German Jewish leader decries anti-Semitism on Berlin's campuses

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.