Jewish community helps save Muslim-owned Halle restaurant targeted by German neo-Nazi gunman
A Muslim-owned kebab restaurant in the German city of Halle has been saved from bankruptcy by a fundraising campaign led by the Jewish community. The kebab restaurant was the site of a shooting by a neo-Nazi gunman after he failed to enter a synagogue on Yom Kippur in October 2019.
Germany’s union of Jewish students (JSUD) launched the campaign to save the Kiez-Döner restaurant, where trade has been badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The campaign raised almost £30,000, far exceeding its original target. In addition, a local Jewish businessman donated cash to fund giveaways of free kebabs to help drum up business.
The restaurant was targeted by neo-Nazi gunman Stephan Balliet after he failed to get through the security doors of the synagogue and after he shot dead a woman passerby close to the synagogue. At the kebab restaurant he murdered a twenty-year-old customer.
Restaurant co-owner, Ismet Tekin, said: “It’s really amazing what they did. They did it out of solidarity, to show that we are together, that we can get through these times if we are united.”
A member of the Halle Jewish community pointed out that both the synagogue and the Muslim-owned restaurant were targeted by Balliet because they “did not reflect his idea of what should be in Germany.”
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