Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Germany
Germany: its Jewish community and Chabad, reparations, German arms to Israel and Israeli arms purchases, the "Staatsräson", the 2025 export halt, the ICJ case and protest bans
According to the World Jewish Congress (WJC), the Jewish community of Germany has 118,000 members, the fourth largest in Western Europe; most of its members were born in the former Soviet Union.[1] In 1952 West Germany signed the Luxembourg Reparations Agreements with "Israel", and the two states established formal diplomatic relations in 1965.[1] Germany has supplied "Israel" with submarines, frigates and tank engines, financing part of the cost of the submarines and frigates,[2] and it has bought Israeli weapons including the Arrow-3 missile defence system.[3] In 2008 Chancellor Angela Merkel told the Knesset that Germany's historical responsibility for "Israel"'s security was "part of my country's raison d'être".[4] From August to November 2025 the German government authorised no exports of military equipment that could be used in the Gaza Strip.[5]
Zionist movement
According to the WJC, the major Jewish organisations in Germany include the World Zionist Organization, B'nai B'rith and WIZO, as well as several student and youth movements.[1] The World Zionist Organization lists its German federation as the Zionistische Federation in Deutschland (ZOD).[6] The Jewish National Fund is represented by KKL-JNF Germany. According to KKL-JNF, projects supported by its friends in Germany include the German States Forests in the south of "Israel", the Sarona reservoir in the north, and the development of the Aminadav Forest in the centre.[7] The Keren Hayesod affiliate, Keren Hayesod – Vereinigte Israel Aktion, has offices in Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich and Stuttgart.[8]
Jewish community
The WJC's German affiliate is the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland (Central Council of Jews in Germany), founded in 1950, which the WJC describes as the official representative of German Jewry. The council runs the weekly Jüdische Allgemeine, the main Jewish newspaper in Germany. From 1990 onwards 190,000 "quota refugees" arrived from the former Soviet Union, and 80,000 of them joined Jewish communities. The WJC says that several thousand Israelis also live in Germany.[1] The sources give different sizes for the community. The WJC gives 118,000 members as of 2023; it also cites an estimate by the Hebrew University demographer Sergio Della Pergola of about 116,000 in 2016, and says that the community itself puts the figure at 100,000. The largest communities are in Berlin (10,000), Munich (9,500) and Frankfurt (7,000).[1]
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad Lubavitch of Germany
Chabad's world headquarters lists 26 Chabad institutions in Germany.[9] Chabad.org says that Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, "lived and studied in Berlin from 1928-1932".[10] Chabad of Berlin says that it was founded by Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal and Leah Teichtal in 1996.[11] In 2023 Chabad.org reported that some of the movement's centres in Berlin served Israeli expatriates, and that guests at the opening of its Pears Jewish Campus in June that year included the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of "Israel", Yitzhak Yosef, and the Israeli ambassador, Ron Prosor. It called the campus "the largest Jewish structure built in Germany since World War II".[10] A 2022 report by the Berlin Senate's culture department put the campus's eligible cost at €33.3 million and listed funding from the state of Berlin, the Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin, the federal culture commissioner and the federal interior ministry, as well as the builder's own funds.[12] In 2012 Shlomo Bistritzky, a Chabad rabbi born in Jerusalem, became state rabbi (Landesrabbiner) of Hamburg.[13]
History
According to the WJC, 503,000 Jews lived in Germany when the Nazi Party came to power in 1933. On 9 November 1938, Kristallnacht, 267 synagogues were destroyed, about 30,000 Jews were arrested and at least 91 were killed. The WJC estimates that between 160,000 and 180,000 German Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.[1]
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomacy
The Israeli foreign ministry's 2011 list of missions records relations with Germany as established in October 1965, with "Israel" represented by an embassy in Berlin and a consulate-general in Bonn.[14] The WJC says that formal diplomatic relations between West Germany and "Israel" were established in 1965. It says that East Germany, from 1949 until 1990, was hostile towards "Israel" and "furnished military aid to Arab states and terrorist organizations", and that since reunification in 1990 Germany has been "a close ally of Israel". The Israeli embassy is at Auguste-Viktoria-Straße 74, 14193 Berlin.[1]
Reparations
According to the WJC, in 1951 Chancellor Konrad Adenauer told the Bundestag that he was ready to negotiate reparations with representatives of the Jewish people and "Israel". In 1952 he signed the Luxembourg Reparations Agreements together with Nahum Goldmann, president of both the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and the WJC, and the Israeli foreign minister, Moshe Sharett.[1]
"Staatsräson"
