Jewish Leaders in Germany: It’s Not Safe for Us Here Anymore

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Hamburg Jewish community representative Daniel Killy says it’s not safe for Jews in Germany and they feel in peril now. There have been more and more expressions of anti-Semitism in the country.

“No, it’s not safe for us here anymore,” Killy told reporters in Hamburg Tuesday. “There is a feeling of the disintegration of government in the German state, right-wing extremism is increasing, the government has lost confidence. People are afraid of Islamization. This entire recent situation has contributed to the insecurity of Jews.” The Hamburg Jewish community consists of about 2,500 people.

Germany has taken in more than one million refugees from Muslim countries. Jewish leaders there have warned of growing anti-Semitism as a result of the influx of people from countries where hatred of Jews and Israel is the status quo. In a comprehensive article on taggeschau.de Patrick Gensing, an expert on extremist ideologies, wrote anti-Semitic sentiments take on a variety of forms in Germany. The author based his piece on surveys conducted on “historical defensive Holocaust guilt” and discussed fanatical criticism of Israel, National Socialist racism and Muslim and Christian anti-Semitism.

On Monday a German district court issued a verdict against three Muslim men. The German media haven’t published their surnames in order to protect the privacy of the terrorists and the victims, but refer to them as Ismael A., 29; Mohammed E., 25 and Jamil A. 19. Two of the men are from the West Bank and the other is from the Gaza Strip. The details of their sentencing haven’t been released.

An article in Der Spiegel on Monday reported on the insecurity felt by the 2,000 Jewish residents of Wuppertal. Wuppertal Jewish community head Leonie Goldberg said: “I had thought the time had passed to pack our bags. Now I’m thinking the time has again come to pack our bags.

About 200 Jews left Germany to move to Israel in 2015. The figure is considered quite high because German Jews are mostly elderly people.