Many nicknames and adjectives have been thrown around to describe the new talk of the French town, Eric Zemmour, the French journalist turned presidential candidate: brilliant, knowledgeable, extremist, racist, far-right, provocateur, and, perhaps the most catchy: the "French Trump."

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But there's one adjective no one can deny: Jewish. Born to an Algerian Berber family that migrated to France in the 1950s, Zemmour was educated in Jewish schools and attended synagogue in Parisian suburbs. If his romantic interests – and gossip – are any indication, he's loyal to Jewish continuity. He has three children with his Jewish wife of Tunisian descent, Mylène Chichportich. And a French tabloid has reported that his Jewish mentee and advisor, Sarah Knafo, is pregnant with his "lovechild." (Zemmour has filed suit to block the story.)

But what remains up for debate is how much, if at all, his Jewish identity plays a role in his positions, popularity and electability among Jews and non-Jews alike.

Zemmour is most well-known – or notorious – as a critic of Islam, having earned his "far-right" epithets for not differentiating Islam from radical Islam. He calls for an end to immigration and the full integration of Muslims in France. He buys into the "Great Replacement" theory that predicts native Europeans will eventually be replaced by Muslim migrants and their descendants unless they are stopped.

His views on Islam resonate with the majority of French Jews, particularly the 70 percent hailing from the former French protectorates of North Africa: Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. French Jewry turned sharply to the right during the years of the Second Intifada in Israel from 2000 to 2005. Islamist attacks on individual Jews and businesses – like the murder of 23-year-old Ilan Halimi in 2006, the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket shooting in Paris in 2015, the murders of 65-year-old Sarah Halimi (no relation) in 2017 and 85-year-old Mireille Knoll in 2018 – created deep resentment and suspicion among Jews towards their Muslims counterparts.

Some suburbs of Paris and Marseilles with high populations of poor, immigrant families have deteriorated into no-go zones for Jews. Currently, about 500,000 Jews live in France. Tens of thousands of French Jews have left in recent years, many of them to Israel, ostensibly in response to growing anti-Semitism.

But it's not the Jewish side of Zemmour that spurs his critical stance on the Muslim populace. It's his proud French side. The general French populace, he argues, have been hurt by Islamic violence and a parallel Muslim society spiteful of the country in which they live.

His brand of patriotism is one that can be expected from Jews of Algerian descent. After receiving French citizenship by fiat in 1870, they overall embraced their French identity with fervor. The bloody Algerian War of 1954 to 1962 spurred them and other French loyalists to flee the Maghreb for the French mainland.

'A vestige of Napoleon-era Jews'

Shimon Samuels, director of the European branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, likens Zemmour to "Weimar Jews" – the assimilated Jewish-German patriots of the 1920s, among them decorated World War I veterans, who considered themselves "German citizens of Jewish heritage." Zemmour is also a vestige of Napoleon-era Jews who celebrated their liberation under the French revolution – as individuals, less as members of a community.

Zemmour prompts the French people to embrace the best of their historical and cultural heritage. He has called for the reinstatement of a Napoleon-era law that says French newborns cannot be given foreign names (with "Muhammed" being a main target). He has riled the established Jewish community for seeming to put French pride over Jewish-ethnic loyalty, even prompting the chief rabbi of France, Haïm Korsia, to label him "an anti-Semite."

Most controversially, in his bestselling books, Zemmour came to the mitigated defense of the French Vichy leader, Philippe Pétain, arguing that Pétain did his best, under the circumstances, to save French Jewry.

"Zemmour has made one crucial mistake in exonerating Pétain, the head of the Nazi collaborators of Vichy France, for deporting some 72,000 Jews to their deaths," said Samuels. "Even worse and spurious, Zemmour claims that only foreign Jewish migrants were deported. Now, this may win him some votes among the extreme right, but it's an anathema to the French."

Samuels would not categorize Zemmour as a self-hating Jew but welcomes the chief rabbi's criticism. Jews who tend to favor Zemmour, like local Parisian politician Philippe Karsenty, view his interpretation of Pétain as an attempt to be historically fair, however, misplaced.

Karsenty made international headlines when he exposed French media for wrongly reporting that the Israeli army shot and killed 12-year-old Muhammad al-Dura during the outbreak of the second intifada. He has known Zemmour for more than 20 years.

"According to what I know, he is a good person and a good Jew," said Karsenty, adding that Zemmour presented himself on French television 10 years ago as a "Jewish French person." "The Great Rabbi of France is a politician. He does politics and works for the establishment. To call him an 'antisemite' is absurd. The most important thing for the French Jewish establishment is not to rock the boat. And Zemmour's rocking the boat. He's talking about the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about: Islam, immigration, replacement."

Karsenty concedes that Zemmour made "inappropriate statements." This includes Zemmour's other controversial argument that people are loyal to the countries where they choose to bury their dead – one that Zemmour applied to the victims of the 2012 shooting at a Jewish school in Toulouse, who were buried in Israel, and to the terrorist, who was buried in Algeria.

"He called the grandfather of the kid and the rabbi, and apologized in a private conversation," said Karsenty. "The father said the incident is over."

'You have to go beyond partisanship'

Michael Amsellem, a Parisian ex-pat of Moroccan descent who made aliyah to Israel several years ago, believes Zemmour's positions on hot-button issues will draw the Sephardi Jewish vote. Ashkenazi Jews, on the other hand, generally fall in line with the Jewish establishment, represented by CRIF, the central council of Jews in France.

"At the end of the day, even if there are some rational, good reasons not to vote for him, my strong belief is that North African Jews – because of the ethnic connection with Zemmour and the ideas that are critical of Islam, and his pushing for a France that would be more French – I think many will vote for him. They may not be proud to vote for him, but they will vote for him," said Amsellem.

