Jews Question Their Future in Germany

The bitter tone of the debate over the legality of circumcision has shocked Jews living in Germany and reopened old wounds. In light of what many report are ongoing difficulties, some are now wondering if the country truly wants them.

Arye Sharuz Shalicar was looking for a place he could call home. It wasn't an unusual wish. He doesn't wear a kippah and isn't a devout Jew. He grew up in Berlin's Wedding district, surrounded by Turkish and Arab children -- a difficult combination. Later he wore the uniform of the German army during his military service. Then he went to college. But at some point Shalicar could no longer stand Germany, where he was subjected to daily harassment, open animosity and anti-Semitism.

In 2001, at the age of 35, Shalicar moved to Israel and started a career there. For the past three years he's been an Israeli army spokesman. Shalicar isn't surprised about the most recent attacks on Jews in Germany. He says he grew up having to defend himself as a Jew -- even with his fists, if necessary. Shalicar has written a book about his experiences, and says he still likes Germany. He visits his parents twice a year in Berlin, where they still live, and he looks back fondly on his childhood. "Germany will always be a part of me. I have a German accent when I speak Hebrew, and I speak to my son in German," he says.

Charlotte Knobloch, the former chairwoman of the Central Council of Jews, has often had to explain to fellow Jews why she chose to stay in Germany after 1945, even though it was the country that had perpetrated the Holocaust. But Knobloch appeared to have settled the questions about

As an ex-pat living in Germany for over two decades, I would like to comment.

First, there is no question but that anti-Semitism exists at least here in Upper Bavaria. Curiously, it is an inchoate anti-Semitism which does not go where one might expect. For example, virtually no one here who would routinely accuse Jews of having too much influence in the world have any idea who George Soros is.

Moreover, their anti-Semitism is not part of what one might conceive of as a Nazi mindset. In other words, there is a relative absence of dislike of African-Americans. This is perhaps as a result of ingesting American television in which African-Americans are invariably depicted in a positive light but Jews are not so obviously particularized in the sitcoms which appear here.

A Final observation which is just as subjective as the foregoing:

"Some 104,000 members of the Jewish community live in Germany. Yet all of this raises the question of how German society deals with the Jewish people living in its midst. Does it view Jewish traditions, customs and achievements as an asset? Or do many people have difficultly suppressing their anti-Semitism and muffled hatred of otherness?"

We in America have been indoctrinated to believe without questioning that "diversity is our strength" and this is accepted as axiomatic as part of the American culture. I reject this assumption and say that it is the homogeneity in Germany which produces the strength of this extraordinary culture.

One can examine the unit cohesion of the German army in two world wars which far exceeded anything any of its enemies could muster. One could examine the economic powerhouse that Germany is and marvel at its extraordinary ability to produce goods for export. One can examine its crime rate and agree with Germans who shake their head about the crime rate in America. One can examine the school system and training system which produces high employment, efficiency, high GDP, and goods for export. One can examine and admire the care with which the Germans maintain their environment.

On examination, all of these attributes can be related to a culture that values homogeneity. It does not necessarily identify strength in diversity. Before we conclude that it rejects diversity of opinion, let us stipulate that diversity of opinion in the American university system simply is not tolerated if it presumes to trespass on political correctness. And political correctness dictates that diversity as a positive value must be assumed in matters of race but not necessarily in matters of politics.

It is not just in universities but in the press room, the television newsroom, the Hollywood soundstage, the publishing houses, and Madison Avenue, in the salons of Georgetown and Manhattan that there clearly exists a "muffled hatred of otherness" which this author accuses the Germans of harboring.

In the United States we are confronting a disintegrating civil society and much of that disintegration falls along racial lines. How much strength has that diversity recently yielded up?

This is not offered up by way of defense of anti-Semitism which is pointless and self-defeating but it is offered in support of an American culture which is rapidly succumbing to its own destruction because it swallows whole a left-wing bromide which might not be true and certainly is the product of a desire to destroy the entity of the nationstate, especially the nation which stands athwart the onrush of socialism.

I actually traveled with an Israeli pal of mine back in 1988 to Bad Elms ..back before he went very strange on me and left his wife and 3 existing grade school kids and married the Super Hasidim Rabbi's 18 year old daughter in an arranged marriage when he was 41 and has since had 11 kids with her and lives on the dole in Jerusalem...but that is another story...

anyhow...he was rather uneasy being in Germany even though he considered it gorgeous and the folks quite friendly he was paranoid...rightfully perhaps...he was rather bespectacled Jewish looking..think Gene Wilder with dark hair

man did we roam the world and squire the ladies from continent to continent...a helluva traveling and business partner

then he went weird...no more relationships with goyim and dumped the non observant Yemeni Jewish wifey

but I always remember how he felt about being in Germany and I couldn't say I blame him

I am 100 percent Anglo Saxon and Huguenot descended and have no Allemange fatherland connection...but it is pretty

I don’t think his observancy is normal...plenty of observant Jews...Levin always come to mind don’t do what he did

what he did was cult like to be frank

goyim freepers are under the illusion that if a Jew is Orhtodox they must be righteous and conservative

no question they are more likely to be conservative on issues like homosexual marriage than secular Jews but it is no more a guarantee of shared values that someone being Mormon or Seventh Day Adventist or Sikh is

this fellow...he runs a kol charity in Jerusalem now..was arguably my second best global running buddy ever...my first being my high school pal before drugs got him..I lived all over the world for 17 years being first in gemstone trading and mining and later cargo ship ownership

my Israeli pal traveled to dangerous places like Colombia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Karen Thailand with me...fearless Yom Kippur tank platoon vet..he had wandered spiritually coming from secular Ladino speaking Palestinian Jews from way way back..last name means wolf in that tongue...he had tried EST and even Scientology briefly...but like me he majored in babes

then his brother joined a kiryat in Monsey and he slowly drifted that way...his wife resisted and that was that

oddly enough his first marriage daughter joined the same outfit and had 5-6 kids by age 30

the boys stayed with the original mom

i woulda figured the opposite

i still have contact with her in Manhattan where she is a dress designer for a big house..and does on occasion..vote conservative btw

i haven’t asked her but i bet she won’t vote for Obama..she was born in Israelbut her folks were Yemeni till they were run out with barely their lives..her brother who owns a chain or petrol stations in NY/NJ is very conservative..even deer hunts and stuff upstate

oh well...one day you get old like me you will have tales too..lol

Knowing all 66 books of our Bible was written by Jews;

Knowing our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ was a Jew; [He taught salvation was of the Jews](John 4:22)

Jesus also taught: “Moses wrote of Me.” (John 5:46) And Jesus said: “Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and He saw it, and was glad.” (John 8:56)

The Apostle Paul wrote all about the fall of Israel, and the restoration of Israel: “I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness?” (Romans 11:11-12)

Paul also wrote: “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel, that they might be saved.” (Romans 10:1)

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