![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Flensburg.avif\")
<\/a><\/p>\nA photograph of an antisemitic sign on a shop window in Flensburg, Germany, went viral in September 2025. (Screenshot from social media)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
On Wednesday, passersby in the town of Flensburg spotted a sign in the window of a used bookstore on Duburger Street printed on white paper, reading, \u201cJews are banned from entering here! Nothing personal, not even antisemitism, I just can\u2019t stand you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 60-year-old shop owner, Hans Velten Reisch, told German media that he had put up the poster himself, out of anger over the war in Gaza. He expressed surprise over the public outcry.<\/p>\n
Photos of the antisemitic sign went viral, drawing expressions of outrage from Jewish leaders, politicians and public officials who said the message smacked of the Holocaust.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a reminder of the darkest chapters of Germany\u2019s history and has absolutely no place in this city,\u201d Fabian Geyer, the mayor of Flensburg, a city of almost 100,000 near the Danish border.<\/p>\n
The shop owner said police ordered him to remove the sign from the front door on Wednesday, which he did. But local media reported that the sign was still visible inside the store.<\/p>\n
Several individuals have filed charges and state prosecutors are investigating. Lapid tweeted that he would sue on behalf of his late father, the journalist Tomislav Lempl, who survived the Budapest ghetto under the Nazis and later reported on the 1961 trial in Jerusalem of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.<\/p>\n
The Flensburg shopkeeper\u2019s denials notwithstanding, his act was \u201ca clear case of antisemitism, and intervention is necessary,\u201d Felix Klein, Germany\u2019s commissioner for Jewish life and the fight against antisemitism, said on TV.<\/p>\n
The incident comes as both antisemitic incidents and anti-Israel protests are on the rise in Germany. Demonstrations against the war in Gaza, which Israel has been fighting against Hamas for nearly two years, have surged in recent weeks as an array of European nations, though not Germany, have moved to recognize a Palestinian state. The sign in Flensburg and the shop owner\u2019s explanation suggest how widely the sentiments have permeated.<\/p>\n
The board of the Orthodox Rabbinical Conference of Germany said in a statement that German Jews were becoming \u201ccollateral damage\u201d in a conflict unfolding 1,500 miles away and that Germans should redirect their protests to focus on Hamas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe war in Gaza must never be used as a pretext for outright hatred against Jews in Germany. Yet that is precisely what is happening: people who have nothing to do with this war are becoming collateral damage,\u201d the rabbis\u2019 statement said. \u201cWe make it clear: Jews in Germany are not responsible for Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in Munich, a professor has spearheaded the creation of a new initiative against antisemitism, together with the German-Israeli Society, Jewish communities, several well-known personalities, and 200 other organizations in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The group\u2019s patron is Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Jewish Community in Munich and Upper Bavaria.<\/p>\n
Called \u201cDACH [roof] Against Hate,\u201d the initiative by Guy Katz \u2014 an Israeli who has lived in Germany for more than two decades and teaches international management at the Munich University of Applied Sciences \u2014 launched an online petition on Wednesday with the aim of collecting at least 100,000 signatures calling for stricter laws and better education to combat antisemitism, and more protection and support for Jewish institutions. A demonstration is planned in Munich on Oct. 5, two days before the second anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel that started the war.<\/p>\n