Offenbach / Frankfurt (dpa / lhe) – After another attack against the Offenbach Rabbi Mendel Gurewitz, the Orthodox Rabbinical Conference expressed its solidarity with the clergy and praised the moral courage of witnesses to the incident on New Year’s Day. “Every attack on Jewish life, be it verbal, physical or fatal, is always a shock for the Jews living here in Germany,” said Frankfurt Rabbi Avichai Apel from the board of the Orthodox Rabbinical Conference. “What makes us happy despite this sad occasion: the citizens of Offenbach have shown moral courage and loudly put the attacker in his place.”
The Offenbach rabbi was on his way home from the synagogue with his children on New Year’s Day when he was insulted by a 46-year-old man with anti-Semitic slogans. Several witnesses called the police, who temporarily arrested the man. According to a police spokesman, an investigation was initiated against the drunk man, among other things for sedition, insult and use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations.
Gurewitz had already received anti-Semitic insults and attacks several times in the past. A police spokesman said a meeting with the clergyman was planned. It is probably not just about his testimony, but also about security issues.
Gurewitz himself called the incident a “traumatic” experience in a Facebook post. The reaction of the neighbors and residents was overwhelming: “From every window people intervened, shouted at the aggressor, defended us, informed the police. Some left their houses and followed him on foot or by car. (… ) It was a sudden explosion of love and support. “
“The act in Offenbach shows that Jews cannot openly show their faith in public without worrying about their own integrity,” said the Hessian anti-Semitism commissioner Uwe Becker in a statement published on Tuesday. 76 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, this is “a bad testimony to the state of our society in our country, as in Europe as a whole”. However, the people in Offenbach had shown “that they protect their Jewish neighbors and do not just let hatred of Jews happen. This is an important sign that each and every one of us can do something against anti-Semitism.” The reaction of Offenbach’s citizens is encouraging, said Becker.
“This is an important signal not only for Rabbi Gurewitz, but for all Jews in this country,” said Meron Mendel, director of the Anne Frank educational facility in Frankfurt, about the behavior of the Offenbach neighbors. “I hope that in future such reactions will no longer be an exception, but will become the norm.”
The Mainz Bishop Peter Kohlgraf reacted to the incident. “We must not get used to anti-Semitic attitudes and incidents of this kind,” he emphasized.
After an increase in anti-Semitic and right-wing extremist attacks and hate messages on the Internet had been recorded in recent years, a “digital escalation” was noticeable last year, said a spokesman for the European Rabbinical Conference. In connection with corona demonstrations, crude conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic slogans had come about. “That left its mark on the Jews here in Germany, in Europe and around the world.”
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