Krönikören Giulio Meotti skriver en
tänkvärd artikel i Arutz Sheva under
rubriken No-go Areas for Jews in Europe:
"Rabbi Lau predicted that European
Jewish history is nearing its end.
(...)
Jews in Denmark have just been warned
by Israeli officials not to appear publicly
wearing Jewish religious symbols such as
yarmulkes or stars of David in order to avoid
increasing anti-Israel and anti-Semitic
altercations.
“We advise Israelis who come to Denmark and
want to go to the synagogue to wait to don
their skull caps until they enter the building
and not to wear them in the street, irrespec-
tive of whether the areas they are visiting
are seen as being safe,” said Israel’s
ambassador to Denmark, Arthur Avnon.
**
Got that? To be identifiable as a Jew in public
in Europe is to invite violence. There are European
areas in its bigger cities where you cannot go
outside looking like a Jew - it's like being in Gaza.
In the last few weeks, an Israeli representative
of the Magen David Adom was attacked at Copen-
hagen Central Station, while in central Copenhagen
Jews who were wearing a kippah were have been
physically and verbally attacked.
An elderly Israeli man was assaulted by a group of
Arabic-looking men when he ate a kebab at Nørrebro.
They kicked the victim several times and tore his
necklace, on which a visible star of David was
hanging, off.
That's why today most of Danish Jews think twice
before deciding whether to wear a necklace with
a Star of David on it.
**
In the enlightened Europe of today, there is witch
hunt against any authentic Jew with a beard and
a skullcap.
Jewish students have been advised not to wear
a kippa in the streets in Germany either.
The Jewish Abraham Geiger Theological College in
Potsdam advises its rabbis against wearing a
kippah in public, while the orthodox Or Avner
school in Berlin has issued similar guidelines.
Whenever its pupils go on trips to the zoo or
the museum, Jewish pupils are warned: "Speak
German, not Hebrew, put a baseball cap over
your kippah so you don't give stupid people some-
thing to get annoyed about." Camouflaged in this
way, young Jews travel on Berlin's metro trains.
The rector of the school has explained that "it is
safer to not appear to be a Jewish person".
**
A few days ago Finland's Jewish community was
advised not to wear the skullcap in public for
fear of anti-Semitic attacks.
In Malmö, Sweden, the country which once gave
the world saints like Raoul Wallenberg, members
of the local synagogue decided not to keep on
their kippahs upon exiting their synagogue.
Norway's Jewish Community has advised its
members against speaking Hebrew loudly on
the streets or wearing Jewish emblems.
Norwegian police have just increased security
around Oslo’s main synagogue.
A teacher, Inge Telhaug, who was wearing a
Magen David around his neck under a T-shirt,
was informed by the Kristiansand Adult Education
Center that wearing the star could be deemed a
provocation towards the many Muslim students
at the school.
In France several Jews were attacked and beaten
in the streets after wearing the skullcap. In Paris
it is safer for young Jewish men to walk in groups,
not alone. They should wear baseball caps instead
of the traditional head covering to avoid being
attacked by anti-Semites. In many neighbor-
hoods of Marseille and Lyons, it is no longer safe
for Jews to walk the streets.
A few weeks ago a Jewish man was attacked
and rendered unconscious in a Paris metro.
How did the anti-Semitic mob recognize that
he was Jewish? Because of a philosophy book
by the chief rabbi of Paris that he was reading
in the metro when he was attacked.
**
Meanwhile, half the Jewish families in Villepinte,
working-class suburb north of Paris, have left due
to anti-Semitism, fleeing to other Paris neigh-
borhoods considered safer for Jews, or out of
France entirely. Villepinte's 40-year-old synagogue,
already torched in 2001, will close because it often
lacks a minyan.
In the UK, there have been many cases like that
of an Orthodox child, who was wearing a kippa
and tzitzit, verbally threatened and physically
intimidated by a hooded youth as he travelled
on a London bus.
When the faithful leave Rome's main synagogue
they immediately hide the skullcap. Police patrol
the area day and night.
***
