Germany is to tighten its laws against anti-Semitic hate crimes in the wake of last month's failed attack on a synagogue by a far-Right gunman.

“I am ashamed that Jews no longer feel safe in Germany and that so many are even thinking of leaving the country,” Christine Lambrecht, the justice minister, told German MPs. “We have to send a clear signal against anti-Semitism.”

Under the planned changes, crimes with an anti-Semitic motive will attract heavier sentences.

The move comes after a synagogue in east Germany narrowly escaped becoming the scene of a massacre last month. Stephan Balliet, a German national who released a far-Right "manifesto" before the attack, failed in his attempts to break into the synagogue which was packed with 51 people marking Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. He later turned his gun on bystanders, killing two people.

While the Halle attack was the highest profile incident, it was by no means an isolated case. Just days before, a Syrian man was stopped by security guards as he tried to enter Berlin’s best known synagogue armed with a knife and shouting “Allahu akbar” and “F*** Israel”.

Anti-Semitic crimes across Germany rose by 10 per cent to a total of 1,646 last year, but it is the figures for violence that are most alarming.