You son of a beep.
You filthy Jew,
I’m getting these kinds of messages
by the dozen
every day since October 7th.
I don’t wear my
Star of David anymore.
Thank god that my parents
didn’t have to live to see what’s
happening in this country.
Hostilities, attacks and
blatant antisemitism:
how are Jews in Germany
dealing with the hatred?
The Jewish community in Magdeburg
doesn't hide behind closed doors.
It practices its faith openly.
Today, the congregation’s
Torah scrolls are moving to the
newly-built synagogue
in the center of the city.
State Rabbi Daniel Fabian wishes
for a day of joy and celebration.
But is such a thing possible,
so soon after the terrorist attack
on October 7?
Of course, there are mixed feelings,
but at the same time, and
this is a message that we’ve heard
so many times from people living
in Israel: keep living life.
Jewish life must never stop,
it must always go on.
So, the opening ceremony of
a new synagogue is a good sign,
because it shows that
the Jewish life continues on.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas,
considered a terrorist organization
by the US and the EU among others,
attacked Israel and killed
more than a thousand people,
taking hundreds more hostage.
In response, the Israeli army
launched a massive attack on
the Gaza Strip, which has killed
tens of thousands of Palestinians.
After October 7, German politicians
and citizens have shown solidarity
with the state of Israel and Jewish people
around the world.
Hundreds of thousands have
taken to the streets with
various aims: for a ceasefire,
for a return of the hostages,
in solidarity with
Jews and with Palestinians,
for an end to what some observers call
a genocide in Gaza.
At the same time, antisemitic
and racist incidents against many
minority groups
appear to be on the rise.
At Berlin universities, tensions
are running particularly high:
demonstrations take place regularly.
In December, pro-Palestinian activists
occupied a lecture hall.
This Jewish-Israeli student says
that institutions are failing to
provide space for a diversity
of Jewish opinions and exchange.
Our voices are being massively
suppressed, excluded, marginalized,
and we are afraid to study here.
They don’t protect us from racist attacks
from racist students who
are also here.
Ruben, Leni and Monty
are Jewish and live in Berlin.
Even before October 7,
they didn’t feel completely safe,
with security controls and barriers
in front of Jewish institutions
long having been part of
their everyday life.
But now, the hostility
has reached a new level.
I know that many Jewish people
have started asking themselves
questions like:
Should I hide away
this branded pen from
some association or other,
or this water bottle with a logo,
the sticker on my laptop,
my bag, things like that.
It's terrible that we have
to deal with such questions.
I don’t wear a necklace
with the Star of David anymore.
Nevertheless, it's important
for the three of them
that one can and must
be allowed to criticize Israel,
especially in these times.
It's not antisemitism when you
describe the current conditions in
the Gaza Strip.
It's not antisemitism to
address the fact that
the actions of the Israeli army
have resulted in enormous
numbers of casualties.
But for them, some actions
can go beyond legitimate criticism.
I would say that criticism of fictional
or real misconduct by
the Israeli government can always be used
by anti-Semites to act on
their hatred of Jewish life
and Jewish people.
You can see it at demonstrations or
such, where things are projected
onto Israel to justify
openly expressing antisemitism.
Ruben points out that the
hatred against Jews in Germany
didn’t just disappear when the
Nazi dictatorship came to an end,
and that Germany hasn’t
adequately come to terms with
the crimes of the Holocaust.
Antisemitism is an
integral part of German society.
This supposed reset after 1945
didn’t really happen.
There was, there is,
and probably always will
be antisemitic violence.
And we know from social research
that around 20 to 25 percent of
Germans have at least internalized
these antisemitic stereotypes.
A wake-up call for many:
the recent revelation of a secret meeting
of right-wing extremists in
November, including members of
center-right CDU and far-right AfD,
the main opposition parties
represented in parliament.
Attendees discussed a plan for
large-scale expulsions of millions
of immigrants and German citizens
with foreign backgrounds.
Are Jews here afraid
that the atmosphere in Germany
might take a turn for the worse,
forcing them to leave the country?
I would like to stay as long as possible
and try to work together,
because even if it would come to that,
not everyone will be
able to leave.