Amsellem is himself unsure if he'll vote for Zemmour via absentee ballot in Israel. He's not, however, deterred by the CRIF's criticisms of Zemmour, likening its behavior to that of "court Jews."

"When you're a Jewish organization, you have to go beyond partisanship," said Amsellem.

Although Zemmour is not classically pro-Israel, Amsellem predicts he will secure the absentee vote of the Zionist-minded French-Israeli.

"He doesn't care about Israel officially, at least in public," said Amsellem. "But about 'Palestine' – he says Palestinians have lost so, there won't be any Palestinian state. Just for this, Jews who lean with Israel would vote for him."

Zemmour would also recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

"Which he said was obvious to him," said Karsenty. "All this makes him the most pro-Israel French politician."

What most appeals to his voters of all religious persuasions is that he, like the American president to which he is often compared, defies political correctness, but with his trademark eloquence and wit.

"The guy has a perfect diagnosis of the situation," said Karsenty.

Karsenty sees definite resemblances of Zemmour to Trump – not only in their desire to make their respective countries "great again" but in treatment by mainstream media.

"Think about Donald Trump, but 10 times worse," said Karsenty. "Media interviews with him are more like interrogations."

Zemmour's campaign rally on Dec. 5, where he introduced his "Reconquest" political party to some 12,000 supporters, was marred by a brawl that saw injury to his wrist. He is often stalked by France's equivalent of far-left "Antifa" activists as a means, Karsenty believes, to make him toxic.

So does he have a chance to win?

While in October he shot up to second place in the polls behind President Emmanuel Macron, he has since fallen back, and he's now edging the traditional right-wing candidate, Marie Le Pen, and the head of the center-right Republican party, Valérie Pécresse, at around 15 points. To take on Macron on April 24, he'd have to overtake the right/conservative flank in the first election round on April 10. Amsellem thinks he may have what it takes to do just that.

"The fact that he's a Jew means he can say things that if they were said by simple French rightist, it wouldn't be kosher," said Amsellem. "But if he's a Jew, he can't be criticized the same way. … He succeeded in speaking to the pride of the popular classes and also to the elitist right because he's very intelligent."

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Karsenty thinks Zemmour would have to galvanize massive public support to overcome negative media coverage.

"If he goes to the second round against Macron, you'd have huge demonstrations and people claiming the fight is against Nazism, which is completely ridiculous," said Karsenty.

Samuels doubts that he'll advance to the second round but fears his party will remain a political force. "Zemmour's not going to win the presidency, but he may win at the local and regional level, and that will be very bad."

But as intense are his haters, so are his French lovers.

Said Amsellem: "I say there's never been so much enthusiasm for a Jew in France since Jesus."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Germany's "traffic light" government, led by new Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), was sworn in on Wednesday under the banner "dare to make progress." Jewish leaders, activists and analysts, however, fear that the coalition will make less progress in strengthening Israel-German ties.

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The 177-page coalition agreement of the "traffic light" government, named after the colors of the three coalition partners—the red Social Democrats, the Green Party and the yellow Free Democratic Party (FDP)—focuses on promoting climate protection and financial restructuring. It also includes sections on policies relating to Jews and Israel that some say are inconsistent with its oft-repeated proclamations to support Israel and fight anti-Semitism. These include an insistence on negotiating with Iran in its quest for nuclear armament, disdain of Israeli settlements and approval of funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

"It's quite interesting that a German government that has very important Green Party elements is actually not opposing itself on any nuclearization of Iran," said Eldad Beck, an analyst of German politics for the Israeli daily Israel Hayom and author of a Hebrew biography of longtime former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "They're actually saying Germany shouldn't be nuclear, and they're closing down civil nuclear facilities but Iran can have it as it wishes. What is the essence of this contradiction?"

The government has named Annalena Baerbock of the Green Party as foreign minister—the first woman to hold such a position, replacing the SDP's Heiko Maas, who faced criticism from the pro-Israel camp for seeking to work around the Trump administration's sanctions on Iran, among other Iran-appeasement measures. Baerbock has talked back her 2018 criticism of submarine sales to Israel and has expressed support for Israel's right to defend itself during the 11-day conflict with Hamas in May.

"It's really too early to say," Beck said of her approach to Israel in her new capacity.

But if the appointment of Claudia Roth, also of the Green Party, as culture commissioner is any indication, the government will entertain a less friendly orientation to Israel.

"We now have a culture minister who is a close friend of the Iranians and who has bowed her head wearing a headscarf in front of the mullah regime, in addition to being a supporter of the cultural boycotters of Israel," said Sacha Stawski, head of the pro-Israel watchdog group Honestly Concerned.

The coalition is marked by subtle yet peculiar differences from previous agreements. While Merkel's famous proclamation of Israel's security being Germany's "reason of state" is included, Israel is not characterized as a "Jewish state." While previous governments called for the predictive two-state solution, this agreement modified the formulation to include one based on "1967 borders," often considered by the pro-Israel camp to be erroneous lingo that delegitimizes Israel's presence beyond the historical 1949 armistice line.

"If you start off from a point where you speak of inexistent borders, where you automatically speak of the settlements as being 'in violation of international law,' you're setting the wrong precedent," said Stawski.

'I'm not expecting miracles'

FDP voter and pro-Israel activist Malca Goldstein-Wolf is likewise disappointed. "These German politicians of the 'traffic light' have obviously not understood that Jewish settlement construction is none of their business, especially since it has by no means been proven that it is actually illegal under international law," she said.

