The Jüdisches Berlin monthly magazine, serving Berlin’s Jewish community, has decided to mail its copies in plain envelopes, the Guardian reported.
“We decided to do so despite the significant additional costs, to reduce the likelihood of hostility towards our more than 10, 000 community members, ” spokesman Ilan Kiesling told Tagesspiegel, a Berlin newspaper.
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Writing in the latest issue, Gideon Joffe, head of the Jewish Community of Berlin organization, JB’s publisher, wrote: “Israelis are beaten up in Berlin solely on the grounds that they are Israeli Jews. We are not yet – I repeat yet – at the stage where Jews are being murdered in Germany just because they are Jews. But measures have to be taken to protect the democratic rule of law.”
On January 1 this year, Israeli Shahak Shapira, 26, was attacked by Muslim youths.
According to the Guardian, Berlin police says there has been no rise in antisemitic attacks in the city in 2014, but Jewish schools, community buildings, and cemeteries continue to be guarded by police 24/7.
At the same time, the number of immigrants from Israel to Germany is up from about 2, 300 in 2011 to more than 2, 700 in 2013.
There are an estimated 20, 000 Israelis living in Germany.