By Franziska Müller
Published on
An Israeli traveller tried to book a hotel in Bavaria but was turned away. The reason given, according to a screenshot circulating on social media: they were being refused because of their Jewish background. The case is now being examined by the justice authorities, and the Booking.com platform has removed the hotel from its listings.
According to the Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt (source in German)), antisemitic offences reached a new high in 2024: 6,236 incidents were recorded, including 173 violent crimes.
Antisemitic response from a Bavarian hotel
The Israeli Consul General for southern Germany is outraged. “Are we back in the 1930s? A hotel replied to an Israeli as follows: ‘Sorry, there are no Jews allowed in our hotel’,” wrote Talya Lador (source in German) on the X platform. She added that she was pleased the provider Booking.com had banned the hotel from its homepage.
Munich-based professor Guy Katz also expressed his shock in a LinkedIn post (source in German). According to him, the subsequent explanation from the hotel ran as follows: they had been overwhelmed by a large number of bogus bookings, the professor writes. Katz concedes that an email written under pressure can certainly come across as rude. “Maybe I forget a greeting. Maybe I reply too briefly,” he explains.
In his view, however, the hotel’s response was not born of stress but of antisemitism: “It has to form in your head first. Or it was always deeply embedded. And that is precisely the problem. Not 1938. Not somewhere on the internet. Yesterday. In Bavaria,” Katz stresses.
Complex background
The booking platform on which the hotel was listed also reacted quickly and removed the Bavarian hotel from its distribution. According to media reports, the hotel initially denied that the incident had taken place. In the end, however, it admitted that an employee had been responsible for sending the message. Letters were sent both to the family concerned and to the Bavarian State Chancellery. The hotel also offered the Israeli family a free one-week stay.
The case has reportedly been referred to the Bavarian justice ministry, where it is to be examined with the help of the commissioner for combating antisemitism. One possible charge is incitement to hatred under paragraph 130 of the Criminal Code. It is not yet clear whether the matter will go to trial.
Another report (source in German) condemns the hotel’s statement, but the author says he has spoken to the hotel owners. The hotel, which has been family-run for 120 years, is said to be grappling with a wave of fake bookings. Because the Israeli family’s reservation was reportedly the first from outside the EU, the reception suspected another attempted fraud.
Incitement to hatred does not go unpunished
In another case, a court has just delivered its ruling. In September 2025, a shop owner in Flensburg put a notice in his shop window reading: “Jews are banned from the premises.” He only removed the sign after the police arrived, but then put it up again inside the shop.
He has now been convicted by the local district court of incitement to hatred and given a six-month suspended sentence, as well as ordered to pay 1,200 euros to the Ladelund concentration camp memorial in the North Frisia district. According to the court, the defendant had incited hatred. The offence was deemed capable of disturbing social peace.
Sharp rise in antisemitic incidents
Even though the incident at the Bavarian hotel has not yet been fully clarified, one thing is certain: antisemitic offences have risen sharply since the terrorist attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and Israel’s response in the years that followed, and have increased again in particular since the start of the war in the Gulf region involving the United States, Israel and Iran.
In 2024 a new record high was reached; in the first half of 2025 alone, the authorities recorded 2,044 antisemitic offences, including 50 violent crimes. Overall data for the past year are not yet available.
The threat is also clearly perceptible for Jewish communities, as shown by a study published in January 2026 by the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
Following the “explosive increase” in antisemitic incidents after 7 October, a “new normality” has developed, explained the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, commenting on the study’s findings. In addition, 62 percent of the Jewish communities surveyed said their security situation had deteriorated further since the start of the war with Iran. They do not feel sufficiently supported by the authorities.