![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Berlin-elections.avif\")
<\/a><\/p>\nElif Eralp (C), lead candidate of the leftist Die Linke, and supporters of the leftist Die Linke react to preliminary election results following the closure of polling stations in Berlin state elections on September 20, 2026 in Berlin, Germany. (Nadja Wohlleben\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
They are alarmed by the success of the left-wing socialist Left Party in Sunday\u2019s municipal election, which coincides with the rising power of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in several state elections this month. <\/p>\n
Leaving the Left in charge of the country\u2019s capital would be \u201clike putting the fox in charge of the henhouse,\u201d Berlin Jewish Community President Gideon Joffe said in an email press statement this week.<\/p>\n
The Party \u201cbears a special responsibility for the consequences\u201d of tolerating Islamic extremism, left-wing antisemitism and what German authorities call \u201cclan crime,\u201d organized criminal activity involving extended-family networks in the capital, said Joffe, who represents some 9,000 registered Jewish community members, out of an estimated 30,000 Jews in the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n
He spoke out after the Left received 25.7% of the votes in Berlin\u2019s municipal elections, more than Merz\u2019s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which garnered 18.8%, followed by the AfD with 16.3%, the Greens with 14.3% and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) with 12.1%.<\/p>\n
Berlin is a city of contrasts and deep political divisions, a city that has always been oppositional. It saw street fights between Nazis and communists in the 1930s, and similar face-offs in the 1990s after unification. It is also the German city where the most Jews were hidden and saved by non-Jews in defiance of authority during the Holocaust.<\/p>\n
Thus it was not surprising that in Berlin, as the right-wing AfD is growing in popularity nationwide, the Left might be the strongest opposition to that development. <\/p>\n
Mainstream parties, such as Merz\u2019s CDU, which had tried to block the far-right, are flailing. The anti-immigration AfD, in contrast, took the lead in two former east German states: Saxony-Anhalt, on Sept. 6 with 43.8% of the vote, and Mecklenburg-West Pomerania on Sept. 20 with 38.2%.<\/p>\n
The Left\u2019s platform, which was adopted in 2024, takes an egalitarian approach: It supports Israel\u2019s right to exist alongside a future Palestinian state and disavows antisemitism alongside other societal plagues. \u201cFor The Left Party, lived antifascism is linked to the fight against warmongering, antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism and national arrogance,\u201d the platform reads in part.<\/p>\n
The Party grounds its stance in the post-war slogan, \u201cNever again war, never again fascism.\u201d Some affiliates on the extreme left hold anti-Zionist stances; the Party has been criticized by Jewish leaders and mainstream parties for not forcefully distancing itself from those elements.<\/p>\n
In 2010, prominent Party members took part in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which the Israeli military intercepted in an operation that killed 10 activists. German Left politicians were among those arrested and deported home.<\/p>\n
At its convention in 2025, the Party adopted the \u201cJerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism,\u201d which rejects the notion that some anti-Israel expressions are antisemitic, as put forward in the working definition of antisemitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The Party said that the IHRA definition \u201cpaves the way for authoritarian state action\u201d by Israel.<\/p>\n
More recently, during the Party\u2019s Berlin campaign, \u201ccalls were made for the Intifada and the death of Israeli soldiers, and the audience sang and danced along,\u201d said Josef Schuster, chair of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, in a statement released Sept. 22. The council represents some 90,000 members of Jewish communities nationwide. In all, there are about as many people who identify as Jewish but don\u2019t belong to communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat a party whose campaign stage openly called for the death of people emerged victorious from the election deeply disturbs me,\u201d he said, adding that the party had \u201clost all credibility\u201d by failing to combat \u201cJew hatred\u201d within.<\/p>\n
Berlin resident Anetta Kahane sees parallels between the extreme parties on the left and the right. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a big shame that the AfD is winning, and it\u2019s a big shame that the Linke Partei is winning,\u201d Kahane, 72, who grew up in the former East Germany, said in a telephone interview. \u201cBecause both are very deeply antisemitic. And I don\u2019t want to be governed by antisemites.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kahane, whose parents had fled Nazi Germany in 1933 and ultimately settled in East Germany (the German Democratic Republic, or GDR) as dedicated socialists, told JTA she realized as a young adult that the Communist party her parents supported was run by \u201cthe same antisemites, the same Germans as in the west.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, we hear the same slogans we heard about Israel and the Jews during the GDR: They are like the Nazis. Israel is a fascist state. They are imperialists. They are colonialists. They are the worst of the worst,\u201d said Kahane, who founded the Berlin-based Amadeo Antonio Foundation, which fights xenophobia and antisemitism, in 1998.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hear people saying that, well, the world is so complicated, we don\u2019t need [democracy], we need a good dictator,\u201d said Kahane, because \u201cdemocracy is discussing and discussing and never achieving anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the cost of living and taxes are rising, politicians fail to \u201ctalk in a way people can understand,\u201d she added. The more \u201cbrutal and populist\u201d their language, the more people will vote populist.<\/p>\n
