{"id":474748,"date":"2026-06-03T21:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/474748\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T21:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:16:11","slug":"german-authorities-investigate-hotel-that-barred-israeli-guests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/474748\/","title":{"rendered":"German authorities investigate hotel that barred Israeli guests"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Israeli family who attempted to book a room at a hotel in Bavaria, Germany<\/a>, received a message through Booking.com saying, “Sorry, there are no Jews allowed<\/a> in our hotel.”<\/p>\n

The family received the message on June 2 from Hotel Zum Hirschen, a 120-year-old family establishment in the Bavarian town of Lam, on the border with the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n

After the family filed a complaint, the hotel was removed from Booking.com. The Upper Palatinate Police Headquarters said the Regensburg Criminal Police have opened an investigation.<\/p>\n

The hotel has since issued an apology. It claimed it has been dealing for a while with fraudulent bookings and phishing attempts through Booking.com<\/a>, and falsely assumed the booking request from Israel was one of these. According to German journalist Tobias Huch, the hotel wrote directly to the family, apologized, and provided evidence of previous phishing incidents.<\/p>\n

“This was nevertheless unacceptable and must not happen in a professional establishment,” he quoted the hotel as saying. “We and our employees are only human, and sometimes anger gets the better of us.”<\/p>\n

\"AnAn Israeli family who attempted to book a room at a hotel in Bavaria, Germany, received a message through Booking.com saying ‘sorry, there are no Jews allowed in our hotel.” June, 3, 2026. (credit: screenshot\/@talyalador)’Are we back in the 1930s?’<\/p>\n

Talya Lador, Israel’s consul general to Southern Germany, said, “Are we back in the 1930s?”<\/p>\n

“Antisemitism<\/a> is not a Jewish problem. It is not an Israeli problem. It is a danger to democracy in Germany,” she added.<\/p>\n

Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, “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.”<\/p>\n

“The dehumanizing statement ‘No Jews allowed’ cannot be justified under any circumstances, regardless of attempts to place it in context,” said Josef Schuster, President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged that the hotel has apologized, but said, “It remains shocking that someone would not only think along these lines but also put it in writing and send it.”<\/p>\n

‘Evokes some of the darkest chapters of European history’<\/p>\n

The European Jewish Congress said it is “deeply disturbed” by the case, saying it “evokes some of the darkest chapters of European history.”<\/p>\n

It noted that the incident comes amid a broader surge in antisemitism in Germany, where more than 6,200 antisemitic offenses were recorded in 2024, including 173 violent crimes.<\/p>\n

“No one should be denied a hotel room, a service, or access to public life because they are Jewish. We trust the authorities will investigate this case thoroughly and hold those responsible accountable,” the EJC added.<\/p>\n

The current website of the hotel features a statement saying “There has been extensive media coverage recently, and we have been in contact with representatives, the police, and the State Chancellery to present our perspective on the events.”<\/p>\n

The hotel then asks for understanding and said it is receiving “insults and threats.”<\/p>\n

“At this point, we would also like to state clearly that we condemn any form of discrimination. Claims that certain groups are not welcome at our establishment are incorrect and do not reflect the facts,” it said.<\/p>\n

The Sperl-Vogl Family, which runs the hotel, said normal operations have not been affected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Israeli family who attempted to book a room at a hotel in Bavaria, Germany, received a message…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[108,111,32689,113425,170,5482,85,46,43],"class_list":["post-474748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-anti-israel","tag-antisemitism","tag-bavaria","tag-booking-com","tag-germany","tag-hotel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}