Universities – places of knowledge, tolerance and enlightenment. Since Hamas’s attack on Israel a year ago, this ideal appears to be crumbling. Not least because of controversial pro-Palestine camps such as those in Munich or Erlangen, Bavarian universities are often perceived as hotspots of anti-Semitic sentiment. Two weeks ago, Science Minister Markus Blume (CSU) announced an “action plan against anti-Semitism”. Among other things, “officers against anti-Semitism were installed at all 33 state universities in Bavaria in record time,” said Blume.
In addition, an amendment to the Higher Education Innovation Act (HIG) should make it easier for universities to take measures against academic anti-Semites, including exmatriculation. According to Blume, it is an urgently needed instrument because Jewish people’s sense of security has deteriorated dramatically. “A lot of hatred, a lot of agitation and a lot of openly displayed anti-Semitism” can be observed at Bavaria’s universities. The focus is also on Munich with the Palestine Camp at the Ludwig Maximilian University. But what is the situation outside of the state capital?
When presenting the action plan, Michael Weinzierl, the Bavarian police commissioner against hate crime, spoke of around ten criminally relevant cases throughout Bavaria, with the question being “what comes into the spotlight, what reaches us”. Bavaria’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution says it does not keep any statistics on this, but has occasionally received and examined “relevant information” about anti-Semitic incidents “at or in the immediate vicinity of universities and colleges in Bavaria”. The SZ therefore asked Bavarian universities what experiences they have had with hatred of Jews in the past twelve months, how they deal with it and what they think of Blume’s initiative.
At the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), “four cases from the university’s environment have become known” and private individuals have filed reports, the university writes. “Written forms of inflammatory slander and trivialization of the Holocaust” were the reasons. There were also a “mid-double-digit number of emails, some of which contained Israel-related anti-Semitic statements” and anti-Semitic posts on social media. At one point, graffiti had to be removed. The university is not aware of any direct verbal or physical attacks.
FAU describes the situation overall as “rather calm,” and the pro-Palestine camp near the university also went without escalation. Nevertheless, Jewish employees and students speak of a partially impaired sense of security, it is said. It is “particularly stressful” for Jews at FAU to be held collectively liable for the Israeli government’s actions in the Middle East conflict.
Universities only register a few criminally relevant incidents
The University of Regensburg reported three incidents, although two cases are only suspected to be related to the university. In addition, “chalk writings in the form of keywords against Israel” on campus had to be removed. The university cannot assess the extent to which the incidents are criminally relevant.
There were no criminally relevant incidents at the University of Passau, but it was concerned with the topic in two cases: one occurred “just outside the university campus” and was below the criminally relevant limit, and in the second case, a participant from outside the university commented on one Group chat for freshmen anti-Semitic. This was reported. According to the respective information at the University of Augsburg and at the technical universities in Deggendorf, there have been no incidents in the past twelve months and Rosenheim.
But how do universities deal with the issue of hatred of Jews? All of the institutions asked unanimously emphasize that they take a clear stand against any kind of anti-Semitism. They definitely differ in their measures.
FAU has already appointed an anti-Semitism officer in 2021. This person is a person you can trust and ensures that “suspicions are investigated.” At the same time, FAU emphasizes the opportunity for all teachers to “make use of their house rules in the event of violations”. In addition, they would like to “accompany the topic scientifically” and are organizing, among other things, a lecture series on the topic of anti-Semitism.
Above all, the University of Regensburg wants to strengthen historical awareness in society. An example of this is the “Center for Remembrance Culture”, which is run in collaboration with the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Memorial and is intended to promote “scientific-social dialogue”. The university also maintains close relationships with Israeli communities and universities such as the University of Haifa, has appointed an anti-Semitism officer and offers awareness-raising workshops.
In Passau, the university management says it is “monitoring developments with critical attention”. In addition to the appointment of a representative against hatred of Jews in July, they are working with other universities, administrative authorities and the judiciary. A corresponding position has also been created in Augsburg. Should incidents occur, one would like to “exploit all legal options”.
The technical universities in question seem to have so far forgone anti-Semitism officers. In Rosenheim there is general talk of a “contact person for anti-discrimination” who is supposed to “continue to monitor the issue and, if necessary, initiate targeted measures.” Deggendorf considers the appointment of such a representative to be “not necessary” at the moment, as it “refuses against discrimination of any kind at all times” and already has appropriate contacts. Despite the “heterogeneous mix” in which almost half of the students come from abroad, “cooperation works excellently,” writes the university. She therefore does not consider the amendment to the HIG to be necessary for herself, but emphasizes: “However, at colleges and universities with a humanities orientation, this may certainly make sense.” In Regensburg, Blume’s plans are “noted” neutrally.