When I was a student, a contemporary witness from my hometown of Bad Urach came to our school. She told us how she tried to remain decent during the Nazi era. At that time she was faced with the decision of joining the NSDAP or losing her job. She raised her children alone and still did not join the party. Later I visited her at home regularly. Through conversations with her, I understood and internalized that “Never again” is – and must be – part of our identity.
After the Hamas terrorist attack, Chancellor Scholz reaffirmed that we have a special responsibility for Israel’s security and right to exist. This responsibility also means that the state and we as citizens do everything necessary to ensure the safety of Jews in Germany. But are we living up to this responsibility? Will we do justice to it tomorrow and the day after when there are no more contemporary witnesses?
Since the terrorist attack on Israel, in which hundreds of people, including babies and small children, were brutally and bestially murdered by Hamas, the situation for Jewish Germans has become massively worse. House doors are daubed with the Star of David, attacks are carried out on synagogues, Israeli flags are burned, Jewish kindergarten children and students stay at home. One would think that pro-Palestinian activists in Germany should also be able to draw a clear line in the face of the Hamas massacre. The opposite is all too often the case.
But what follows from this? One thing would be particularly important: the selective view of the reality of anti-Semitism should finally be a thing of the past. When anti-Semitism comes from the left, it is often said that it is not anti-Semitism, but an anti-colonial liberation struggle. It is disturbing how some on the left fail to show humanity – or even recognize that it is terrorism – especially in the face of Hamas’s terror. When anti-Semitism comes from Muslims, it is said that it has nothing to do with Islam, although studies show that it is not a fringe phenomenon among Muslims and that Islamic associations do not always operate on the basis of the Basic Law. Muslims and associations that do not want to have anything to do with anti-Semitism also suffer from this. And from the right, fingers all too quickly point to the left or to the Muslims.
The conservatives in Germany like to focus exclusively on “immigrant anti-Semitism”. It should be clear to them in particular that “firewall” does not mean that the confrontation with right-wing extremist anti-Semitism is over.
There is no less serious anti-Semitism. It is dishonest and does not serve the safety of Jews to pit one anti-Semitism against the other – this applies to political actors and parties on the left and right of center. We cannot afford these tiring rituals. There are challenges where the enemy is outside the democratic spectrum and political competitors within the democratic spectrum should be allies. The fight against anti-Semitism needs exactly this alliance – not only as a signal to the political fringes, but also to the center of society, where anti-Semitic attitudes are less often openly expressed, but still penetrate.
At the same time – and we cannot avoid this differentiation if we want to be honest – it must not happen that people of Arab origin in Germany are pushed into a corner in which they have to justify themselves simply because of their origins. One can also point out the suffering of the Palestinians or criticize Israel, as many in democratic Israel itself do – and at the same time unequivocally recognize Israel’s right to exist or distinguish between the government of Israel and Jews.
If we say that anti-Semitism must have no place in our society, then we must follow up with action. There is debate among lawyers as to whether new laws are needed to prosecute anti-Semitic crimes, whether existing ones need to be clarified or whether their application is sufficient. In any case, the police, public prosecutors and courts must be equipped accordingly. If slogans are chanted in Arabic at demonstrations, security authorities should be able to translate them and, if necessary, prosecute them. If the limits of freedom of expression are exceeded into incitement and incitement to hatred and violence, this must be brought to justice and made public. In the consistency of the state there is a message that is understood, in the inconsistency there is one that is exploited.
When neo-Nazis declared so-called “nationally liberated zones,” it was always clear: This was unacceptable and the state had to act. We cannot be indifferent to the fact that Sonnenallee in Berlin-Neukölln has de facto become an unsafe, actual no-go area for people who openly identify as Jews. People who think differently, believe differently, simply people who believe in the values of this country cannot feel safe there. We have to ask ourselves critically whether everything that we take for granted when dealing with right-wing extremists also applies if it has to be used against people with a migration background as soon as the threat comes from them. We have to admit that victims can also be perpetrators. Apparently some people don’t have the ability to imagine that the same person can’t get a job today because of their background – and tomorrow they’ll shout anti-Semitic slogans on the street. We must not close our eyes here. Here too, the following applies: the consistency of the state means a message that is understood, and the inconsistency means a message that is exploited.
This also means that it is not the Jewish child who has to change schools, but rather those who bully them and are anti-Semitic. Word needs to get out so other parents understand. At the same time, no child, regardless of origin, is born an anti-Semite, they are made that way. It is all the more important that we take the education of democracy seriously in our educational institutions and make our responsibility for the security of Israel and the protection of Jewish life unmistakably clear there. The federal, state and local governments are called upon to support schools and educators in this task. The call for more education must not become a ritual without consequences – it is about the foundation of values on which our country stands, about the question of who we want to be. Ideally, these values are conveyed together with the family, in an emergency also against an environment in which anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews have become normal. Every generation must re-educate people about democracy in order to protect Jewish life in Germany – tomorrow and the day after.
