Status: 06.10.2022 11:55 a.m
After a window was apparently smashed in a synagogue in Hanover on the highest Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur, church officials and politicians are horrified. State security is investigating.
Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) refers in a statement to the ongoing police investigation. “If it is confirmed that the window was smashed, it is not just vandalism. I condemn and detest acts of this kind, which are intended solely to scare and intimidate people, and even to do violence to them.” Any form of violence against Jewish life is an attack on “our free, open and solidary society in Lower Saxony”. Lower Saxony’s Justice Minister Barbara Havliza (CDU) spoke of a shocking attack. “Regardless of who smashed the window, regardless of the motive: This attack on the highest Jewish holiday, three years after the terror of Halle and on the fenced yard of the synagogue, is an ugly sign of rising anti-Semitism in our country.”
People in synagogue celebrated conclusion of Yom Kippur
A stone or other hard object was apparently thrown into a window on Wednesday evening. According to the community, around 150 to 200 people were in the synagogue at the time to celebrate the conclusion of the highest Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur. Those present heard a bang on a window in the women’s gallery around 7 p.m., said the chairman of the community and the state association of Jewish communities in Lower Saxony, Michael Fürst. An object hit him at about head height. Nobody got hurt. “If we assume that it was actually an attack, then it’s the first time something like this has happened in Hanover.”
No surveillance cameras in the synagogue area
More details about the crime and whether it was an attack was still unclear on Thursday morning, according to police information. So far, the police have apparently found no object that could have caused the hole in the pane. There is probably no video material either, as there are no surveillance cameras in the area in question.
Schuster: “Expressions of solidarity give courage”
The Lower Saxony state commissioner against anti-Semitism and for the protection of Jewish life, Franz Rainer Enste, said the incident showed once again “that the question of improving the security of Jewish institutions is anything but a phantom debate”. The President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, spoke of an attack on Thursday. It is shameful that Jews in Germany in 2022 will not be able to go to prayer without fear. The numerous expressions of solidarity are currently encouraging. The Orthodox Rabbinical Conference was also dismayed. “It is shocking and sad at the same time how, despite security precautions, Jewish life in the middle of Germany is being attacked more and more openly and unrestrainedly,” it said.
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Regional bishop: “I am horrified and ashamed deeply”
Ralf Meister, regional bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hanover, said on Thursday that it was intolerable that Jews were being threatened when practicing their religion. “The attack on the synagogue in Hanover last night horrified and deeply ashamed me. We must continue to work against any form of anti-Semitism at all levels and in all areas with much more determination than before,” said Meister, who has long been committed to the conversation between Christians and Jews. Hildesheim’s Catholic Bishop Heiner Wilmer said that “the evil of anti-Semitism is unfortunately still present in our society. Our Jewish sisters and brothers must be able to celebrate their services undisturbed and in peace.” He was glad that that no one was injured.
Security is to be improved – three years after the Halle attack
The incident brings back memories of the attack on the synagogue in Halle on October 9, 2019, also on Yom Kippur. At the time, a right-wing extremist tried to break into the synagogue there by force of arms, but failed at a security door. Shortly thereafter, near the synagogue, he shot dead two people and injured two others. As a result, the Jewish communities in Lower Saxony agreed with the state government after long negotiations to strengthen security precautions. Work on the synagogue in Hanover is to begin soon. Interior Minister Pistorius said on Thursday: “We have repeatedly intensified the protective measures in recent years and are in personal contact with representatives of the Jewish communities.”
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