Synagogues ‘hire armed guards’ as anti-Semitic mood grasps Germany
A surge of anti-Semitism in Europe, sparked by Israel’s 50-day war in Gaza, has forced synagogues across Germany to place armed guards at its doorsteps ahead of Yom Kippur celebrations, according to media reports.
Yom Kippur – or Day of Atonement – is the holiest day of the year
on the Jewish calendar. This year it is celebrated from sunset on
October 3 until nightfall on October 6.
However, German Jews are finding it difficult to get into the
festive spirit, following anti-war rallies this summer which
brought back memories of the Nazi area. Chants such as “Jew, Jew!
Cowardly pig,” could be heard at the demonstrations.
“We haven't had this dimension at all before," Deiter
Graumann, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany,
told CBS News. “When you imagine in German streets, people
here chanting – a roaring mob chanting – Jews to be gassed, to be
slaughtered, to be burned.”
Following the demonstrations, German Chancellor Angela Merkel
announced that every Jewish institution would be protected by
police.
“Anyone who hits someone wearing a skullcap is hitting us all.
Anyone who damages a Jewish gravestone is disgracing our culture.
Anyone who attacks a synagogue is attacking the foundations of
our free society,” Merkel said during a speech at a
pro-Jewish rally in September, as quoted by Time magazine.
“That people in Germany are threatened and abused because of
their Jewish appearance or their support for Israel is an
outrageous scandal that we will not accept,” she added.
In July, petrol bombs were thrown at a synagogue in Wuppertal and
a man wearing a yarmulke was beaten in the streets of the German
capital of Berlin.
Security fears also forced football authorities to cancel a
friendly match between Germany and Israel to mark 50 years of
diplomatic ties.
However, Graumann believes the war in Gaza wasn’t the cause of
the rise of anti-Semitism, stating that it was only a
“pretext” to release the mood that already existed in
German society.
“It is cited as a reason for that, but I don't think it's a
reason,” he stressed. “It's an occasion to let it
out."
Israel launched a 50-day military operation in the densely
populated Gaza area this summer, which saw over 2,100
Palestinians – mainly civilians – killed and some 18,000 homes
destroyed.
Meanwhile, anti-Semitic rhetoric is now coming not only from
Muslims – especially those who recently arrived in the country –
but ethnic Germans as well.
Monika Schwartz Friesel of Berlin's Technical University made
this discovery after studying thousands of anti-Semitic emails
received by German-Jewish institutions.
"We saw that more than 60 percent of the writers, who clearly
evoke anti-Semitic stereotypes, come from the middle of society
and many of them are highly educated," she told CBS News.
Germany’s 200,000-strong population of Jews is “worried” by the
recent developments, Graumann said.
“And many Jews here ask the question: 'Has our Jewish
population a future in Germany?' I haven't heard that question
for many, many years,” he stressed.
The Jewish population in Germany was reduced from over 500,000 to
just 30,000 following the Holocaust masterminded by the Nazis,
who came to power in the country in 1933 and were overthrown in
WWII.