In 2018, Germany pledged to fill in the gap for the funding of UNRWA after the Trump administration pulled funding in recognition of its flaws; UNRWA has been widely accused of promoting anti-Israel-style anti-Semitism, with school textbooks for children under its auspices laden with anti-Jewish references and incitement. The coalition agreement backs more transparency of UNRWA but does not make funding conditional upon it.

"Absolutely not good enough," stated Stawski.

At present, the only German party whose leaders openly question the establishment of a Palestinian state is the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has garnered enthusiastic support among its Jewish faction but the vocal disdain of the Jewish establishment, which says its leaders stoke the flames of right-wing anti-Semitism with expressions minimizing the Holocaust.

Goldstein-Wolf voted for the FDP as the best pro-Israel alternative, and she credits the pro-business party for the part of the agreement calling on the German government to fight U.N. bias against Israel.

"I'm firmly counting on them to have a pro-Israeli influence on policy decisions, but I'm not expecting miracles," she said.

Rafael Korenzecher, the publisher of the independent German-Jewish monthly Judische Rundschau, who led German-Jewish opposition against Merkel, characterized her successor government through a joke about a Jewish thief could only be given a Jewish burial if something good could be said about him. The eulogizer said: "To his sons, he was a righteous man."

While the general Jewish community considered Merkel and her Christian Democratic Union Party as the most amenable to addressing concerns of pro-Israel Jews in Germany, she had, in large part, alienated some pro-Israel Jews with her government's Muslim immigration policies, diplomacy with Iran and funding of NGOs with alleged ties to terrorism or the BDS movement.

Korenzecher is particularly worried about Scholz, who dodged allegations of corruption while serving as finance minister under Merkel. While Scholz, who also served as vice-chancellor as part of the grand CDU-SPD coalition, expressed support for Israel in a May rally organized around the Gaza conflict, Korenzecher suspects his true sympathies lie with the party's left-wing radicals, given his friendly ties to East German leaders when he was an aspiring politician.

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He believes that the FDP has betrayed its voters by enabling a left-leaning government and doubts it will have any influence on foreign policy. Its head, Christian Lindner, was given the coveted position of finance minister.

"Now we have a red-green government, which has helped come to life by the FDP, but the FDP will be diminished and dissolved in this composition," said Korenzecher.

He doesn't have much hope for the progress of Jewish life in Germany, saying with a bit of sarcasm: "German voters always had a feeling for the wrong vote."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Jews in Germany wishing to attend synagogue over the High Holidays will need to abide by the government's "3G" policy that came into effect in late August: Geimpft, genesen, getestet – "vaccinated, recovered, tested."

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As Germany's version of the Israeli "green pass" system, "3G" allows individuals to take part in public events and activities, such as celebrations and indoor restaurant dining, only if one of the three conditions is met.

Each of Germany's 16 federal states varies in the policy's implementation. In Berlin – home to some 100,000 Jews – "3G"  does not apply to religious worship as long as distancing is adhered to, though most synagogues base their own systems on it.

"Every synagogue decides for itself how they want to deal with it," said Rabbi Boris Ronis, leader of the Conservative-liberal Rykestrasse synagogue, one of the oldest and largest shuls in Berlin. It was spared destruction during the Kristallnacht pogroms thanks to its location in the heart of a residential area; now, the trendy, café-lined neighborhood of Prenzlauer Berg.

"It's difficult. It's the coronavirus. Nobody knows," Ronis said. "We ask the people for '3G,' and that's it. We wear masks and socially distance. That's what we can do."

For large synagogues like Rykestrasse, walk-ins are allowed, but smaller synagogues may require registration to abide by regulations given the limited space – a habit some synagogues have already implemented for security purposes during Shabbat and holidays.

"On normal days, only every second seat in the synagogue is occupied. For the holidays, we've come up with something special. Last year, we were the first synagogue in Germany to inaugurate an open-air shul for the High Holidays. Services will be held there this year as well," said Jana Erdmann, head of press and communications for Chabad's Jewish Educational Center in Berlin. The open-air synagogue consists of a large tent, heated when necessary.

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However, it might be more difficult for parents with small children to attend. This year, sensitivity to the spread of infection has made playgroups impractical, both at Chabad and Rykestrasse. At the height of the last lockdown (from November 2020 to May 2021), singing liturgy – as opposed to reciting – was not allowed, but now worshippers can belt out prayers from a fixed seat and at a distance.

An added obstacle to German synagogues, which serve a Jewish population of some 200,000, is security. In 2019, a Syrian refugee wielded a knife in front of the New Synagogue of Berlin, shouting "Allah Akbar." Days later, on Yom Kippur, a right-wing extremist attempted to shoot worshippers at the synagogue of Halle but could not make it through the bolted gate.

"The police presence is generally higher than usual during Jewish holidays, and tighter security measures are in place because of repeated attacks in recent years," Erdmann said. "The pandemic has further fueled antisemitic sentiment. Both our security and the police – who are positioned in front of our building – are attentive to this."

Rykestrasse has not changed its security concept this year, believing the threat is omnipresent. "This is Germany," Ronis said.

Security guards at synagogues usually screen people who enter for any red flags. This year, synagogue-goers might also have to wave their "3G" status before entering.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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For most of the Israeli right, US President Donald Trump's pro-Israel legacy will outlive other elements of his controversial presidency, particularly his last days in office.

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Pro-Trump leaders, activists and analysts said that the Jan. 6 mob invasion of the US Capitol, for the most part, will not change the nationalist camp's high regard for the Trump administration's pro-Israel achievements, which include moving the US embassy to Jerusalem; recognizing Israel's sovereignty of the Golan Heights and the legitimacy of Jewish settlements in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria); and the brokering of the Abraham Accords despite the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

American-Israeli activist Avi Abelow, who runs the pro-Israel media platform, Pulse of Israel, said it is wrong to blame Trump for the violence in Washington.