In a speech to the Knesset on 18 March 2008, Merkel said that "every German Chancellor before me has shouldered Germany's special historical responsibility for Israel's security. This historical responsibility is part of my country's raison d'être. For me as German Chancellor, therefore, Israel's security will never be open to negotiation."[4] The German text uses the word Staatsräson: "Diese historische Verantwortung Deutschlands ist Teil der Staatsräson meines Landes."[15] At a government press conference on 11 August 2025 a foreign ministry spokesman repeated that "der Schutz des Staates Israels für uns deutsche Staatsräson" (the protection of the State of Israel is German Staatsräson for us).[16]
2025 arms export restrictions
On 8 August 2025, after the Israeli security cabinet approved a new military push in the Gaza Strip, Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced that "the German Government will, until further notice, authorise no military equipment exports that can be used in the Gaza Strip". The same statement said that "Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas' terror", and called on the Israeli government "to refrain from taking any further steps towards an annexation of the West Bank".[5] At the government press conference on 11 August the foreign ministry spokesman said that the decision was not a fundamental change of policy, and a defence ministry spokesman said that the Bundeswehr had delivered no weapons or ammunition to "Israel" since 7 October 2023 and that the plans for the Arrow system were unchanged.[16] On 17 November 2025 the deputy government spokesman announced that the restrictions would be lifted from 24 November. He said that the decision was based on the ceasefire in Gaza in force since 10 October, which had "grundsätzlich stabilisiert" (essentially stabilised), and that export applications would again be assessed case by case.[17]
ICJ case brought by Nicaragua
Nicaragua brought a case against Germany at the International Court of Justice, Alleged Breaches of Certain International Obligations in respect of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It asked the court for provisional measures with respect to Germany's "participation in the ongoing plausible genocide and serious breaches of international humanitarian law and other peremptory norms of general international law occurring in the Gaza Strip". On 30 April 2024 the court decided, by 15 votes to 1, not to order provisional measures. It reminded "all States of their international obligations relating to the transfer of arms to parties to an armed conflict" and said that "all these obligations are incumbent upon Germany as a State party to the said Conventions in its supply of arms to Israel". It also rejected Germany's request to remove the case from its list.[18]
Bans on Palestine solidarity activity
On 2 November 2023 the interior minister, Nancy Faeser, banned all activity in Germany by Hamas and by "Samidoun – Palestinian Solidarity Network", and dissolved Samidoun's German branch.[19] The government notice of the Hamas ban lists the slogan "Vom Fluss bis zum Meer" (from the river to the sea) among the banned symbols.[20] In April 2024 Berlin police shut down the "Palestine Congress" about two hours after it opened, when Salman Abu Sitta, who was banned from political activity in Germany, appeared by video. The police cut the power and told about 250 participants to leave. Deutsche Welle reported that Ghassan Abu Sitta had been refused entry at Berlin airport, and that the former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said that he had been banned from entering Germany or taking part, even by video link. Berlin's mayor, Kai Wegner, called the congress "intolerable".[21] On 26 November 2025 the Berlin Administrative Court ruled that the dissolution and ban of the congress had been unlawful. It found that the measures were disproportionate, that the restrictions imposed in advance had not been breached and that the police had identified no criminal statements, and that milder means, such as excluding individual speakers, should have been considered (case VG 1 K 187/24).[22]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics reports that "Israel" imported goods worth $6,485.1 million from Germany in 2025 (2024: $6,399.1 million) and exported goods worth $3,026.8 million to it (2024: $2,277.7 million).[23]
Arms
According to SIPRI, Germany's arms supplies to "Israel" include:
- Dolphin submarines: two under a $570 million aid deal (ordered 1991, delivered 1999) and a third under a $300 million deal, 50% financed by Germany (ordered 1994, delivered 2000); two more under a €1 billion deal with 33% German aid (ordered 2006, delivered 2014–2015); and a further submarine under a €405 million deal with 33% aid (ordered 2012)
- three Dakar submarines under a €3 billion deal of 2022, partly financed by German aid, with delivery planned from 2031
- four MEKO frigates (Sa'ar-6) under a €430 million deal of 2015, including €115 million paid by Germany, delivered 2022–2023
- MTU engines for Merkava-4 and Merkava-5 tanks and Namer armoured vehicles, of which 1,370 were ordered from 2000
- Patriot air defence systems on loan (2002 and 2012)
- in the 1960s, 40 second-hand M-48 tanks supplied as aid (1964), and Saar patrol boats that were designed in West Germany but built in France "for political reasons".[2]
