German synagogue attacked by arsonists
German synagogue attacked by arsonists
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
BERLIN – A synagogue in the city of Worms, in Rhineland-Palatinate state, was attacked by arsonists on Monday.
The vandals left a note linking their torching of the synagogue with the Israel-Palestinian conflict, the regional paper *Wiesbadener Kurier reported. German police found eight copies of a note written in “awkward” German, claiming responsibility for the blaze.
“So long as you do not give the Palestinians peace, we are not going to give you peace,” read the note.
Prosecutor Klaus-Peter Mieth said the authenticity of the note was still an open question.
Authorities said there was no serious damage to the synagogue.
Levi Salomon, who heads a task force combating anti-Semitism for the 12,000-member Berlin Jewish community, told The Jerusalem Post it could not be ruled out that German-Palestinians set the synagogue afire.
While there are no current statistics on the rise of Islamic anti-Semitism in Germany, Salomon said he had observed an increase in expressions of Muslim-based anti-Semitism. Observers said the attackers could be from the extreme Left, neo-Nazis or radical Islamists, because what unites these groups is their hatred of Israel.
Stella Schindler-Siegreich, the head of the Jewish community in Mainz, traveled to Worms and told the *Kurier, “We are a small minority in Germany and we have a such a history.”