Officials, clergy and residents of a German town formed a human chain around the local synagogue on Friday night in an act of solidarity with the local Jewish community.
Around 80 people from Bad Nauheim in Wetterau, Hesse, participated in the event.
The chain circled the synagogue as Jews worshiping inside marked the Sabbath and the final days of the Jewish festival of Sukkot. It was initiated by the region’s Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation. Local politicians and church representatives were among those present.
They were addressed by Karl Kress, the Mayor of Bad Neuheim, a town of 30,000 people north of Frankfurt. Mayor Kress said: “We stand together against antisemitism and discrimination. Above all we stand together for our values of tolerance and openness, freedom of opinion and belief.”
Volkhard Guth, dean of the Protestant Church in Bad Neuheim, referred to the attack on a synagogue in the city of Halle by a neo-Nazi gunman in which two people were killed just over a year ago. “As Christians we have to say ‘Antisemitism is a sin against God!’” Guth told the crowd. “The Halle victims remind us that antisemitism is always a crime against humanity.”
Manfred De Vries of the Bad Neuheim Jewish community also addressed crowd and praised the turnout: “What would have happened in 1938 if a similar action had taken place in front of the synagogues? These are different times. Today’s Germany is a democratic country and that is worth fighting for.”
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