"I believe it will be a blip on the historical timeline, and even within a few years, the true Trump legacy will be accepted and taught in the history books, and not this stain that is part of a four-year-long campaign to delegitimize Trump and the whole movement," said Abelow, a resident of Efrat.

Settlement leadership was split over the "deal of the century" – officially called the "Peace to Prosperity" Mideast plan – when it was rolled out in January 2020. David Elhayani, head of the Yesha Council, Israel's main settler advocacy organization, slammed Trump as no friend of Israel in large part for the peace plan's endorsement of a Palestinian state. Oded Revivi, mayor of Efrat, stepped down as Yesha Council's Chief Foreign Envoy over the disagreement.

"When we were in DC in January, I said that one of the things Obama achieved was the fact that he united us and put us in one ship – not differentiating between blocs, towns, cities. And when issues of all sorts of compromises came in the air, things got difficult," Revivi told JNS.

While he was upset over the images of violence at the Capitol, Revivi does not think they could or should erase the extraordinary paradigm shift that the Trump administration had ushered in.

"The effort to discredit Trump is mainly in order to discredit his policies," he said.

Elhayani has since not backed down on his criticism of Trump. In a segment titled "The Right Bids Farewell to Trump," which aired Friday night, Elhayani told television journalist Yaron Deckel that he embraces the incoming Biden administration and rejects Trump's alleged flirtation with racists.

In the same segment, noted columnist Caroline Glick; Ariel Sender, advisor to the Trump campaign in Israel; and Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, criticized Trump's handling of the election controversy but nevertheless praised him for his legacy, with Sender and Dagan calling his presidency a "miracle" for Israel.

Also in the segment, Dani Dayan, former head of the Yesha Council and former Consul General of Israel in New York, lobbed similar praise for the incoming president, saying Biden's team is one with which Israel could work well.

"What happened to us was a type of miracle because I think Biden is the most pro-Israel Democratic candidate for president we could have hoped for," Dayan told Deckel. Dayan, who recently joined the ticket of Minister Gideon Sa'ar's Likud breakaway party, New Hope, also said Israel might want to reconsider naming a town or train line after the now-disgraced president.

Glick, on the other hand, expressed concern over Biden's appointment of key officials with records of hostility towards Israel. As for neo-Nazis who may have stormed the Capitol, she said they represent a fringe.

Abelow does not believe that the Biden administration can reverse the embassy move or the Abraham Accords, but he fears a return to the appeasement of the Palestinians and also of Iran. Critical voices like Elhayani, he said, are a minority in the settler community. During the campaign, Biden stated that he would keep the embassy in Jerusalem, and his nominee for Secretary of State Tony Blinken has praised the Abraham Accords as a "positive step."

The general Israeli public from right-of-center, he said, will remain appreciative of Trump's Mideast achievements, although recent controversies might sour them to him personally.

"Israel and the freedom-loving world has never had a president who truly led a foreign policy based on reality – based on knowing that there are good actors and bad actors, and pushing forward a better future for the good actors without rewarding the bad actors," said Abelow.

"It took a man who was not the norm, not a career politician, not a regular 'dude' – a dude that came from being a mogul, media guy and just a character – to break a lot of the calcified lies that we've lived with," said Yishai Fleisher, the American-born international spokesperson for the Jewish community of Hebron.

The defamation of Trump in the media, he said, mirrors the defamation of Israeli settlers as "obstacles to peace."

Fleisher, as an advocate for Israel, deferred on judging Trump's performance in the United States, though he thinks that patriotic Israelis will continue to like him, even personally, in part because they got the sense that he genuinely liked them.

"President Trump raised Israel to the level of ally and regional power, and put us in the place that we understand ourselves to be: a true member of the Middle East family and also a regional power-broker that keeps the peace in the region."

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He added that Trump set a new gold standard among Republicans, too, for what it means to be truly pro-Israel.

Revivi has maintained ties with Democrat leaders but is not yet clear on how they will approach the new facts on the ground post-Trump.

"We're going to take the boost that he gave Israel," he said, "and we're going to run with it."

Orit Arfa is an author and journalist based in Berlin.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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As Austrians were making the most of their last night in restaurants, cafes and bars on Nov. 2 before the onset of a new lockdown, a 20-year-old Islamic terrorist fired at passersby in Vienna's historic city center, killing four and injuring 23. Initial reports painted the target as Vienna's city's synagogue but, as it turned out, the synagogue might have been in the terrorist's line of fire by happenstance.

Perhaps that's symbolic. Threats to the European Jewish community and general society are now perceived as being intermingled, say community leaders. "We are all synagogues now," might go the refrain, particularly in France, which on Oct. 16 suffered the brutal beheading of teacher Samuel Paty, who had shown students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that were published in Charlie Hebdo, and then, two weeks later, the fatal stabbing of three at the Notre Dame church in Nice.

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"We always knew we were in the same boat, but Christians are starting to understand that," says Philippe Karsenty, a former French Jewish elected official credited with exposing the false attribution by French media of Palestinian youth Muhammed al-Dura's death back in September 2000 by the Israel Defense Forces. That was at the start of the Second Intifada, which last five years and resulted in more than 1,000 Israeli deaths and about 3,000 Palestinian deaths.

"Remember, when the Jews started to be attacked 20 years ago, we said 'after Saturday, Sunday.' And now they're starting to understand that it's a civilization war."

He also noticed that French President Emmanuel Macron has amped up his rhetoric against radical Islam. "He's talking tougher," says Karsenty. "That's good. Acting tougher is better."

