President of Israel appalled by recommendation to German Jews not to wear kippas

The President, Reuven Rivlin, was worried today about the recommendation of the head of anti-Semitism of the Berlin government that the Jews of Germany do not use the kippa, the Jewish cap with which men cover themselves, facing possible anti-Semitic attacks.

"I am deeply shocked," said Rivlin about the remarks of Felix Klein, who said yesterday that he could not advise Jews to wear the yarmulke anywhere in Germany.

Rivlin claimed that "the responsibility for the well-being and the right to freedom of religion of the German Jewish community lies in the hands of the German government and its security agencies".

The Israeli president said he appreciated Klein's moral status and his commitment to the Jewish community, adding that "fears for the safety of German Jews are a surrender to anti-Semitism and the admission that, once again, times, the Jews are not safe. " German lands. "

"We will never submit, we will never let our guard down and we will never react to anti-Semitism by defeatism, and we expect to demand from our allies that they act in the same way," he said. concluded Rivlin in a statement.

Klein, whose department is attached to the German Ministry of Interior, had discussed the development of right-wing movements in his country as one of the reasons for this warning and had cited statistics on anti-Semitic background crimes showing a clear increase in attacks. , insults and propaganda against this sector of the population.

According to figures recently published by German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, the calculation of xenophobic and anti-Semitic crimes increased by 20% in 2018, recording 7,700 racist crimes, of which 1,799 were anti-Semitic. EFE