An expert opinion on what happened on the evening of October 4th in the Westin Hotel in Leipzig increases the doubts about the portrayal of the musician Gil Ofarim: According to the final report of the law firm commissioned by the hotel management to investigate the The time was able to see, none of the interviewed witnesses confirmed having perceived anti-Semitic insults against Ofarim. Rather, the 39-year-old complained about the queues in front of the understaffed reception when other guests were brought forward to check-in – and is said to have threatened to upload a video on Instagram that would “go viral”.
Ofarim actually recorded such a video, which triggered solidarity addresses on the same evening and in the following days: On the sidewalk in front of the hotel Ofarim had described in tears that a hotel employee only wanted to serve him when he had his chain with a Star of David on it “pack away”. According to Time However, the 118-page investigation report shows that the chain played no role in the dispute in the hotel lobby. Ofarim himself did not want to comment on the report, the Leipzig public prosecutor’s office, which has two reports of Ofarim and one of the hotel employee for defamation, has yet to evaluate reports on surveillance videos.
Josef Schuster, President of the Central Council of Jews, reports that in the aftermath of the incident a large number of anti-Semitic news about his association “broke in”. However, the skepticism expressed by many sides regarding the events should not lead to more anti-Semitism. Those affected should “not get the feeling that they cannot report the incidents and are left alone”.