Despite their rising popularity, neither the Left nor the AfD is likely to be part of the newly elected state governments. That\u2019s because the mainstream parties are forming coalitions to block out these upstarts \u2013 a firewall, when it comes to the far right.<\/p>\n
In Berlin, most Jewish voters find themselves eschewing both extremes. But not all Jews are upset at the results.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hopeful that there will be a coalition with the SPD and the Greens, and that we\u2019ll have a more promising future for Berlin,\u201d Donna Swarthout, 67, told JTA in a telephone interview from Berlin. <\/p>\n
She said she voted for the Greens \u201cso that they would be in the governing coalition,\u201d but she isn\u2019t put off by the Left Party and has been drawn to its mayoral candidate Elif Eralp.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe just really resonated with me because of her emphasis on social justice issues,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Swarthout, who grew up in the US and obtained German citizenship 14 years ago as the daughter of German Jewish refugees, says it\u2019s important for Jews in Germany \u201cto work in coalition with other minority groups\u2026 We need a broader, more positive, future-oriented dialogue. And I\u2019m hoping that she [Eralp] can help shift the dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elvira Groezinger worries about younger voters in general. \u201cAs 16-year-olds were allowed to vote [in Berlin] for the first time, and Muslim migrants dominated the discourse, the outcome is a cause for concern,\u201d Groezinger, a literary scholar who was born in Poland in 1947 to Holocaust survivors, said in an email to JTA. The Left\u2019s campaign \u201cwas accompanied by antisemitic incidents and pro-Hamas declarations of Muslim candidates and voters.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that 36 years after the unification, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the establishment of a democratic system, communist ideology is so attractive to over a quarter of voters, depicts the political failure in implementing democratic values,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
The Left and the AfD have a lot in common, she noted: Both support Putin and oppose help for Ukraine; both espouse anti-Americanism and support totalitarian ideas.<\/p>\n
The Left\u2019s 2024 platform demands \u201cthe dissolution of NATO and its replacement by a collective security system with the participation of Russia.\u201d While the AfD supports continued membership in NATO, it posits that \u201cEuropean security cannot be attained without Russia\u2019s involvement.\u201d<\/p>\n
But while \u201cthe AfD is anti-Islamic and not openly antisemitic like the Left, and even claims to be pro-Israel, its ideology of \u2018Germany for Germans\u2019 is just as dangerous for Jews, who are regarded as non-German,\u201d Groezinger remarked.<\/p>\n
Left leaders this week rushed to defend themselves against accusations that they tolerate antisemitism and criminality in their ranks, after an alleged pro-Palestinian militant and a person with ties to a Middle Eastern crime family were seen celebrating with a Left legislator at a victory party on Sept. 20 in Berlin.<\/p>\n
Eralp said it was \u201cabsolutely unacceptable\u201d to \u201ccelebrate violence and terrorism,\u201d adding that she would \u201cdo everything to ensure that Jewish people \u2013 just like Muslims, queer people and everyone in our city \u2013 can feel safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Party spokesperson did not get back to JTA by press time.<\/p>\n
Elio Adler, founder of the Berlin-based, pro-democracy Jewish Values Initiative, has pushed back against both the Left Party and the AfD, urging mainstream parties to come up with clear options for voters.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as politics still doesn\u2019t address very relevant and burning topics, the extremist parties on both sides will have their voters and the firewall will get cracks, election after election and, one day, it will break down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Initiative published an open letter to Berlin\u2019s democratic political parties on Sept. 15, urging them to shut both the AfD and Left out of any coalition talks to form a government for the city-state.<\/p>\n
Up to now, the term \u201cfirewall\u201d has generally referred to a boycott of far-right parties by the mainstream parties.<\/p>\n
But \u201cwe say if you establish a firewall, it needs to be a round wall protecting democracy against attacks \u2013 or fire \u2013 from all sides. It can\u2019t be a firewall just protecting against one side,\u201d said Adler, who was born in Essen in 1971; his father was a Holocaust survivor.<\/p>\n
\u201dI\u2019m not too happy that antisemitism somehow appears to be the main topic\u201d of discussion. \u201cIt\u2019s sort of a strawman argument, in place of many other topics,\u201d he added. \u201cAs a group that is at risk and dependent on protection, we are deeply alarmed by the Left Party\u2019s plans to weaken the police and, in particular, to abolish the domestic intelligence service.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Left Party \u201caccepts a lot of antisemitism within their ranks. Of course, if you ask them, they are against antisemitism,\u201d Adler said. \u201cThey\u2019re against right-wing antisemitism, which is good, which is correct.\u201d<\/p>\n
But \u201cthey absolutely forget their own antisemitism and all the migrant antisemitism and the extreme-left antisemitism. So they are really blind in more than one eye.\u201d<\/p>\n