Germany’s new antisemitism czar has said it is “understandable” that a wave of antisemitic incidents in the country might lead Jews to want to leave.
“It is quite understandable that those who are scared for the safety of their children would consider leaving Germany,” said Felix Klein, the government’s first-ever special envoy on Jewish life and combating antisemitism, according to the Guardian newspaper.
“I hear this from my own Jewish friends,” he added. “But we must do everything to avoid that.”
The Jewish community in Germany has complained of a rising tide of antisemitic attacks and harassment, and the issue was highlighted earlier this month when a video surfaced of a young Syrian asylum seeker in Germany assaulting an Israeli Arab man who had decided to wear a kippah to gauge responses on Berlin streets.
The footage led the head of the umbrella organisation of German Jews, the Central Council of Jews in Germany, to warn that Jewish men should avoid wearing kippot in public.
At his first meeting with journalists over the weekend, the newly appointed Klein, who is not Jewish, announced plans for a registry of attacks on the Jewish community.
