In Erfurt, notes were set on fire in front of the New Synagogue on Sunday night. According to Thuringia’s State Chancellery, people expressed their solidarity with Israel in the letters. The police temporarily arrested two suspected drunk men from Libya, but they were released again. According to police, they were 22 and 25 years old. No one was injured and there was slight soot on the steps of the synagogue.
According to Thuringia’s Interior Minister Georg Maier (SPD), the two urgent suspects are asylum seekers from Libya. This suggests that it is a politically motivated crime. State security has become active. “One has to assume that the synagogue was targeted.”
If the suspicion was confirmed, Maier spoke out in favor of expelling the two men. “The constitutional state must now prove that it works.” Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (Left) said according to the statement: “This is not an administrative offense, this is not a prank by a stupid boy, red lines have clearly been crossed here.” Anyone who lays hands on synagogues or churches cannot claim protection for themselves because they are violating the protection rules for religious freedom in the constitution.
In Frankfurt, the insult to two men of Jewish faith sparked outrage. According to the police, the rabbi of the Jewish Community of Frankfurt and the member of the Jewish Community of Dortmund were in front of the entrance to a hotel on Saturday evening when the three suspects insulted them because of their religious affiliation. According to police, the two men were guests at the hotel as part of the council meeting of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. One of them was wearing a yarmulke at the time of the crime.
The police arrested the three suspects, some of whom were heavily intoxicated. They are American football fans who have traveled from Baden-Württemberg. The Jewish Community of Frankfurt announced that a criminal complaint had been filed and that it was hoped that criminal consequences would be drawn. “We know from historical experience that far too often words become careless actions.” Frankfurt’s mayor Mike Josef (SPD) said: “We are dismayed by the anti-Semitic incident and clearly condemn attacks on Jewish citizens in our city.”
In Berlin, a 37-year-old Israeli who was distributing Star of David stickers was attacked and threatened in front of a restaurant on Saturday. According to witnesses, he and a companion wanted to show solidarity with Israel, the police said. Accordingly, both filmed the action with a camera. However, the owner disliked the display of the stickers in the restaurant. He directed her onto the street and shouted, according to a police spokeswoman, “Not here!” A dispute developed in front of the shop. The employee attacked the 37-year-old Israeli. He is said to have hit the camera when it was switched on and, according to the speaker, shouted: “I’ll cut you open!”
According to the “Bild” newspaper, the person attacked was the Israeli filmmaker Gilad Sade. The paper quotes him as saying: “The man stormed towards me with a kebab knife.” He is currently in Germany to shoot a film. “I have never been attacked like this before. I am not afraid for myself, but for all Jewish people. And our entire society.”
Since the Islamist Hamas attack on Israel around five weeks ago, there have been a number of anti-Semitic incidents across the country: Israeli flags were torn down or front doors were daubed with a Star of David.
Bundestag President Bärbel Bas told “Bild am Sonntag”: “We as a society did not see anti-Semitism or did not want to see it – whether in the cultural scene, on the Internet or in everyday life.” Now anti-Semitism is spreading uncontrollably. “From the right, from the left, from immigrants. What’s going on on our streets and online really worries me.” All social groups need to unite against anti-Semitism.
The council chairwoman of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), Annette Kurschus, called on Christians to make more efforts in the fight against anti-Semitism. Jewish people should not have “the slightest doubt that they can count on the churches,” said the theologian on Sunday in Ulm. The church parliament, the so-called synod, meets there until Wednesday.