'This gives rise to a double concern'

In Vienna, a city that has been spared the kind of Islamic attacks that have rocked other major European cities, reports were initially confused and inaccurate because Austrian media is inexperienced with covering such incidents, says Samuel Laster, editor of Austria's online Jewish newspaper, Atar HaYehudi (Die Juedische). Initial coverage erroneously reported armed attackers still on the loose and even a kidnapping scenario. The terrorist was shot dead by police.

"There is a great mourning that's very deep," says Laster. "Candles and flowers decorate the line of fire. The story really affects the Austrian soul because many people were out that night, and they were locked wherever they were – at home, in restaurants – because police told them not to go out. It reverberated because everyone shared what they did."

Austrian Jews were in a special position to offer assistance to the authorities. The Jewish community headquarters, located adjacent to the synagogue, captured surveillance footage of the attack, some of which was mysteriously leaked to Israeli media. The community rabbi, Rabbi Schlomo Hofmeister, reported how he witnessed the attacker shooting hundreds of rounds in front of the Jewish building. The synagogue was closed at the time.

The rabbi, who has been in his position since 2008, made the rounds in US news, speaking distinctly about security and the psyche of Jews in Western Europe.

To make matters more tragic for Austrians, the attacker was imprisoned for seeking to join ISIS but had been released on parole after being deemed "de-radicalized," now prompting Austria authorities to re-examine their handling of Islamic institutions, mosques and individuals.

In France, currently under lockdown through November, military presence has doubled on national territory, says Francis Kalifat, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, in an email. Security will prioritize houses of worship, schools and hospitals.

"While the terrorist threat weighs on French society as a whole, French Jews remain a particular target for Islamist terrorists," he says, citing the 2012 attacks on a Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012 and the 2015 Hypercacher kosher market siege. "It can be said that they face a double threat: as French and as Jews. This gives rise to a double concern."

Furthermore, Jews are a particular obsession of Islamic terrorism, even if they're not targeted outright. "The comments made on social networks by the perpetrators of the latest attacks or on videos of allegiance, references to Jews are constantly present, even systematic," says Kalifat.

In Germany as well, the spate of attacks have mostly accentuated ever-present Jewish worries, which also surfaced following the 2019 attempted knife attack by a Syrian asylum seeker shouting "Allahu Akbar" at the prominent New Synagogue in Berlin on Rosh Hashanah and, 10 days later, the attempted shooting spree by a right-wing extremist on Halle's synagogue on Yom Kippur.

"My feeling is there are probably generally two groups in our community and maybe in the wider Jewish community," explains Doron Rubin, lay leader of the Kahal Adass Jisroel Orthodox community of Berlin.

"One says we're vulnerable and a target all the time, and the maximum you get from something like the Vienna attack is the awareness back. And then there's the group that feels it's much closer. I think at the end of the day, both groups are probably close together because both feel the pressure of the situation. The difference is how you weigh the different factors," Rubin said.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for stricter Schengen border controls, which are now being taken under consideration by the European Union. For the German Jewish community, however, security concerns are regularly reassessed with government officials, no matter what goes on elsewhere.

"These incidents and attacks bring us back to earth," says Rubin. "Even if there are six months of quiet, you know it's there and can happen any time."

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While the majority of Swedes favored Sweden's liberal approach to the coronavirus – at one point advocating herd immunity to eventually lower the spread of COVID-19 – the high death toll of 5,800, mostly elderly in nursing homes, compared to about 1,250 deaths total in other Scandinavian countries, prompted a commission to review it. The SD has been the lone political voice criticizing the policy, paralleling it to the migration policy.

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"From an ideological stance, then I'd say we're more about being careful and thinking proactively, rather than just going with the flow and seeing what happens," said Gabriel Kroon, the SD group leader in Stockholm. "We're always more skeptical. With migration, the idea was it would enrich Swedish economy and society. We were skeptical of that. Same thing here: We're skeptical and careful. Rather evaluate and redo it then opening it up completely."

Sweden protectionism also informs its Israel platform. SD calls for moving the Swedish embassy to Jerusalem and retracting Sweden's recognition of Palestine. When the European Union came under fire in May for pledging to fund Palestinian NGOs with terrorists allegedly on the payroll, SD's MEP Charlie Weimers led the internal E.U. protest against it as part of the European Conservatives and Reformists bloc.

"The SD recognizes Israel as an important, reliable and strong friend of Western values in the Middle East, and the party acknowledges the security debt Europe owes to Israel with regards to anti-terror and security cooperation," Weimers said in an e-mail.

A skeptical Jewish community

But for the mainstream Jewish community, its defense of Israel in a largely left-wing milieu doesn't automatically lure its support.

"If you go back 10 or 20 years, I would say this community was extremely Zionistic because it's made up of Holocaust survivors," said Aron Verstandig, president of Stockholm's Jewish community, in a phone interview. "I would say it's still a Zionistic community but not in an uncritical way."

Sweden's Jewish population unofficially numbers between 15,000 to 20,000, mostly Holocaust survivors and their descendants. In fact, most of the 20 coronavirus fatalities in the Jewish community were aging Holocaust survivors. After the Nordic country developed its signature welfare system in the 1930s under the Social-Democratic Party (now the ruling party), it prided itself on accepting immigrants, including Holocaust survivors and, decades later, Muslim immigrants.

According to Verstandig, these migrants have indeed imported anti-Semitic notions from their respective homelands. According to the Crime Prevention Council, anti-Semitic hate crimes topped the list in 2018, with an increase of 53 percent between 2016 and 2018. Another study found that anti-Semitic views were more widespread, but not exclusive, among groups that identify as Muslim.

Concerns about Muslim anti-Semitism go back at least 15 years, said Verstandig, but the last few years have raised concerns about the anti-Semitic far-right, particular the Nordic Resistance Movement. SD, as with most European populist parties, has been accused of stoking the flames of these extremists, particularly given its past and the association of some extremists with SD.

