Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, said online abuse and even physical attacks were 'commonplace'. Pictured in Jan 2016

Anti-Semitism is now 'the order of the day' in Germany, according to a community leader, who claims Jews now need 'police protection' to practice their religion.

Charlotte Knobloch, former leader of the German Council of Jews, said online abuse and even physical attacks were 'commonplace'.

She referred to several recent incidents of anti-Semitic crime, including the vandalism of a Menorah in the city of Heilbronn, and the cancellation of a public Menorah lighting in Mülheim because of security issues.

Mrs Knobloch, who is now President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, claimed these attacks meant Jewish life had to take place under 'police protection', the Heilbronner Stimme reported.

'Aggressive anti-Semitism, from verbal hostility on the Internet and in the analogue world to desecration and destruction to physical attacks are commonplace in Germany,' she said.

'Jewish life can only take place in public under police protection and the strictest security precautions, or it must be completely cancelled for security reasons.'

Her comments came after Germany's interior minister said the government needed to appoint an anti-Semitism commissioner to counter growing hate speech against Jews and Israel from both its home-grown far right and the immigrant community.

Thomas de Maiziere's intervention followed a protest in Berlin where Israeli flags were burnt to protest the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.

'Every criminal act motivated by anti-Semitism is one too many and a shame for our country,' de Maiziere, the caretaker minister since inconclusive September elections, told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

'Anti-Semitism must never again take hold in Germany,' he said, pointing to a rise of 'derogatory remarks, inappropriate jokes and discriminatory behaviour against our Jewish citizens'.

She referred to several recent incidents of anti-Semitic crime. Pictured: The Reichstag parliament building in Berlin

He condemned the recent flag-burnings as 'the symbolic destruction of a country's right to exist', while Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen also said such expressions of hate were 'unbearable'.

De Maiziere said when Germany has a new government - which Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and the centre-left Social Democrats are now discussing - it should appoint an anti-Semitism commissioner.

Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said last week that, although Berlin opposed the move by US President Donald Trump, it strongly condemned protests where 'hatred' of Israel and Jews was expressed.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the country needed an anti-Semitism commissioner

On Friday, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also declared himself 'shocked and shamed' by the incidents and warned that anti-Semitism was still 'showing its evil face in a variety of ways'.

Steinmeier stressed Germany's responsibility to learn 'the lessons of two world wars, the lessons of the Holocaust, the responsibility for the security of Israel, the rejection of all forms of racism and anti-Semitism'.

This was 'non-negotiable' for everyone who lives in Germany, no matter where and when they were born, he added.

Justice Minister Heiko Maas demanded that lessons on the Holocaust be included in integration courses that teach German language and civics to asylum seekers and immigrants.

He wrote on Spiegel Online that many 'come from countries where powerful elites intentionally fuel hatred of Jews and Israel, and where anti-Semitism is practiced almost as a matter of course'.

Maas said that all immigrants needed to understand that 'we fight against the anti-Semitism of the neo-Nazis and we will equally never tolerate an anti-Semitism imported by immigrants'.