Lawrence de Donges-Amiss, the leader of the Giessen Jewish community near Frankfurt, said on Sunday the threat appears to have been a “hoax,” and that the powder found in the letter was harmless.
“Smaller communities like ours are naturally more vulnerable than the large ones, where perpetrators can’t even get near to the actual buildings because of robust protection, de Donges-Amiss said, “but even so, and despite the threat, I don’t think that our community is at any heightened risk, compared to counterparts across Germany and Hesse [state],” he added.
“The scene was cordoned off and investigated, and emergency services, including police, fire department and ambulance crews, took measures to avert danger,” the police in Hesse announced, adding that no one was injured. The powder was later deemed to be neither toxic nor volatile.
The Beith-Jaakov synagogue had 26 people inside it, who were evacuated when the letter was found, the European Jewish Congress said in a statement.
A synagogue in Gießen, Germany, was evacuated after a threatening letter containing antisemitic messages and an unidentified powder was opened inside the building.
All 26 people present were evacuated as a precaution. Four people who were close to the letter when it was opened… pic.twitter.com/SZxSmUXTl2
— European Jewish Congress (@eurojewcong) November 13, 2026
“The fact that a Jewish community can be subjected to such threats in its own place of worship is deeply disturbing and utterly unacceptable,” the statement read.
On Jan. 13, police in Hesse arrested a man in connection with suspected arson outside the Beith-Jaakov synagogue.
Footage of the incident outside the synagogue showed a man with a black backpack performing a gesture that appears to be the Nazi salute before setting fire to a large heap of cardboard boxes pressed against the facade of the building housing the synagogue. De Donges-Amiss-Amiss, who is also the ambassador to Germany of the European Jewish Association (EJA), told JNS the perpetrator was mentally ill, and that “his actions don’t seem to be ideological.”
RIAS, the Berlin-based Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism, recorded 8,725 antisemitic incidents in 2025, a slight increase from 2024 and the highest tally on record.
“The number of incidents has remained consistently high since Oct. 7, 2023, and continues to affect the lives of Jewish people,” the report said, adding that “Israel-related antisemitism” accounted for 68% of all incidents.
The 2025 tally, up by 98 incidents from 2024, included 178 assaults and 257 cases involving threats.
The 2022 tally stood at 2,480 incidents.
Among the incidents documented in the 2025 report was a case in Kehl, a western border town near Strasbourg, where four members of the Jewish community were insulted and spat on outside a Jewish prayer room. In Hesse, a rabbi was shoved in a supermarket in front of his children and had his cell phone snatched. The perpetrators referenced Israel during the attack, according to RIAS.
In an incident this year in Hesse, an unidentified man verbally abused a 62-year-old man with antisemitic insults on Frankfurt’s Münchner Strasse and slapped the victim across the face, police said. Police classified the incident as an assault with an antisemitic background and appealed for witnesses.
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