Several Swedes aligned with the official Nazi Party were among the founders of the SD in 1988.

"Under the leadership of Jimmie Åkesson elected in 2005, the party has adopted a zero-tolerance policy on racism in the party," Weimers said, saying any pro-Nazi founders should be condemned.

Former parliamentary leader and current MP Mattias Karlsson said the party made the mistake of not purging proven racist elements earlier, feeding its critics. He said the SD actually protected Jews from "real neo-Nazis" when members of the Nordic Resistance attacked a booth of the Swedish-Israeli Friendship Alliance at a political festival in Gotland in 2018.

"When this happened, the Jewish victims immediately sought refuge in our party headquarters because they felt that we were the ones who were most likely to protect them," said Karlsson. "And we did – among other things, by paying for security guards to accompany them during the rest of their stay. If we were 'neo-Nazis,' I think it safe to say that we are really bad at it."

However, David Stavrou, a Stockholm-based Israeli journalist who writes on Swedish affairs for Ha'aretz, cautions against downplaying SD's anti-Semitic roots or overplaying its pro-Israel credentials.

"Other right-wing parties such as the Christian Democrats are just as friendly, and even on the left, the situation isn't as bad as some claim," he said over e-mail. "It's true there are anti-Israeli sentiments across the board and even some pretty nasty ones, but for most of the established left, including the ruling Social Democrats, it's mostly the good old two-state-solution talk, not an anti-Israeli approach as such."

In addition, SD also expresses support for a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

As for anti-Semitism, several SD representatives, activists and supporters have been caught making anti-Semitic slurs on social media, particularly at the regional level. "SD's roots are deep in the racist and xenophobic far-right. Back in the 80s, it certainly had neo-Nazi ties, and in many ways, anti-Semitism is part of the DNA of the party, whether it admits it or not," said Stavrou.

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However, for many Jews, SD's positions against circumcision and kosher slaughter neutralize any redeeming pro-Israel positions and the increasingly accepted criticism of mass Muslim immigration.

"They like Israel and want to move the embassy to Jerusalem, but, on the other hand, they don't want Jews in Sweden to practice Judaism, which is quite problematic," said Verstandig.

The organized Jewish community has no official contact with the SD, said Verstandig, consistent with recommendations of Israel's President Reuven Rivlin and the World Jewish Congress, although some Likud Party politicians have met individually with SD members.

Kosher slaughter is already prohibited in Sweden, and kosher meat must be imported. Swedish policy, as with its coronavirus approach, is informed first and foremost by state scientists and experts. It was on the advice of Sweden's chief epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, that Sweden bucked the European lockdown trend. Pediatric and veterinary associations advise against circumcision of small children and against slaughter without stunning the animal, hence ruling out both shechitah (kosher slaughter) and Islam's halal.

While the majority of SD members are against these Jewish and Muslim defining practices, brit milah comes under debate within the party. Ultimately, these issues will be determined by the party congress, but SD's opposition to the coronavirus has demonstrated that it has no qualms questioning even state scientists.

"My personal position is that given the fact that Jews have been given an official status as a 'national minority' in Sweden, and circumcision has such a unique and deep religious and cultural meaning for the Jewish people, and given the fact that circumcision most likely would occur on a large scale even with a ban," explained Karlsson, "that the Jewish minority should be granted a certain exception in this regard."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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That was the refrain repeated by German broadcasters throughout Oct. 9 as news of the attempted Yom Kippur attack on a Halle synagogue that saw two bystanders killed came to light. The options were obvious: either extremist Muslims or extremist right-wingers were behind the shooting.

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German media treaded lightly until the perpetrator, a neo-Nazi, with suspect Stephan Balliet, 27, going so far as to brazenly document his attack and its planning, was confirmed. The style and rhetoric were similar to the shootings at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and the Chabad of Poway, which raised the alarm to the growing prominence of right-wing hate groups in the United States.

Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel of the Christian Democrats, who has lost political ground to the Right since her decision to welcome more than a million Muslim refugees and migrants since 2015, made a generic, televised statement in which she said: "We must use all the means of the rule of law to combat hatred, violence and enemies of mankind. There can be no tolerance whatsoever."

On Twitter, Foreign Affairs Minister Heiko Mass, a member of the Social Democrats and a proponent of the nuclear deal with Iran as well as Muslim migration, said: "Anti-Semitism and xenophobia must have no place in our society. It is shameful to have to say this sentence so often in Germany."

The rise of the violent Right

At a press conference the next day, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer remorsefully claimed that the "anti-Semitic threat from the extremist Right and right-wing terror is very high in Germany."

The German Jewish community criticized the country's negligent security and surveillance systems. The synagogue was not given police protection during the holiday; it was the heavy, bolted door that kept the gunman out and protected the 80 or so worshippers inside.

Erstes 1, Germany's largest public broadcaster, dedicated coverage to right-wing extremism, highlighting its social media hangouts and recent history of attacks against Jews and foreigners alike.

Some analysts and activists, however, question German political sincerity when reactions seem to differ depending on the anti-Semitic source.

"Obviously, the terrorist was a native German, and this made it very easy for politicians to condemn the attack as right-wing and anti-Semitic, and to make nice, moving comments about solidarity with the Jewish community," said Andreas Boldt, a German pro-Israel activist who founded the 38,000 member-strong "German-Israel Friendship" Facebook page, which saw a spike in likes since the attack. "However, for me, these are empty words – a lie, a bluff, very dishonest behavior. Why? Germany regularly condemns Israel along with Islamic dictatorships in the United Nations."

