A Jewish leader in Germany says anti-Semitism is so rampant that police are needed to protect participants in public religious events.

Charlotte Knobloch, the former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, believes that Jewish life can only be lived out “in public with police protection and under the most serious security precautions,” according to media reports.

She added, “anti-Semitism [is] in the heart of German society.’’

A video showing a German man berating a Jewish restaurant owner in Berlin has circulated online.

Knobloch said: “The hostility and threats that can be seen in the video are disgusting but not unusual.”

She added, “ ‘Jew’ has once again become an insult in German schoolyards.”