The upsurge in the number of Jews leaving Germany comes as little surprise. This is according to Felix Klein, a newly-appointed special envoy in charge of tackling antisemitism in Germany. Sputnik discussed the issue with Dr. Gunther Jikeli, a historian and expert at Indiana University's Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism.

Sputnik: Why has there been an upsurge of anti-Semitism in Germany and where is it coming from?

Dr. Gunther Jikeli: There's a number of different factors, so Jewish communities in different countries in Europe are getting more and more nervous about the rise of antisemitic incidents. In Germany the extreme right is still strong, they have incidents like the desecration of cemeteries or even attacks on the streets; people from the extreme right take it out on Jews, and then you have the rise of the populist right, and then you have sometimes a discourse that is revisionist, that questions the role of Germany in the Second World War, wanting to put a better image of Germany, and sometimes there’s an Antisemitic discourse coming with it.

And then you have the extreme left with its strong Anti-Zionism against Israel, and where all Jews are then suspected of being with the demonized state. And then you have more and more people with a Muslim background that have hatred towards Jews and even resort to violence on the streets, not all, but some factions of the Muslim population apparently have very hostile views against Jews.

Sputnik: Earlier Chancellor Merkel blamed the Arab migrants for bringing a new form of Antisemitism to the country, what’s your particular take on that?

Dr. Gunther Jikeli: In 2014-2015 many refugees came to Germany, mostly from Syria, from Afghanistan, from Iraq and also from other countries. In many of these countries, antisemitism and hatred of Israel and Jews were just common and were even taught in schools, so I'm not surprised that people who come from these countries, many of them, bring this kind of thinking. It will be a major challenge to confront them with reality that, in fact, Jews do not control the world, are not responsible for all the wars in Syria, in Iraq, and in the Middle East in general; that's it’s more complex, so it’s a worry what will be with the people who came, and most of them will stay in Germany in the foreseeable future, unfortunately. The war in Syria, the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan is not so good that people want to go back there, I can understand them.