The leader of the Jewish Community in Berlin has called for solidarity from other residents following an attempted arson attack on a synagogue in the German capital on Wednesday.
“Eighty-five years after Kristallnacht, synagogues are to burn again in Germany’s capital.
“Anti-Jewish violence on the streets of Berlin has reached a new dimension,” Gideon Joffe, the chairman of the Jewish Community of Berlin, said referring to the 1938 pogrom organised by the Nazis.
He said security measures at Jewish institutions in Berlin and across Germany had rightly been increased and probably prevented worse violence.
“But Jews in our city, despite everything, no longer feel safe,” Joffe explained.
The rise in Islamist violence aimed at Jews is frightening, he said.
“Here it is now also up to civil society to show solidarity with the Jewish community,” Joffe said.