The children’s bookstore in Sant Cugat, Spain, was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti and slogans, prompting outrage from the local Jewish community. Photo: Screenshot
Antisemitism continues to surge across Europe, with recent anti-Jewish incidents in Spain and Germany leaving Jewish communities shocked and outraged.
On Tuesday, a children’s bookstore in Sant Cugat, a small town by Barcelona, was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti and slogans.
An unknown individual spray-painted messages — including “Zionist” and “accomplice to genocide” — along with a Palestinian flag across the bookstore’s facade.
The store’s owner, Mont Soler, voiced her “deepest rejection” of this act of anti-Jewish hatred.
“This attack is not only against my bookstore, but also against the values of coexistence and respect that I have always stood for,” Soler wrote in a post on Instagram.
The Jewish Community of Barcelona (CJB) also condemned the incident, expressing solidarity with the store’s owner and urging the authorities to take action.
“This attack is not just against a landmark bookstore, but also against the values of coexistence, respect, and diversity that should define our society,” CJB said in a statement.
“Antisemitism and all forms of intolerance have no place in Sant Cugat, in Catalonia, or anywhere else,” the statement read.
This incident comes amid a surge in antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment across Europe and around the world since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
On Wednesday, a shop owner in Flensburg, a small town in northern Germany, ignited outrage by displaying a sign in his store window that read, “Jews are forbidden here.”
The sign also said, “Nothing personal, not even antisemitism, I just can’t stand you.”
According to 60-year-old shop owner Hans Platen-Reisch, the sign was intended as a protest against Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, but he insisted it was not meant to be antisemitic.
“Jews live in Israel, and I can’t tell who supports the strikes and who doesn’t,” Platen-Reisch told a local news outlet.
“To me, it’s hypocrisy. They always say history must not repeat itself, and then they do the same themselves,” he continued.
Social media photos reveal the interior of his shop, featuring a Reich war flag — a symbol used by Nazi Germany during World War II — behind his desk, a RAF poster referring to the far-left terror group Red Army Faction on the wall, and a Palestinian flag displayed in the window.
Shortly after the incident, the Flensburg prosecutor’s office filed five criminal complaints and opened an investigation into Platen-Reisch on suspicion of incitement to hatred.
Felix Klein, Germany’s commissioner for combating antisemitism, denounced the incident as a shocking display of hatred and called for swift legal action.
“This is clear antisemitism, with direct connections to the Nazi period, when Jews were boycotted and signs like these were widespread,” Klein said in an interview with German television.
“This must not be tolerated under any circumstances,” he continued.
German Education Minister Karin Prien, the first Jewish woman to hold a federal ministerial post in Germany, also condemned the incident and expressed strong support for the Jewish community.
“Anyone who expresses or justifies antisemitism opposes everything our democratic life represents,” Prien told a local newspaper. “Let there be no doubt: We will not tolerate antisemitism – not in Flensburg, not in Germany, not anywhere in the world.”
Israel’s Ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, voiced his strong condemnation of the incident.
“The 1930s are back! In Flensburg, ‘Jews forbidden’ is once again hanging in a shop window — in the year 2025. Just like back then, in the streets, cafés and shops of the 1930s,” Prosor wrote in a post on X.
“This is exactly how it started — step by step, sign by sign. It is the same old hatred, only in a new guise,” the Israeli diplomat continued.
Die 30er-Jahre sind zurück!
In Flensburg hängt wieder „Juden verboten“ im Schaufenster – im Jahr 2025. Wie damals in den Straßen, Cafés und Geschäften der 1930er.
Genau so hat es angefangen – Schritt für Schritt, Schild für Schild. Es ist der gleiche alte Hass, nur in einer… pic.twitter.com/seZmJ4OPsv
— Ambassador Ron Prosor (@Ron_Prosor) September 18, 2025