Broad daylight, days before Yom Kippur: Afghan man arrested over German synagogue arson attempt

German police arrested a 37-year-old Afghan national suspected of trying to set fire to the Bergische Synagogue in Wuppertal in broad daylight, just three days before Yom Kippur. The suspect allegedly poured or threw flammable liquid at an entrance and ignited it before fleeing. Community members extinguished the flames within minutes, preventing serious damage or injuries.

Jewish leaders warned the attack reflects an increasingly threatening atmosphere. “Once again, during the Jewish High Holidays, there has been an attack on a synagogue,” said Josef Schuster, head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, warning that the perpetrator’s apparent brazenness showed “how far the normalization of antisemitism has progressed.”

The same synagogue was firebombed with Molotov cocktails in 2014. Meanwhile, North Rhine-Westphalia recorded 1,102 antisemitic incidents in 2025, up 17% in a year. Police have not yet established a motive or formally classified Thursday’s incident as antisemitic.