Around two weeks after what was probably a right-wing extremist attack on a synagogue in Upper Franconia, Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens) called for action against anti-Semitism. Such acts are not only a problem for Jews, but a task for everyone. “An attack on a synagogue is an attack on our democracy,” said Roth on Sunday during a visit to the church in Ermreuth.
A window of the building was smashed in the New Year’s Eve incident, after which a 21-year-old man is said to have tried to set off a firecracker and throw it through the broken window into the building to set it on fire. The suspect was arrested five days later. The investigations were carried out by the Central Office for Combating Extremism and Terrorism at the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office. The act is classified as right-wing extremist and anti-Semitic.
The church was built in 1822 according to the Ermreuth synagogue association. After the Second World War it was used as a warehouse and later stood empty for years. At the end of the 1980s, religious writings and ritual textiles were discovered during renovation work on the roof. As a result, a special purpose association was founded to preserve the synagogue, which was rededicated in 1994. It is also used as a cultural and meeting place, and there is also a museum on Jewish history and culture there.