Germany came under fire from the Jewish community and Israeli politicians when it voted down a motion in the Bundestag to change anti-Israel voting patterns in the United Nations. It has also been widely criticized by Jewish leaders, as well as the Trump administration in Washington for refusing to outlaw the political arm of Hezbollah that claims more than 1,000 operatives in Germany.

"The alleged neo-Nazi suspect arrested on Tuesday shared a global anti-Semitic worldview of a 'Zionist-occupied government' theory," stated Benjamin Weinthal from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and an analyst of German politics.

"The interconnections of modern anti-Semitism among Islamists, the far-Left and the far-Right are patently obvious, and Merkel offers no program of action to blunt the rise of this highly dangerous form of Jew-hatred."

"What can be done? Merkel can, with the swipe of a pen before next week, ban Hezbollah and the Palestinian terrorist entity Popular Front for the Liberation for Palestine in Germany."

Weinthal regularly highlights the German political disconnect between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, most recently illustrated with Merkel's downplaying of Iran's call to wipe Israel off the map as "anti-Israel" rhetoric as opposed to blatant anti-Semitism.

The Merkel government versus the AfD

Anti-Semitism is often utilized by German political groups to make jabs at each other, particularly between the governing coalition and its archenemy in the domestic political sphere: the right-wing Alternative for Germany, which made significant gains in regional elections in eastern Germany, where the Halle attack occurred, facilitating a connection between AfD and the attack.

SPD lawmaker Karl Lauterbach, for example, tweeted: "It's the hate spread by the AfD that gave the far-Right a voice. This hate speech legitimized individual perpetrators to commit such acts of cruelty. These criminals want to do the AfD's bidding. The AfD carries a large share of the blame for this attack."

The AfD quickly tried to deflect such accusations, with party leaders condemning the attack with its own political twist: "Jewish life belongs to Germany. We must defend it against the attacks of neo-Nazis, left-wing extremists, and Islamists!" declared party leader Beatrix von Storch in a statement.

Von Storch was a mastermind behind a motion in the Bundestag to ban Hezbollah that was rejected in large part due to the party of the messenger, which was accused of using Jews to bash Muslims.

Vice president of the Jews in the AfD faction, Artur Abramovych, conceded that had the attack been motivated by Islam, the AfD would have likewise used it to castigate Merkel's seeming Islamic appeasement. A popular AfD refrain is: "Islam does not belong to Germany."

"But at least the AfD isn't ignoring the far-right anti-Semitism," he said. "There were many statements today, and already yesterday, while the mainstream is trying to ignore the Islamist and leftist anti-Semitism."

One case in point: Merkel issued no statement after an attempted knife attack by a Syrian refugee at the central New Synagogue in Berlin days before Yom Kippur. The perpetrator was let go by authorities the next day, much to the anger of Boldt and other pro-Jewish activists.

"When a Muslim attacks a synagogue, they will release him a few days after as if nothing happened, and nobody comes out in solidarity. They even try to understand him and try to explain why he did it," said Boldt.

In another example, a German court ruled that a 2014 firebombing of a Wuppertal synagogue by Palestinians was not anti-Semitic, but a protest against Israeli policies.

"It is incomprehensible how someone who tries to infiltrate a synagogue with a knife can be free again after less than 24 hours, as was the case last weekend in Berlin," acting director of AJC Berlin, Dr. Remko Leemhuis, said in a press release on the Halle attack, concluding: "The time of abstract confessions against anti-Semitism is over. Anyone who wants to do something against Jew-hatred must above all begin by relentlessly naming it from every direction and in every shade, and not always picking out the group of perpetrators that fits into their own political agenda."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

The post How sincere is German political remorse over Yom Kippur attack? appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Carr is a well-known pro-Israel figure in California, having served as the Los Angeles deputy district attorney before making an unsuccessful 2014 bid on the Republican ticket for Congress in the Democrat-heavy LA 33rd district. His wife, Dahlia, is a physician, and he flies every weekend from Washington, DC, to spend Shabbat with his family, for whom he sometimes cooks the Iraqi specialties from his childhood. Carr also served as the international president of Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi), the Jewish fraternity that under his leadership fought anti-Semitism on college campuses in North America and Europe.

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JNS caught up with him over the phone while he was in London in early July to find out more about his work combatting this "vile poison" in America and beyond.

Q: What kind of work do you do with your European partners?

"I do a lot of work with our European partners because anti-Semitism is a global problem. It's increasing everywhere in the world, certainly in Europe, but also in the United States and Latin America and elsewhere, so I am here to represent the United States in meetings with Jewish leaders in London and to make sure that the Jewish community in the United Kingdom understands that the United States supports them and is standing with them. That's the same message I conveyed in my trips that I've made so far to Eastern and Central Europe, and I'll be going to Western Europe shortly as well. So, that is the message to the Jewish community.

"Then, in bilateral meetings with government leaders, we work together to improve the situation for the Jewish community and to advance our shared interest in combating anti-Semitism – and that is a shared interest because it's very important to remember that anti-Semitism isn't only about protecting the Jewish community, [it's] about guaranteeing the health of the society and of the country itself. The history of anti-Semitism is that it destroys every society that embraces it. That's why US President Donald Trump always calls it a 'vile poison.'"

Q: Your counterpart in Germany, Felix Klein, drew criticism when he announced that Jews should be advised not to wear their kippot everywhere in Germany. What is your reaction to such an advisory?

"Well, I understand why somebody would want to take whatever measures are necessary to keep people safe. However, I don't think the response to anti-Semitism should ever be the hiding of the Jewish community or the advice to Jews that they hide who they are. If that's what Jews have to do in the face of anti-Semitism, then we've lost the fight. And so, I think Jews have every right to express themselves Jewishly, and that means do it in a public way.