People talk about
going to New Zealand.
But are we just
all going to emigrate?
Or, and that’s my hope and
what I’m fighting for,
Jewish life in
Germany will carry on.
I want to be a part of that.
Back in Magdeburg,
at the synagogue where the Torah
scrolls are currently housed.
The community building
has been in desperate need of
renovation for decades.
Young and old attend
the celebrations on this important day.
Yes, we can just open it
a little bit like this.
But we're only allowed to
take them out during services.
The Torah typically consists
of the five books of Moses.
A sacred text for
every Jewish congregation.
This is written on
parchment, not paper.
It’s a real parchment
colored with ink.
Despite the political atmosphere,
the congregation doesn't want to
cancel the big procession
into the new synagogue.
The police have been notified.
The ceremony is called
the Hachnasat Sefer Torah.
The Torah is placed under a sort of
canopy that is usually intended
for a wedding.
Here it's as if the congregation
and the Torah scroll are now being
married to the new synagogue,
so to speak.
With that the wedding procession
begins to move through
the streets of Magdeburg.
The old synagogue was destroyed
by the Nazis in the 1938 November
pogroms that destroyed
Jewish properties all over Germany.
Now 85 years later,
its long-overdue reopening
has arrived.
The members of the congregation
are happy to see that many
non-Jewish Magdeburgers
have come to
participate in the celebration.
For me it’s important
that the synagogue is back in the
center of the city.
It was something special,
and I was really happy
to see such a sparkle
in the eyes of the members
of the Jewish community.
How can Jewish life
thrive in Germany?
Maybe with the type of solidarity
in action shown in Magdeburg,
and through political discourse,
like here at a Berlin meeting of
Germany’s Central Council of Jews.
The association represents
almost half of the country’s
around 200,000 Jews.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock
has been invited to
give a speech.
Antisemitism has
no place in our country.
That’s why it’s so important to me
to talk about how we can make
Jewish life more visible.
Sounds good.
Is German society
ready for that though?
How are we supposed to make Jewish life
visible when Jews get messages
like this through social media?
I will bleep your kids and
your wife you son of a bleep.
I hope someone does this to your
filthy bleep children what your
bleep Zionist state is doing to
the children in Palestine, or even
worse, you filthy Jew.
I’m getting these kinds of messages
by the dozen every day since
October 7th, because I’m publicly
recognizable as a Jewish person
on social media.
When that’s the state of affairs in
this country, visible Jewish life
seems like wishful thinking.
I've been wearing a kippah
everywhere I go in my daily life
ever since I was a teenager.
But now, after October 7th,
it’s the first time in my life
that’s not possible.
For many, it echoes the early days
of Nazi rule, when Jews were
gradually being pushed out
of public life.
In Frankfurt am Main we visit
Makkabi, a Jewish sports club
founded long before the Nazi era,
at the end of the 19th century.
But even back then Jews were
excluded from German sports clubs.
Club president Motti Tichauer was
born in Israel but came to Germany
with his parents as a child.
My grandparents were gassed in
Auschwitz and here I am witnessing
what’s happening in 2023, feeling like
I´m stuck in some sort of a bad
movie, where you have to look on
as Jews continue to suffer.
I’m at a loss for words.
It deeply saddens me.
Thank god that my parents
didn’t have to live to see what’s
happening in this country.
Here, too, they have the impression
that deep-seated antisemitism is
surfacing through criticism,
and sometimes hatred of Israel.
With Jews once more
being used as scapegoats.
Do people really think that if
the problem of Israel is solved and
Israel would just disappear
tomorrow, do people then really
think that humanity
will be on a better path?
Tichauer has experienced
antisemitism for decades without
ever wanting to hide.
But that takes a lot of strength.
Of course, you don't want to
be confronted with antisemitism.
It hurts, so you try to avoid it
by withdrawing into your shell and
avoiding the public.
Anything but that, is the message
sent by the Jewish community of
Magdeburg as it
celebrates its new synagogue.
It might look like the entrance to
a high-security prison, but it will
remain open and visible.
We’re using these premises.
It's in the center of the city.
We hope that metaphorically it will
also become the heart of the city,
that is our biggest wish.