According to a study, many antisemitic incidents in North Rhine-Westphalia are not reported because the barriers are too high. Those affected often shied away from the bureaucracy associated with reports or feared not being taken seriously, said the antisemitism officer in North Rhine-Westphalia, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, at the presentation of the study on Monday in Düsseldorf. “As a result, you don’t have a complete picture of what’s going on here in North Rhine-Westphalia,” she criticized and renewed her demand to set up a reporting point for anti-Semitic incidents.
The state government is currently advising on such a registration office, said Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger. Corresponding contact points already exist in several other federal states. “As the most populous federal state, it is important to have such an institution here in North Rhine-Westphalia.”
For the study “Antisemitism in North Rhine-Westphalia. Perceptions and Experiences of Jewish People” (“Antisemitismus in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Wahrnehmungen und Erfahrungen jüdischer Menschen”), 59 Jewish community members from North Rhine-Westphalia were interviewed. In addition, 1,611 antisemitic crimes and 209 incidents that had become known to civil society were evaluated.
The study was commissioned by the antisemitism representatives of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia by SABRA NRW together with Bagrut e.V. the Kölnische Gesellschaft für Christlich-Jüdische Zusammenarbeit e.V. and the Federal Association RIAS e.V.
Source: evangelisch
