These days, whenever a crime occurs in Germany, social media heats up quickly, as both right-wing-populists and liberals immediately claim the event as a building block in their respective ideological struggles. The far-right Alternative for Germany party is constantly searching for “evidence” to support its belief that immigration is a threat to German society. Liberals, in contrast, look for evidence to exculpate immigrants and cast blame on the right.

A woman and her son are pushed in front of a train in Frankfurt? What’s the nationality of the perpetrator? A man is shot on his porch in Hesse? Was he pro-immigration? It was no different yesterday, after the news of the assault in Halle broke. Was this Arab or German anti-Semitism? seems to have been the first question for many, instead of: what really happened and how could it have been prevented?

In this vain struggle, one group often goes missing: Germany’s Jews. The rise in anti-Semitic violence does not fit easily into either narrative; the social media attention is more muted, and the events tend to pass with little comment.

Anti-Semitism in Germany is complicated. We know that a number of recent attacks on Jews were committed by immigrants, many of them from the Arab world, but there is disagreement on how many. Mr. Münch, the head of the national police, says that 90 percent of the anti-Semitic crimes committed in Germany last year were committed by right-wing extremists. The American Jewish Committee in Germany disagrees, saying that many of these crimes have been miscategorized and are actually the work of immigrants.

Liberals historically have stood beside German Jews, but in doing so they worry they might undermine their pro-immigrant bona fides. They are therefore loath to question Mr. Münch’s numbers, even as the far right tries to exploit Arab anti-Semitism for its own benefit. Which means that even when anti-Semitism is recognized, it is only as a political tool to achieve some other end.

On Wednesday evening, Chancellor Angela Merkel rushed to the New Synagogue in Berlin to grieve with the city’s Jewish community. Her sympathy, and the country’s, is sincere. For all its recent changes, Germany has not forgotten what happened here, and the additional horror that accompanies anti-Semitism in Germany.

Hopefully, this sympathy will last longer than the next few days and even lead to a new awareness: Germany’s Jews are increasingly a target of violence and aggression. Germany, of all countries, needs to protect them.