The head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany accused the judiciary of making allowances for anti-Semitic crimes. He also said he would be hard-pressed to find a European nation where Jews are safer than in Germany.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/H. Schmidt
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Judges in Germany give the impression of not taking anti-Semitism seriously, the foremost leader of the nation's Jewish community claimed in an interview published Friday.
President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany Josef Schuster said he saw "very significant shortcomings" in the way judges approached anti-Semitic crime.
In an interview with the website of newsmagazine Der Spiegel, Schuster said judges seemed "to look for reasons to give lighter sentences" when it came to anti-Semitic acts. This, he said, "opened the door to anti-Semitism."
Right-wing extremists had shown in the past year that they were prepared to kill, Schuster said. He cited the recent gun attack on a synagogue in the eastern German city of Halle, in which the perpetrator killed two people.
Schuster also addressed the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), saying that the party had shifted the red lines of what was acceptable to say, causing minorities to feel unsafe. "From words come deeds," Schuster said.
Attacks on synagogues in Germany
The attempted attack on a synagogue in Halle is not the first in recent years. Even after the horrors of the Nazi era, anti-Semitic incidents occur in Germany — on individuals, memorials and Jewish places of worship.
Image: Imago Images/S. Schellhorn
Cologne, 1959: Swastikas and hate speech
In December 1959, two members of the Deutsche Reichspartei (DRP) right-wing extremist party painted swastikas and the words "Germans demand: Jews out" on the synagogue in Cologne. Anti-Semitic graffiti emerged across the country. The perpetrators were convicted, and the Bundestag passed a law against "incitement of the people," which remains on the books to this day.
Image: picture-alliance/Arco Images/Joko
Lübeck, 1994: First arson attack on a temple in decades
People across the world were horrified at the March 1994 attack on the synagogue in the northern city of Lübeck. For the first time in decades, a synagogue in Germany burned. Four right-wing extremists were eventually convicted of arson. The day after the fire, 4,000 locals took to the streets under the slogan "Lübeck holds its breath." In 1995, the same synagogue was hit by another arson attack.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Büttner
Essen, 2000: Stones hurled into Old Synagogue
Armed with paving stones, more than 100 Palestinians from Lebanon attacked the Old Synagogue in Essen in October 2000. The incident occurred after a demonstration against "violence in the Middle East." A police officer was injured. Mahmud Alaeddin, deputy head of the general delegation of Palestine in Germany, distanced himself from the attack.
Image: picture-alliance/B. Boensch
Düsseldorf, 2000: Arson and stones
A 19-year-old Palestinian and a 20-year-old Moroccan damaged Düsseldorf's New Synagogue with incendiary devices and rocks in October 2000 as "revenge" against Jews and the state of Israel. "We need the respectable people to rebel" against anti-Semitism, then-German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder demanded. The federal and state governments and various NGOs launched campaigns to counter extremism.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Weihrauch
Mainz, 2010: Molotov cocktail attack shortly after inauguration
Shortly after being inaugurated in September 2010, an arson attack hit the New Synagogue in Mainz during the night of October 30. The spectacular Deconstructivist building by architect Manuel Herz was erected on the site of the former main synagogue that was set on fire during the Kristallnacht, the Nazis' national night of pogroms, in 1938.
Image: picture-alliance/akg/Bildarchiv Steffens
Wuppertal, 2014: Incendiary devices
In July 2014, three young Palestinians hurled incendiary devices at the front door of the synagogue in Wuppertal. In a highly controversial decision, the court ruled there was "no evidence whatsoever" of anti-Semitic motives. Jews in Germany and the foreign media were outraged. The chairman of the Jewish Community Wuppertal declared the ruling as "an invitation to further crimes."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Seidel
Berlin, 2019: Knife-wielding attacker
A man wielding a knife climbed over a barrier at Berlin's New Synagogue on the eve of Shabbat on October 4, 2019, during the holy period between the holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Security personnel overwhelmed the attacker, whose motive remained unclear. Police released him afterwards, a decision Jewish leaders called "a failure" of justice.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Avers
Halle, 2019: Shooter attempts mass murder on Yom Kippur
About 80 people were in the synagogue on Wednesday afternoon to observe Yom Kippur, the Jewish calendar's holiest day. The alleged attacker reportedly attempted to shoot his way into the synagogue but was prevented by a safety door. Two passersby were shot to death and two were injured. The suspect, who has a history of right-wing extremist, anti-Semitic, and misogynist rhetoric, was detained.
Image: Imago Images/S. Schellhorn
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However, Schuster said, Germany generally felt safe even after the Halle attack. "I would be hard-pushed to find a European country where one can feel safer as a Jew than in Germany," he said.
The Jewish leader also welcomed plans to recognize anti-Semitic motives in Germany's criminal code, something that would pave the way for tougher sentences. German Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht last month told parliament that anti-Semitism would be made an aggravating factor for hate crimes.
A survey by the European Union's Fundamental Rights Agency in late 2018 showed that Jews in Germany feel subject to more hostility than in other EU countries.
From the respondents in Germany, 41% said they'd been the victim of some sort of anti-Semitic harassment in the past year, while the EU average was 28%.
The survey also found that three-quarters of Jews in Germany did not wear any Jewish symbols, such as a yarmulke, in public.
