential, not just for primary and secondary schools. “Often a biology or chemistry teacher is excellently prepared for their subject but does not know how to respond to anti-Semitic incidents, for example, when the word ‘Jew’ is used as an insult in the playground,” Schuster said.
Schuster further described the development of a party like the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as “alarming, as is the fact that so many people now vote for the party.” The AfD is currently polling around 20% ahead of the German parliamentary election next month, in second place behind the conservative bloc.
Schuster added, “If the AfD were to take on national political responsibility, that is, government offices, I would seriously have to question whether the position of president of the Central Council [of Jews] would still be conceivable for me – and I would have to look for a travel agency that offers one-way tickets.”
By Stefan Heinemeyer
