January 16



GERMANY:

First German rabbi since Holocaust 'hides cap'


The first rabbi to be ordained in Germany since the Holocaust is so
worried about being identified as a Jew that he often wears a baseball
hat over his skull cap.

"It's a fact -- it isn't smart to display I'm Jewish. This is a problem
and we have to face it," German-born Daniel Alter, 47, told Reuters in an
interview.

He is worried about neo-Nazi attacks and says anti-Semitism in Germany --
still tortured by memories of the Holocaust in which Nazis wiped out 6
million Jews -- puts the growth of Jewish communities here at risk.

As a Jew he feels unsafe in several German cities, not all in former
communist east Germany where the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD)
has made electoral gains recently.

Alter, whose father survived Auschwitz concentration camp, dismissed talk
in the German media of a possible blossoming of Jewish life in Germany.

Jewish schools, theatres and shops have sprung up but Germany's Jewish
communities will never compare to those in Britain or the United States,
says Alter, who serves in the northern towns of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst.

"We are building something on the ruins, on the scars left behind but
it'll be something different," he said.

"I don't think there is any way to bring back the Jewish life and culture
we had here. Ever."

That Germany has about four times as many Jews as it did 15 years ago is
due to immigrants from the former Soviet Union who account for most of the
105,000 registered Jews, he says.

The rabbi does not expect the number of Jews in Germany to rise much and
says anti-Semitism is a factor.

"If anti-Semitism grows, people might leave," he said.

The number of far-right offences in Germany, many of which were
anti-Semitic, jumped 20 percent in the first eight months of 2006,
according to the latest available police data.

Last year activists burned Holocaust victim Anne Frank's diaries and made
a teenager wear a sign saying he was a Jew. Many Jewish establishments
have police guards and a German all-Jewish football team suffers weekly
abuse.

The latest figures prompted Chancellor Angela Merkel this weekend to
condemn the rise in right-wing violence and urge Germans to fight it.

New approach needed
But Alter is not interested in statistics.

"I go on how I feel. I might have felt safer 20 years ago. Now the
right-wingers dare to claim the streets."

"There is racism and anti-Jewish sentiment all over the world but I have
the impression that societies in other countries deal with it differently.
We would feel better if German society changed its approach."

He said society had to show it does not tolerate right-wing extremism and
a ban of the NPD could send a signal. Germany already has tough laws
against offences such as Holocaust denial and using the Nazi swastika
symbol.

The NPD, whose followers have praised some Nazi policies, has seats in
three state parliaments and 9,000 members. The NPD says it is a
democratic, law-abiding party.

Some politicians are pushing again for a ban after an attempt failed in
2003 as some of the testimony came from government informants in the
party.

Banning parties, however, is a sensitive subject in Germany which has
emphasized tolerance and freedom of speech since 1945.

Alter, born in south Germany, taught at a Jewish school before training at
Germany's first rabbi college in Potsdam.

He was ordained in Dresden in September along with two others, one was
Czech-born and one who returned to South Africa.

They were the first rabbis to be ordained in Germany since 1942 when the
College of Jewish Studies in Berlin was destroyed by the Gestapo, the
Nazi's dreaded secret police.

Before September, Germany had to import its roughly 25 rabbis who served
100 congregations.

Alter's work involves pastoral care in his communities, which are
overwhelmingly Russian, leading services and conducting religious
ceremonies -- mainly funerals, he says.

He notes how before the 1930s, Germany's 600,000 Jews identified with the
country they had lived in for generations and supplied some of its
greatest minds.

"Jewish cultural heritage was part of German cultural heritage and Jewish
people were German patriots -- soldiers who fell in World War One didn't
imagine what would happen later."

His parents cannot talk about the Holocaust and Alter's bond with Germany
is complex. "Would you identify with a country where much of your family
and culture had been wiped out?"

"My dream in the long run is to live in Jerusalem."

(source: Reuters)



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Push for EU Holocaust denial ban

Irving's imprisonment for Holocaust denial sparked heated debate
Germany hopes to make Holocaust denial a crime across the EU as part of a
package of laws it wants to introduce during its presidency of the bloc.
Berlin is also set to outline plans to ban Nazi symbols like the swastika,
which, like denying the massacre of the Jews, is already outlawed in
Germany.

Such moves may be seen as curtailing freedom of speech and could prove
controversial in several member states.

But the German justice minister says she is confident of winning support.

If it goes ahead, it will be the second time in two years that an attempt
has been made to ban the display of Nazi symbols within the EU.

The last bid failed in 2005 after objections from several governments,
including the British.

An attempt to criminalise denying the massacre of Jews during WWII
meanwhile was blocked by Italy, citing freedom of speech.

But the Italian Government has since changed, and is now seen as more
sympathetic to Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries' proposals.

Caveats

However last year's trial of the British historian David Irving, who was
imprisoned for Holocaust denial in Austria, sparked a heated debate in
Europe and illustrated just how controversial such a move might be.

EU STATES WITH LAWS AGAINST HOLOCAUST DENIAL
Austria
Belgium
Czech Republic
France
Germany
Lithuania
Poland
Romania
Slovakia


Denying the Holocaust

Even his opponents said they were deeply uncomfortable with the idea of
imprisoning someone for their opinions, however objectionable they were.

The details of the proposal have yet to emerge, but it is thought likely
that member states would have the right to set their own rules determining
if and how a Holocaust denier should be punished.

Under any new law, prosecutors might also have to prove that a Nazi symbol
was being used with the intention of whipping up racism.

Old symbol

The swastika, while used by the Nazis as an insignia, was not created by
them, and a number of groups still use it.

It has featured in traditional Latvian knitwear for centuries, variously
known as the Thunder Cross or Fire Cross, and remains a time-honoured good
luck symbol for Hindus.

Similarly some MPs from former communist states object to a ban on the
swastika without a commensurate ban on the symbols of the Soviet era, such
as the hammer and sickle.

While Germany is only country in Europe which has banned the use of Nazi
insignia, France, for example, bars the sale of Nazi-related memorabilia.

(source: BBC News)