Germany's purchases of Israeli weapons include three Arrow-3 missile defence systems under a €3.6 billion programme ordered in 2023, with the first delivered in 2025 and a further $3.1 billion order selected in 2025; several thousand Spike anti-tank missiles produced under licence in Germany as MELLS (ordered between 2009 and 2021); Heron-TP drones leased for nine years under a $600 million deal; Heron drones leased for use in Afghanistan and Mali; and five PULS rocket launchers under a €65 million deal of 2025.[3]
Political interference
UN voting
Germany voted in favour of the September 2025 General Assembly resolution endorsing the New York Declaration on a two-state solution.[24]
Ehud Barak emails
The following items come from the two leaked mailboxes of the former Israeli prime minister and defence minister Ehud Barak (ehbarak1@gmail.com and ehud.barak@hyperion-eb.com, 2007–2016). They were hacked and leaked by Handala, a group that Distributed Denial of Secrets describes as "believed to have ties to Iranian intelligence", and were published by Distributed Denial of Secrets in August 2025. The emails carry no cryptographic signatures, and Distributed Denial of Secrets warns that material from such hack-and-leak operations may have been altered.[25]
- On 24 July 2013 Cédric Heri, of the CEO office of Bank Julius Baer in Zurich, wrote to Barak that at a meeting in Zurich with Gian Rossi, the bank's head of Northern, Central and Eastern Europe, they had discussed that Barak "might be able to grant us access to some current/former executives of major German companies".[26] On 9 August Barak replied: "Its a little bit more complicated". He said that he would discuss it after finishing "my Latin America tour on behalf of JB".[27]
- In early October 2013 Barak introduced Tan Chong Lee of Temasek in Singapore to Philipp Schoeller of the Munich firm GCG General Capital Group, "a German firm which I think can be extremely effective in deploying operations into the Dax/MDax arenas", and proposed a meeting in Frankfurt on 7 October. Schoeller sent Tan a confidential document on "GCG's tailored projects with its financial and strategic benefits generated exclusively for Temasek and Singapore", signing off "with kind regards also from Ehud Barak".[28] Tan replied that he would be in Frankfurt for only one day and could not travel to Munich.[29]
- In December 2013 the Munich Security Conference followed up its invitation to Barak to attend its 50th-anniversary meeting from 31 January to 2 February 2014. Nili Priell Barak forwarded the message to him, writing "we sure have to reply positively".[30] On 31 January 2014 she sent him a file, named in Hebrew, of the CVs of the people he would meet in Munich, "in order of the meetings".[31]
Jeffrey Epstein
Documents released by the US Department of Justice in the Jeffrey Epstein files include the following.
- The files include a copy of a partnership agreement between GCG General Capital Group Beteiligungsberatung GmbH of Munich, represented by its managing director Herbert Pachner, and Ehud Barak. Under it Barak was to receive 5% of GCG's income from projects for which he arranged financing. The project list, dated 28 January 2013, covered the "Acquisition of single largest shareholder positions of listed DAX companies which are funded by sources of the Partner". The agreement was to be governed by German law, with the courts of Munich having jurisdiction, and was due to expire on 30 June 2013.[32]
- On 15 December 2012 Nili Priell Barak sent Epstein the couple's forthcoming schedule: "Munich — Jan. 19th — 21st", then Davos, and "Again Munich feb. 1st — 3rd". Epstein forwarded it to his assistant Lesley Groff,[33] who reminded him on 9 January 2013 that "Barak is to be in Munich Jan 19-21".[34]
See also
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Austria
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Switzerland
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to the Netherlands
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to France
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Poland
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 World Jewish Congress, Community in Germany worldjewishcongress.org, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, trade register for Israel as recipient, 1950–2025, data generated 20 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, trade register for Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, data generated 20 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Angela Merkel, Speech by Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel to the Knesset copy of the Knesset English translation, 18 March 2008, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Bundesregierung, Statement by Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz on the development in Gaza bundesregierung.de, 8 August 2025, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ World Zionist Organization, Partners – Zionist Federations wzo.org.il, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ KKL-JNF, KKL-JNF Offices Worldwide kkl-jnf.org, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Keren Hayesod, Our Affiliates: Germany kh-uia.org.il, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ "Europe – Centers", Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters (lubavitch.com), accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Mendel Super and Yaakov Ort, "Chabad Center, Largest in Germany Since Holocaust, Symbol of Jewish Transformation", Chabad.org, 27 June 2023.
