Following a decisive victory in Berlin’s state elections where the Left Party secured 26 percent of the vote, Elif Eralp faces intense scrutiny from Jewish community leaders.
Inside Gideon Joffe’s Fortified Office
Getting into Gideon Joffe’s office takes some doing. The 19th-century New Synagogue features a golden dome that towers over the historic structure in central Berlin. Out front, police officers ask who you are and where you’re headed. Past the first security door, your bag goes through a scanner. Then come more doors, all of them extra thick. It’s not paranoia.
Antisemitism has escalated across the Western world since the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas and the subsequent war in Gaza, according to a Tel Aviv University study. Berlin is no exception. Joffe, 54, who chairs the Jewish Community of Berlin, has grown used to a life under protection. Yet deep anxiety over the outcome of the recent vote pervades the atmosphere at his conference table, where the community’s secretary general and its spokesperson are also present.
The Rise of Berlin’s Left Party and Elif Eralp
The Left Party came in first with 26 percent of the vote in Berlin, a record for the party in the capital and more than double its previous result. At the center of the debate is Elif Eralp, the Left’s lead candidate who has become the face of the party’s transformation. Under Eralp and a younger generation of activists with immigrant backgrounds in the Muslim world, the party has built a new urban coalition around housing, inequality, and opposition to the war in Gaza.
Eralp has been dubbed Berlin’s Mamdani by the press, drawing comparisons to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Forming a government will require Eralp to build an alliance incorporating both the Greens and the center-left Social Democrats. Steffen Krach, the SPD state chair, told the German press agency dpa that any governing agreement must include binding consequences for antisemitic incidents and affirm Israel’s right to exist.
Skepticism from the Jewish Community
While the Left’s platform explicitly opposes antisemitism, critics point to numerous troubling examples from the campaign trail. Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, has dismissed Eralp’s expressions of concern as mere lip service.
Prominent historian Michael Wolffsohn offered grim advice in the magazine Cicero, stating with a heavy heart that young Jewish Berliners should leave the city and the country. Statistics from RIAS Berlin illustrate the mounting pressure on the city’s estimated 20,000 to 40,000 Jews. In the five years before the 2023 Hamas attack, the watchdog logged just under 1,000 antisemitic incidents a year, but counted 2,197 last year. Police records show an even steeper increase in crimes classified as antisemitic, rising from 381 in 2022 to 2,268 in 2025.
| Metric | Prior Baseline (Pre-2023) | Recent Figures (2025/2026) |
|---|---|---|
| RIAS Berlin Tracked Incidents | ~1,000 per year | 2,197 (Last year) |
| Police-Recorded Antisemitic Crimes | 381 (2022) | 2,268 (2025) |
| Left Party Berlin Election Result | Previous result | 26% (Recent State Election) |
Balancing Coalitions Amid Rising Tensions
In her first major speech after the election at the headquarters of Neues Deutschland, Eralp attempted a delicate balancing act. She defended her party’s social justice platform while offering a form of self-criticism. Eralp stated that there must never be calls for violence and that statements frightening Jewish people cannot come from party platforms.
