On October 9th, 2019 a right-wing terrorist attempted to force their entry into a synagogue in Halle, Germany. The house of worship was full of Jewish congregants, including holocaust survivors, observing Yom Kippur. When the assailant failed to gain entry, he shot and killed two bystanders. 

“We are still shaken by the antisemitic terror attack in Halle yesterday,” said AJC Berlin Ramer Institute Acting Director Dr. Remko Leemhuis. “Our thoughts are with the victims’ family and friends and with the Jewish community of Halle. Above all, we think of those who were in the synagogue during the attack. We can only imagine what they went through with a terrorist at their door. We are grateful that not only Chancellor Angela Merkel, but people all around Germany, spontaneously expressed their solidarity with the Jewish community in Germany yesterday.”

“The oft stated ‘antisemitism has no place in Germany’ has unfortunately proven to be wrong,” continued Dr. Leemhuis. “Where ‘Jew’ is a common slur on schoolgrounds, where mainstream media fantasizes about Jewish conspiracies, where the obsession to criticize Israel prevails, where banning antisemitic terror organizations faces strong resistance, where the crimes of national socialism and Germany are downplayed in parliament, antisemitism has a place. This atmosphere is the breeding ground of antisemitic terror.”

“Federal and state governments must review their protection of Jewish institutions” urged Dr. Leemhuis. “It is incomprehensible that on the highest of Jewish holidays the synagogue in Halle had no police protection. The safety and lives of Jews in Germany cannot depend on the durability of an entrance doorway. Likewise, relevant laws must be re-examined. It is incomprehensible that someone who tries to enter a synagogue with a knife can be released after less than 24 hours, as was the case last weekend in Berlin.” 

“The times of abstract professions against antisemitism are over,” concluded the Acting Director of AJC Berlin. “Those who want to fight antisemitism must begin by calling it out from every direction and in every shade—not singling out perpetrators that fit their own political agenda. This means that Islamist, left, and right-wing antisemitism must all be identified and combatted.”