Abraham Lehrer, Vice President of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, on Sunday told the Protestant Press Service that “the problem of immigrant Arab-Islamic anti-Semitism still lies ahead of us. Many of these people were influenced by regimes in which anti-Semitism is part of the rationale of the state and the Jewish state is denied the right to existence.”
Lehrer, who was interviewed ahead of the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, suggested that “when these people no longer think only of jobs and housing, this influence will have a greater bearing and people will express their opinions openly. In order to prevent this scenario, we need to tailor integration courses more closely to these people, preferably by country of origin.”
What’s needed, Lehrer believes, are more integration class hours than the German government already provides to recent refugees, “in which fundamental values such as democracy and the treatment of women in our society are taught intensively.”
Lehrer said German states should appoint anti-Semitism commissioners, to signal that they are concerned about the phenomenon of Jew hatred in Germany and are ready to devote their attention to it.
Lehrer said the AfD, while not openly anti-Semitic, is helping to produce anti-Semitic attitudes. He claimed that the AfD “at the very least creates a platform on which anti-Semitism can grow and manifest itself openly. In its draft party manifesto, for example, the party opposes circumcision and shechita,” he said.
Of course, half the parliaments across Western Europe are advocating the same prohibitions, which could only mean two things: German Jews should import their kosher meat from south America and go on bris junkets to Israel…
