BERLIN – After a Berlin rabbi and his young daughter were assaulted, the
president of Germany’s Jewish community on Friday called on the country’s Muslim
associations to tackle anti-Semitism within their communities and urged Jews to
continue wearing kippot in public.
According to the Berlin police, four
young Arabs punched Rabbi Daniel Alter several times in the face on Tuesday
because he was Jewish and wearing a yarmulka, and threatened to kill his
six-year-old daughter. Doctors performed surgery on Alter’s fractured
cheekbone.
Dr. Dieter Graumann, head of the Central Council of Jews, told
the Berliner Zeitung on Friday, “I would be pleased if the [Muslim] associations
would finally deal decisively with anti-Semitism in their own
ranks.”
Observers of Germany’s response to Islamism have long argued that
the media and the political class often display a blind spot toward
Islamic-animated anti-Semitism among segments of the country’s more than four
million Muslims.
The Frankfurter Rundschau daily wrote regarding the
attack on Alter that rightwing extremists were mainly responsible for
anti-Semitism in the country. In response, US writer Sam Schulman wrote on his
Twitter microblog that “Germany lies to itself.”
Schulman tweeted that
his concerns were with authorities and media that deny the threats stemming from
Muslim communities in Germany.
A telling example, according to columns in
the B.Z. and Haaretz newspapers, that reinforces Schulman’s criticism was the
lack of politicians at a pro-Israel event held to criticize the calls for the
destruction of the State of Israel issued at a pro-Iranian regime rally in
Berlin last month. The pro- Iran rally attracted a mix of more than 1,000 German
Turks, Arabs and Iranians.
B.Z. and the Berliner Zeitung are different
newspapers.
According to the Berliner Zeitung, Aiman Mazyek, head of the
Central Council of Muslims, said in connection with the attack on Alter that
“such acts cause deep disgust.”
Responding to Mazyek, Graumann said,
“Words and sympathy are nice and meant to be honest, but deeds would also
count.”
In an interview with Alter, the B.Z. daily quoted him saying “I
do not know whether we can continue to walk on the streets of Berlin without
fear.”
The 53-year-old rabbi said one of the four Arab-looking youths who
attacked him first asked him, “Hey, are you a Jew?” Alter said the youths
threatened him and his daughter with such statements as, “I’ll f*** your
daughter... your wife and I’ll f***... your God.”
Alter said preachers of
hate were responsible for inciting the youths.
B.Z. wrote that Alter’s
wife, Hannah, and his two daughters were being treated by a child psychologist
in connection with the trauma of Tuesday’s attack.
Paul Hirschon, a
spokesman at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, called the attack a “brutal act
of racism,” adding that “we hope and believe that Germany will bring those
responsible to justice.”
He noted that Israel assumes that the German
state will implement the necessary measures to prevent “such an act of violence
from repeating itself.” An estimated 150,000 Jews live in
Germany.
Graumann and a prominent Berlin Orthodox rabbi, Yitzhak
Ehrenberg, rejected the call of a reform rabbi to not wear kippot in public and
for religious Jews to shield their identities. According to a Die Welt article
on Saturday, the Israeli-born Ehrenberg dismissed the statements of the
Potsdam-based rabbi, Walter Homolka, as “not good advice.” Ehrenberg explained
the importance of wearing a kippa and urged Jews not to make themselves
invisible in public.
The Central Council of Jews has had extremely tense
relations with Homolka – who converted to Judaism – over the years because of
his views on modern Jewry.
The assault on Alter has filled Berlin’s local
papers with coverage on anti-Semitism, and prompted a flash mob kippa march on
Saturday in the main shopping district. B.Z. titled its front page “Berlin wears
a kippa,” and 150 demonstrators appeared at the rally to protest the outbreak of
anti- Jewish violence. A mix of Jews and non-Jews sported kippot to express
their solidarity with the victims of Tuesday’s attack and make a statement
against anti-Semitism.