JTA — Germany’s leading party is being investigated in Berlin for funneling millions to groups that proposed fighting antisemitism but lacked transparency about their use of the funds, including one group whose director has been accused of antisemitic language herself.

The Berlin branch of the Christian Democratic Union, the center-right party leading the federal government, is being probed by a parliamentary committee for allegedly improperly allocating 2.6 million euros (about $3 million) to combat antisemitism. The party, the committee alleges, did not vet the groups adequately or monitor their spending.

The government allocated special funds toward fighting antisemitism at the end of 2023, shortly after the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel that spurred a spike in antisemitic incidents in many places.

Among the grants triggering concern was 390,000 euros (about $450,000) to the Zera Institute, founded in December 2024 by an Iranian-German music producer named Maral Salmassi. She has been accused of posting antisemitic rhetoric online.

In a post on X from February 2025, Salmassi said the Jewish billionaire George Soros “is and always has been a parasite.” Nazi-era propaganda frequently depicted Jews as parasites. Since the comment was resurfaced by Die Tageszeitung, Salmassi has deleted it and expressed regret.

Daniel Eliasson, a local Green Party politician, called the post a “clearly antisemitic statement” to a local newspaper. “As a Jew, I find it nothing short of a mockery that the Berlin CDU is providing this person with 390,000 euros (about $450,000) to fight antisemitism,” he said.

Berlin’s antisemitism commissioner, Sigmount Königsberg, resigned from the expert council of the Zera Institute after the post came to light.

Salmassi has also referred to philosopher Omri Boehm, journalist Peter Beinart, and scholars Amos Goldberg and Raz Segal — all staunch critics of Israel — as “token Jews.”

Salmassi is a CDU member who sits on a local board of the party. Several other funding recipients have been discovered to have ties to the party, and some have no verifiable experience in combating antisemitism, according to Stern magazine. They include a real estate company and other recently founded groups.

Staffers from the CDU’s Department for Culture and Social Cohesion, which was responsible for awarding the grants, testified at a parliamentary inquiry hearing on Friday. The investigation, initiated by the Left Party and the Greens, will determine whether funding was disbursed based on unclear criteria and cronyism.

During Friday’s hearing, one witness said “the expertise and the resources were lacking” for their department to handle the large sum of funds allocated in the wake of Oct. 7, according to Berliner Morgenpost. The next hearing is scheduled for Friday.

When Der Tagesspiegel contacted 12 organizations that received funding to implement projects in the 2025 fiscal year, only three gave answers about how they used or planned to use the funds. One of these projects organized an exhibition about Israel’s Nova music festival, a target of the Hamas attacks. Another group organized concerts, workshops, and exhibitions to combat antisemitism in the music scene, and a third supported Israeli artists in Berlin.

Uffa Jensen, deputy director of the Center for Research on Antisemitism at the Berlin Institute of Technology, told Der Tagesspiegel that he was skeptical about where the 2.6 million euros (about $3 million) would end up.

“Based on the selection of the funded projects, I have doubts as to whether it is effective or whether it will achieve the goals that the funds were intended to pursue,” said Jensen.

Are you relying on The Times of Israel for accurate and timely coverage of the Iran war right now? If so, please join The Times of Israel Community. For as little as $6/month, you will:

Support our independent journalists who are working around the clock under difficult conditions to cover this conflict;

Read ToI with a clear, ads-free experience on our site, apps and emails; and

Gain access to exclusive content shared only with the ToI Community, including weekly letters from founding editor David Horovitz.

We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.

You clearly find our careful reporting of the Iran war valuable, at a time when facts are often distorted and news coverage often lacks context.

Your support is essential to continue our work. We want to continue delivering the professional journalism you value, even as the demands on our newsroom have grown dramatically during this ongoing conflict.

So today, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. For as little as $6 a month you'll become our partners while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.

Thank you,David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel

1 PM: Iran’s nuke program would have been ‘immune in months’; Witkoff: They bragged to us about enrichment

2 IDF hits Iran’s ‘leadership complex’ in Tehran; 12 Israelis hurt in Iran missile strikes

3 Report: Israel hacked Tehran traffic cameras to track Khamenei ahead of assassination

4 Trump says he may have forced Israel’s hand into war with Iranian ‘lunatics’

5 Israel strikes building where Iranian clerics said gathering to elect new supreme leader

6 IDF sends troops further into south Lebanon and strikes Beirut amid Hezbollah attacks

7 AnalysisHoping to pressure end to war, Iran aims fire at Arab neighbors. It hasn’t worked, yet

8 Kuwaitis seen helping US fighter pilot after plane shot down

antisemitism in Germany

Christian Democratic Union

© The Times of Israel