opinion
Fabricating Antisemitism:
The Case of Gil Ofarim
BY BEN COHEN
B ack in October, I wrote about
the strange case of Gil Ofarim,
a popular German Jewish singer
who leveled a charge of antisemitic
discrimination against an employee
of the Westin Hotel in Leipzig,
Germany. The case drew forensic
interest from the German media
and much soul-searching among
German politicians about the levels
of antisemitism in their country.

As it turns out — and as many
feared at the time — Ofarim’s alle-
gations were entirely false. Last
Thursday, the public prosecutor in
Leipzig announced that not only
were charges being dropped against
the hotel clerk accused of antisemi-
tism, but Ofarim was himself being
indicted on charges of libel and def-
amations — charges that could result
in a jail sentence if he is convicted.

The conclusion was reached after
months of painstaking investiga-
tion that included a close review of
CCTV footage from the hotel recep-
tion, several police interviews with
Ofarim and even a reconstruction of
the fateful encounter that the singer
alleged had taken place.

The Ofarim saga began on Oct. 5
last year when the singer attempted
to check into the Westin following
a performance in Leipzig. An emo-
tional Instagram video that quickly
went viral showed the singer sitting
on the steps outside the hotel, nurs-
ing the Star of David necklace he
said he always wore on his chest.

As he told it, he had been stuck in
the line at the check-in, becoming
frustrated when, he claimed, other
guests were receiving their room
cards ahead of him. When Ofarim
asked why he was being ignored,
a clerk allegedly told him, “pack up
your star and you can check in.”
As ugly an incident as this would
have been had it actually occurred,
it would by no means have been the
worst example of antisemitism in
Germany, which frequently involves
18 APRIL 7, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
violent assaults and anti-Jewish
invective far cruder than that quoted
by Ofarim. Nevertheless, perhaps
because of Ofarim’s local celebrity,
and the fact that he is the son of
Israeli pop singer Abi Ofarim, the
case set the German media alight.

Politicians and community lead-
ers were almost falling over them-
selves to condemn the incident. The
then federal Interior Minister, Heiko
Maas, said that Ofarim’s supposed
ordeal demonstrated the need for all
Germans to stand “shoulder to shoul-
der” against antisemitism. Felix Klein,
Germany’s federal commissioner
tasked with combating antisemitism,
declared himself “appalled that a
person is discriminated against and
hardly fair play, though). Ofarim’s alle-
gations also increased attention on
the very real problem of antisemitism
in Germany. However, within a fort-
night of the alleged incident, cracks
in his story began to appear.

CCTV footage from the hotel lobby
published in German news outlets
showed that Ofarim wasn’t wearing,
at least visibly, the Star of David
necklace he claimed had sparked
the clerk’s antisemitic comment. It
also emerged that the hotel clerk
accused of antisemitism had fi led a
defamation suit against Ofarim the
very day after the alleged incident.

In media interviews, Ofarim became
worryingly vague on detail, on one
occasion answering the question of
Awareness of the urgent need to
fi ght back against antisemitism in
Germany shouldn’t blind us to the
sheer injustice of accusing an innocent
person of such vile prejudice.

attacked in an anti-Semitic fashion
in public in a busy hotel lobby.” The
head of Germany’s Jewish commu-
nity, Josef Schuster, remarked that
Ofarim had encountered “the every-
day antisemitism to which Jews are
repeatedly exposed” in Germany.

Some politicians even went as far
as to call for the hotel employee
identifi ed by Ofarim to be fi red.

Karin Prien (CDU), the Minister of
Education in the state of Schleswig-
Holstein, urged that the accused
clerk be terminated immediately,
while Katja Meier, the Minister of
Justice in Saxony, where Leipzig is
located, wrote: “This open antisem-
itism in the Hotel Westin in Leipzig
is unspeakable and unbearable. It
must have consequences — and an
apology is not enough.”
These sentiments were, mostly,
noble and welcome (calling for some-
one to be fi red without due process is
whether he had been wearing the
necklace in the hotel with the breezy
response, “Anyone who knows me
knows that I always wear the Star of
David.” Moreover, several interviews
with the police reportedly revealed
inconsistencies in Ofarim’s account
of what happened — or didn’t.

In a carefully worded statement
once the probe was concluded, the
Leipzig prosecutor said it was plain
that the incident described by Ofarim
“did not actually happen.” Instead, it
is Ofarim himself who now stands
accused of the serious off ense of
fabricating an act of discrimination.

There is an unjust absurdity about
this situation. Last year, there was
a 30% increase in antisemitic out-
rages in Germany, with more than
3,000 incidents reported — likely
only a fraction of the total number,
given that successive studies have
shown that many victims of antise-
mitic harassment in Germany don’t
fi le a report with the authorities.

Some of those incidents were
related to the COVID-19 conspir-
acy theories that have been lapped
up in Germany, while many more
occurred last May when the 11-day
confl ict between Israel and Hamas
in Gaza was accompanied by a
wave of antisemitic agitation and
violence. Moreover, during the last
decade, antisemitic incidents have
risen year on year, demonstrating
beyond doubt that the land of the
Holocaust has failed to excise the
oldest hatred.

None of that excuses Ofarim’s
appalling act. Awareness of the urgent
need to fi ght back against antisem-
itism in Germany shouldn’t blind us
to the sheer injustice of accusing an
innocent person of such vile prejudice,
as Ofarim has apparently done. And in
a world driven by social-media chat-
ter, Ofarim has provided an import-
ant boost for the narrative that Jews
exaggerate about antisemitism today,
just as they talk too much about the
Holocaust of 80 years ago.

Ofarim has made the job of those
in Germany working diligently to com-
bat antisemitism that much harder.

But there is also an important lesson
here in caution, for with hindsight,
no German politician should have
spoken out so defi nitively without a
proper investigation of Ofarim’s alle-
gations. Not to mention that the next
time someone reports such an inci-
dent — particularly one that involves
service workers in a hotel or a restau-
rant or an airport — Ofarim’s example
could well encourage the too-hasty
dismissal of such a complaint.

We can only hope that the twists
and turns of the news cycle will
speedily move on from this sorry
aff air. As for Ofarim, he would be
well-advised not to open his mouth
in public again, unless he’s singing. JE
Ben Cohen is a New York City-based
journalist and author who writes a
weekly column on Jewish and inter-
national aff airs for JNS.