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April 5, 2002/Nisan 23, 5762, Vol. 54, No. 29
Attacks shock German Jews
TOBY AXELROD
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
BERLIN - German Jewish leaders have been shaken by an attack on two visiting American rabbis and the vandalism of a Holocaust memorial here.
The incidents come on the heels of a string of violent attacks on synagogues and other Jewish venues in Belgium and France.
The Berlin attack, which occurred on the night of March 31, came after German officials said they would increase security at Jewish sites following the Belgian and French attacks, and following pressure from German Jewish leaders - though no steps to increase security have been taken yet.
To extend Middle East violence "to include all Jews shows the true, grotesque face of fanatical Islamists, who ultimately want to dump Israel in the sea and see Judaism as public enemy No. 1," said Michel Friedman, vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
There has been an increase in anti-Semitic attacks here during the past year and a half, but nothing comparable to the surge that has shocked the Jewish community of France.
The latest incident may have been a wake-up call. Berlin Inforadio reported April 2 that two young Orthodox rabbis visiting from the United States were attacked by a group of young men on the city's main shopping street the night of March 30.
One of the men was beaten and kicked so badly that he had to be brought in an ambulance to the hospital, where he was treated for injuries to his face.
The Berlin community and the Central Council responded with shock that such an attack could take place in Germany's capital.
The previous day, a Jewish Holocaust memorial in Berlin was vandalized. Police reported that their patrols found swastikas painted on the memorial shortly after midnight.
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