- ↑ "About and Contact", Chabad of Berlin, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, "Sondervermögen Infrastruktur der Wachsenden Stadt (SIWA) … Zuwendung an den Verein Chabad Lubawitsch Berlin für die Errichtung eines Jüdischen Campus", report 0670 to the main committee of the Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin, 21 November 2022.
- ↑ Moritz Piehler, "Neuer Landesrabbiner für die Hansestadt", Jüdische Allgemeine, 16 January 2012.
- ↑ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations mfa.gov.il, archived 5 August 2011.
- ↑ Bundesregierung, Rede von Bundeskanzlerin Dr. Angela Merkel vor der Knesset am 18. März 2008 in Jerusalem Bulletin der Bundesregierung, 18 March 2008, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Auswärtiges Amt, Regierungspressekonferenz vom 11. August 2025 auswaertiges-amt.de, 11 August 2025, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Bundesregierung, Regierungspressekonferenz vom 17. November 2025 bundesregierung.de, 17 November 2025, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ International Court of Justice, Alleged Breaches of Certain International Obligations in respect of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Nicaragua v. Germany): The Court rejects the request for the indication of provisional measures press release 2024/37 (UN copy), 30 April 2024, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community, Federal Minister Faeser bans activities of Hamas and Samidoun in Germany bmi.bund.de, 2 November 2023, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Bundesministerium des Innern und für Heimat, Verbot der HAMAS (Betätigungsverbot) Bundesanzeiger, BAnz AT 02.11.2023 B10, 2 November 2023, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ German police shut down pro-Palestinian conference Deutsche Welle, 13 April 2024, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Verwaltungsgericht Berlin, Palästina-Kongress 2024: Auflösung und Verbot rechtswidrig (Nr. 51/2025) berlin.de, 26 November 2025, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy).
- ↑ United Nations General Assembly, Recorded vote on A/80/L.1/Rev.1: Endorsement of the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, 12 September 2025 (copy hosted by Al-Quds Al-Arabi).
- ↑ Distributed Denial of Secrets, Ehud Barak emails, 27 August 2025, with download at data.ddosecrets.org, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Email from Cédric Heri (Bank Julius Baer) to Ehud Barak, "Initiative German Executives", 24 July 2013, file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!45/1 (42).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 25 October 2026. - ↑ Email from Ehud Barak to Cédric Heri, "Re: Initiative German Executives", 9 August 2013, file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Sent!15/1 (172).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 25 October 2026. - ↑ Emails between Philipp Schoeller, Ehud Barak and Tan Chong Lee, "Re: Frankfurt 7th October", 1–4 October 2013, file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!42/1 (291).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 25 October 2026. - ↑ Emails between Tan Chong Lee, Philipp Schoeller and Ehud Barak, "Fwd: Frankfurt 7th October", 5–6 October 2013, file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!42/1 (252).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 25 October 2026. - ↑ Email from Nili Priell Barak to Ehud Barak, "Fwd: Follow up: Invitation to the Munich Security Conference", 16 December 2013, file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!40/1 (286).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 25 October 2026. - ↑ Email from Nili Priell Barak to Ehud Barak, "CV of VIP u will meet in Munich", 31 January 2014, file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!39/1 (69).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 25 October 2026. - ↑ Partnership Agreement between General Capital Group Beteiligungsberatung GmbH and Ehud Barak, with project list dated 28 January 2013, EFTA01114854, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 9, copy at tommycarstensen.com/epstein, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Email from Jeffrey Epstein to Lesley Groff forwarding a schedule from Nili Priell Barak, 15 December 2012, EFTA00399453, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 9, copy at tommycarstensen.com/epstein, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Email from Lesley Groff to Jeffrey Epstein, "Reminder Barak (again)", 9 January 2013, EFTA02565054, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 11, copy at tommycarstensen.com/epstein, accessed 25 October 2026.