If observant Jews want to wear a kipah in public, they should wear a kipah in public, and it's the job of the society to keep them safe. The onus shouldn't be on them to hide and protect themselves that way."

Q: What do you think about the German Bundestag vote to brand BDS as anti-Semitism?

"Movements that seek to suffocate the one Jewish country out of existence through economic boycotts – that is anti-Semitism in its unvarnished manifestation. And this is a very, very important thing that we have to realize. I want to compliment and thank the Bundestag for doing that, and I hope Germany will follow up on that decision and take the actions necessary when it sees examples of BDS and examples of anti-Israel hatred.

For example, the designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, it will be my hope that Germany will designate Hezbollah in all its forms as a terrorist organization."

Q: In the United States, are there any areas of priority to tackle when it comes to sources or venues of anti-Semitism?

"First of all, when it comes to the sources of anti-Semitism, I'm very careful not to rank them. The reason I don't rank them in importance is because of the political climate we're in, in terms of polarization, and anti-Semitism is often weaponized for political purposes. I think that hurts the fight.

I say this at every opportunity I can: Jew-hatred is Jew-hatred, and it's evil, and it doesn't matter if it comes from the ethnic supremacist right, from the vicious anti-Zionist left or from radical Islam. It's evil regardless of where it comes from, and we need to fight all of it. Jew-hatred in all its forms needs to be combated, and it's my job to combat it.

But I will say that in the United States the place that is, I think, an urgent location is the college campus. College campuses have boiled over in anti-Semitic vitriol. Many, and by no means all, US college campuses have become hostile learning environments for Jewish students.

That is not only morally wrong and unpleasant; it's also illegal – a violation of the Civil Rights Act."

Q: How would you respond to accusations that a divisive atmosphere under President Trump and some of his rhetoric may have empowered the gunmen of the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh and at Chabad of Poway, Calif.?

"I don't think there's any basis to that at all. Anti-Semitism has been rising for several years now, and President Trump, to his great credit and to my great pride, has made combating anti-Semitism a central focus of his. He speaks about it often.

He spent considerable time in his State of the Union Address, which is – my goodness, the most prominent, visible speech the president makes all year – talking about anti-Semitism. Every time he mentions anti-Semitism, he refers to it as a 'vile poison.' He talks of the need to remove it from our midst, and he made what many have said is an unprecedented statement by any leader any time in history – a non-Jewish leader, that is – and he made this statement right after the Pittsburgh shooting at a 'Make America Great Again' rally in Illinois: 'If you seek the destruction of the Jews, we will seek your destruction.' And that promise by a leader, by a world leader, I had people who follow this tell me that this has never been said in history."

So that's President Trump, and then look at the people around him: Vice President [Mike] Pence couldn't be stronger on this issue. My boss, US Secretary of State [Mike] Pompeo, this is a central focus of his: combating anti-Semitism. He spent his AIPAC speech talking about anti-Semitism. Also saying, and I quote: 'Let me go on the record: Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism,' which no previous administration has said.

You could not possibly put together a team that feels this more deeply, and that has taken steps in favor of the Jewish community or has been stronger. So, I just think that that accusation reflects a political bias."

Q: Can you tell us about specific actions or policies that are being taken on the ground?

"Sure. There've been increases to budgets at the federal and state level to provide security to Jewish communities.

Second, I have been appointed, and I've been given a very broad mandate and incredible support. I'll tell you that my team is larger by an order of magnitude than that any of my predecessors' in this role. So, I've been given the green light to really pursue this with the full force of the administration.

Third, we have made requests of our allies and partners on specific issues regarding the Jewish communities and their countries, and these are not minor requests. That's my job.

When I represent the United States on this issue, I sit down with foreign governments, and I compliment them on all the great things they're doing, and very often, there are great things they're doing, and I say: 'Well, on these issues, can we fix this?' And I'll tell you that some of my requests have already been complied with.

And so, there is an absolute mandate that we should not only contain anti-Semitism, but roll it back. It's not sufficient to stop its growth. The idea is we want to roll this back, and we're focusing on every region in the world, as I was asked to do.

There is increasing focus on college campuses. And this is something that also is unprecedented. The Department of Education issued a formal definition of the Jewish people as an ethnic group. Of course, one would think: 'Well, what's new in that? Of course, the Jewish people are an ethnic group.'

Yes, the Jewish people are an ethnic group, but it had not been defined as such by the Department of Education. That definition and issuing that definition is the prerequisite for triggering federal law and the Civil Rights Act in terms of obligating universities to create a fair and welcoming educational environment for ethnic minorities. Now that Jews are defined as an ethnic minority, the Department of Education has lined up all the legal requirements to force campuses to end what is going on, which is really to create a hostile educational environment for Jewish and pro-Israel students."

Q: Do you have close ties with Israel, and do you work with Israeli leaders? 

"I work with Israeli leaders all the time. I've made more than one trip to Israel since I was appointed. We meet, and we have full cooperation with a number of ministries that monitor and focus on anti-Semitism. Of course, that includes the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but also the Ministry of Strategic Affairs and the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. Those three ministries do enormous work on global anti-Semitism, and we work with them very closely. And that's another example of the great partnership between the United States and Israel.

And when I spoke about policies, I focused on Jewish communities, but, of course, what this administration has done to support and strengthen and protect the State of Israel is also unprecedented, and that's also part of the fight against anti-Semitism because the hatred of Israel is the hatred of the Jewish people."

Q: How you are enjoying this post?

"Immensely. I'm grateful every day that I have the chance to represent the United States of America in the fight against anti-Semitism throughout the world and the fight to protect the Jewish people throughout the world."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

The post 'Anti-Semitism is evil, regardless of where it comes from' appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.