BERLIN — Several years ago, the newspaper where I am an editor in Germany made an unusual decision: We would not interview any politicians associated with Alternative for Germany, a political party that was then merely on the far-right fringe of public opinion.
It wasn’t a choice we took lightly. The Jüdische Allgemeine is the only Jewish weekly newspaper in Germany, and we strive to represent the entire Jewish community as well as its broad spectrum of political opinions.
But we made an exception for the party, known as AfD, because we wanted to make clear that what it stood for was beyond the pale of acceptable political discourse.
Lately, more and more Germans — including some German Jews — are disagreeing with that assessment.
Over the years, AfD has gained support across Germany. With about a month to go before national elections, it sits second in the polls. And among the party’s expanding base is a contingent of Jewish voters.
They are drawn to AfD’s agenda, which includes ridding the country of immigrants. They believe AfD’s claim that only the right can keep Jews safe during a frightening time.
Now, the richest man in the world and a top adviser to the U.S. president is making the same argument. This weekend, Elon Musk spoke remotely to an AfD rally of more than 4,000 people, telling them that the party is the country’s best and indeed only hope — and that “there is too much focus on past guilt” in Germany.
Elon Musk is seen on a large screen as Alice Weidel, co-leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, addresses an election campaign rally in Halle, Germany, Jan. 25, 2025. (AFP via Getty Images)
With the entire world looking to Germany, and with some Jews in the United States supporting Musk and his politics, I believe German Jews like myself who have watched the AfD’s rise closely have a perspective worth hearing. And my conclusion is still the same as it was all those years ago: AfD is an antisemitic party, no matter how much it says it’s good for the Jews.
On the surface, AfD positions itself as staunchly opposed to antisemitism. The party claims it is taking on the “real” enemies of Jewish life in Germany – namely, the left and Muslims. They assert that AfD is determined to take action against antisemites in its own ranks, citing the case of Wolfgang Gedeon, a former member of the Baden-Württemberg state parliament whose anti-Jewish conspiracy theories were too much even for the far-right party. It took a few years, but Gedeon was eventually expelled from the party.
In addition, the AfD has always sought to maintain strong relations with Israel, viewing the Jewish state as a bulwark against Islam, though thus far the feeling is not mutual. The former Israeli ambassador in Berlin, Jeremy Issacharoff, described statements made by AfD politicians as “highly offensive to Jews and Israel.”
Representatives of the Jewish community in Germany have adopted a similarly critical tone: In 2018 in a joint statement, numerous organizations, including the Central Council of Jews, called the AfD a “racist and anti-Semitic party” and “a danger to Jewish life.”
Those organizations are right to be cautious.
While AfD doesn’t hesitate to condemn antisemitism on the left, it trivializes or even denies antisemitism on the right. While we don’t have airtight data on what motivates antisemitic acts, one thing is clear: right-wing extremism has always been one of the greatest dangers for Jews. But for AfD, the anti-Semites are always on the other side. Anyone who is blind in one eye in this matter cannot credibly stand up for the safety of the entire Jewish community.
In some cases, the bigotry is emanating from the ranks of AfD itself. The party refrains from embracing overt resentment against Jews, but its politicians skillfully employ antisemitic innuendo, with regular talk of the “Great Reset” or the “Great Replacement,” names of conspiracies with antisemitic roots — all orchestrated by “globalists.” A global conspiracy orchestrated by a shadowy elite? It’s all too familiar.
AfD also famously seeks to close the chapter on Germany’s reckoning with National Socialism. Its leaders have said things like, “Our ancestors were not criminals,” decried the country’s “stupid coping policy” or described the Nazi era as “a blip in history.” While that historical mindset might resonate with people like Elon Musk, it is incompatible with Jewish life in Germany.
In order for Jews to remain in the land of the Holocaust’s perpetrators, the legacy of that atrocity must permanently play a central role in Germany’s self-image. This is also the meaning of “never again” – a formula that sounds like a mockery when it comes from the mouths of AfD politicians.
A rally against far-right extremism in Berlin featured signs connecting the plans of a far-right party, AfD, to the plotting of the Nazis against the Jews, Jan. 21, 2024. (Hami Roshan/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
The threat AfD poses to Jews goes beyond rhetoric. If the party’s ideas on animal protection were to become law, it would become very difficult to keep kosher in Germany. In its 2021 party program, AfD not only rejected kosher butchering itself but also the importing of kosher meat. That would leave two choices for strictly observant Jews: becoming vegetarians or emigrating. In the current program for the federal elections in February, the AfD has weakened its position, now permitting ritual slaughter under anesthesia. But that would still change the status quo in Germany and remain incompatible with Jewish law.
What of AfD’s support for Israel? Since Oct. 7, 2023, hardly any other party has commented on the Hamas massacre as hesitantly and cautiously as AfD. The initial silence of the party’s leaders on the darkest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust was broken after four days by co-chairman Tino Chrupalla expressing his grief for “all the war dead.” Chrupalla also recently spoke out against arms deliveries to the Jewish state. And unlike mainstream German parties, which are staunchly pro-Israel, AfD’s platform includes nothing about safeguarding Israel’s security — let alone words like “National Socialism” and “Holocaust.”
Through it all, the party has developed an antagonistic relationship with local Jewish communities and their representatives. Jörg Urban, the leading AfD candidate in Saxony, sees Jewish groups’ criticism of his party as nothing more than “statements of complacency,” adding that they are “all supported with public money.”
Another AfD politician said Josef Schuster, the president of the Central Council of Jews, enjoys “the privileges that the Federal Republic of Germany has granted him,” but “nobody takes him seriously anymore.”
Like all authoritarian parties, including the Republicans under President Donald Trump, the AfD values loyalty above all. If you refuse to conform, consequences will follow. AfD offers two options for Jewish people: Either accept that right-wing antisemitism will be tolerated in future, the special relationship with Israel will be abandoned and Holocaust remembrance will be marginalized – or accept internal or external exile.
That’s not a choice German Jews should have to make — or one that we want to see our counterparts in other countries get trapped into making, either.
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