BERLIN, April 20 (Xinhua) -- German justice minister Katarina Barley (SPD) has lamented evidence of growing hostility against Jews in the country on Friday.
Speaking to the "Funke" media group, Barley complained that awareness among Germans of the historical dangers posed by antisemitism appeared to be declining.
"Unfortunately, we must observe that antisemitism is becoming socially-acceptable again," the minister said.
According to the SPD-politician, debate over the recent nomination of two allegedly anti-Semitic rappers for an Echo music prize, as well as reports of a violent assault against two young Jews in Berlin, underscored the worrying societal development.
"It is a significant task of ours to resist this trend," Barley appealed to the public. She emphasized that there was no place for antisemitism in contemporary Germany, not least given the country's role in murdering some 6 million Jews during the Nazi regime.
Barley highlighted that anti-Semitic sentiments were particularly widespread in many Arab countries. "When people from these countries come to us, this can be a domestic problem as well," the minister warned.
Over one million refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan have arrived in Germany since 2015.
Levi Salomon, the spokesperson for the Jewish Forum for Democracy and against Antisemitism, has recently expressed concerns that "Jewish people are not safe" in Germany.
In Berlin and many other German cities, synagogues and Jewish institutions are monitored by police around the clock as a precautionary measure.
