'No Jews in our hotel': Israeli family denied access to Bavarian hotel

An Israeli family attempting to book a hotel in Bavaria, Germany, received a discriminatory message through Booking.com: "Sorry, there are no Jews allowed in our hotel." The incident occurred on June 2 at the 120-year-old Hotel Zum Hirschen in Lam, a Bavarian town near the Czech border.

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Sorry, there are no Jews allowed in our hotel.

Following the family's complaint, the hotel was removed from Booking.com. The Upper Palatinate Police Headquarters confirmed that the Regensburg Criminal Police have initiated an investigation. The hotel has since issued an apology, attributing the message to a misunderstanding stemming from ongoing issues with fraudulent bookings and phishing attempts on the platform. They claimed to have mistakenly assumed the request from Israel was another such attempt.

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Are we back in the 1930s?

Despite the apology, the incident has drawn strong condemnation. Talya Lador, Israel's consul general to Southern Germany, questioned, "Are we back in the 1930s?" Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, stated that the message reflects the reality for many Jewish people and cannot be justified, regardless of intent. Josef Schuster, President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, echoed this sentiment, calling the written statement shocking. The European Jewish Congress expressed deep disturbance, noting the incident occurs amid a broader surge in antisemitism in Germany, where over 6,200 antisemitic offenses were recorded in 2024.

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In the end, it is almost secondary whether the author sent it out of hateful intent or simple thoughtlessness, because either way it describes the reality of many Jewish people, not only Israelis.