The first rabbi to be ordained in Germany since the Holocaust is so worried about being identified as a Jew that he often wears a baseball hat over his Yarmulka.
“It’s a fact — it isn’t smart to display I’m Jewish. This is a problem and we have to face it,” German-born Daniel Alter, 47, told Reuters in an interview.
He is worried about neo-Nazi attacks and says anti-Semitism in Germany — still tortured by memories of the Holocaust in which Nazis wiped out 6 million Jews — puts the growth of Jewish communities here at risk.
As a Jew he feels unsafe in several German cities, not all in former communist east Germany where the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) has made electoral gains recently.
Alter, whose father survived Auschwitz concentration camp, dismissed talk in the German media of a possible blossoming of Jewish life in Germany.
Jewish schools, theatres and shops have sprung up but Germany’s Jewish communities will never compare to those in Britain or the United States, says Alter, who serves in the northern towns of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst.
“We are building something on the ruins, on the scars left behind but it’ll be something different,” he said.
“I don’t think there is any way to bring back the Jewish life and culture we had here. Ever.”
That Germany has about four times as many Jews as it did 15 years ago is due to immigrants from the former Soviet Union who account for most of the 105,000 registered Jews, he says.
The rabbi does not expect the number of Jews in Germany to rise much and says anti-Semitism is a factor.
“If anti-Semitism grows, people might leave,” he said.
The number of far-right offences in Germany, many of which were anti-Semitic, jumped 20 percent in the first eight months of 2006, according to the latest available police data.
Last year activists burnt Holocaust victim Anne Frank’s diaries and made a teenager wear a sign saying he was a Jew. Many Jewish establishments have police guards and a German all-Jewish football team suffers weekly abuse.
The latest figures prompted Chancellor Angela Merkel this weekend to condemn the rise in right-wing violence and urge Germans to fight it.
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9 Responses
Whats wrong with Yeshiva World News??? First an article about czech reform activist and now a german REFORM (“progresive”) rabbi from Abraham Geiger Seminary at the University of Potsdam? Whats next?
A google search will show you that this ‘rabbi’ is not orthodox. B”H there are many orthodox Rabbis in Germany who may not be trying to rebuild the pre-war assimilated yekkishe kehilos but who are bringing back yiddishkeit to Germany.
Rabbi Klein in Frankfurt covers his big black velvet kippah too but he does so with a large chassidic style hat.Anyway his white beard and long black coat would give away that he is a Jew and proud of it!
Yeshivaworld is aware of the facts at hand.
There are many Frum Yidden walking the streets in Germany proudly displaying their Yarmulkas.
YW
I met Rabbi Klein in a hotel in Switzerland. He is aNardvornaer Chusid, ofcourse he walks around in the garb, this guy is reform. How do you compare the two?
There are 18 Chabad houses in Germany, throughout 14 cities, including 2 yeshivas with 30 bochurim learning all day. Non of the above mentioned Rabbanim or talmidim wear baseball caps, yet one reform rabbi wears a cap and its a story?
LOL! Reb Moshe makes agood point!
What is the message here exactly????
hey give the “rabbi” a break – how many reform “rabbis” do you know that actually wear hats? most are afraid that the hat will ruin her hairstyle!
His “shops and theaters” may be the cause of the hatred the same way they did 70 years ago according to many gedolim.
What baseball team? is he rooting for..