The New Anti-Semitism and the Old Silence

The brutal terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7 has become a litmus test for political and moral attitudes worldwide. The silence of the German left and the jubilation of Muslim immigrants, the support for the Palestinians by climate activist Greta Thunberg, the torn posters of the kidnapped in London, the horror of politicians who have seen footage of the perpetrators - many certainties have been shattered since October 7. In Germany - even in Germany - anti-Semitism is once again so openly displayed that one might suspect it had never disappeared.

German Jew Philipp Peyman Engel is shocked that outrage in Germany is expressed so hesitantly - but not surprised. For years, the editor-in-chief of Jüdische Allgemeine has been observing the German political establishment's courting of Israel's enemies and the everyday anti-Semitism emanating from all corners of society - from the right, from the left, from Muslim migrants. October 7 has definitively shown, says Engel, that this cannot continue in Germany.

Philipp Peyman Engel takes to the streets of Neukölln and accompanies Foreign Minister Steinmeier to Israel; he writes about the hypocrisy of the German debate and recounts his youth as the son of a Persian Jew in North Rhine-Westphalia. His book is, on one hand, a reckoning with those who remain silent about terror and a call to take a stand. On the other hand, it is an unflinching description of the moral crisis in this country.